Mothercare

[Ausparent]

I feel I have been totally had here but not sure what my rights are. I suspect I don't have any but here goes:

On 12 October I ordered 2 sets of washable nappies from Mothercare online. They were a birth to 6 month set reduced from £99 pounds to £8 which is clearly a bargain. I paid by paypal and got a confirmation receipt from both PayPal and Mothercare.

On 3 November I still hasn't received them so I contacted them. They said an unforseen error had prevented my order being pushed through and would push it through that day. A week later I still hasn't heard from them and checked the delivery info on my order and it said cancelled. I emailed them again today and in their reply they said


"Your order is showing as customer cancelled on our system.

Having looking into this, I regret to advise you that the 'Bambino Mio New Baby Nappy Set (Birth to 7kg)" is out of stock. Unfortunately, our website allowed you to order this in error when there was no stock available."

Now to me this is two totally different reasons for my order not coming through. That I had cancelled it or that I should not have been able to order it because it was out of stock. I absolutely did not cancel it and havent been near the website since the last time I contacted them.

They also said i hadn't been charged when PayPal clearly said I had.

Obviously as all the washable nappy users will know, that was an amazing price to get the nappies for and I am really disappointed that for whatever reason the order I placed was shelved, ignored or lost and now they have no stock left.

Did anyone else see this offer and order them? Of so did you get your nappies or have they fobbed us all off with the same confused customer service story? Do i have any redress other than a straight refund ?

[pastabest]

I'm pretty sure they only have to offer you a refund.

Disappointing definitely, but i doubt they ever intended to sell them for £8 and it's likely there was an error somewhere right from the start (the old adage - if it looks too good to be true it probably is)

[strangeEvents]

If there is a mistake with the price then online retailers can cancel orders and refuse to honour them.

I remember it from sitting in the back of an E-Commerce lecture once.

I also remember something about an offer to business vs a contract and that's the difference here.

As you no doubt knew, this was likely a mistake on the system and you were hoping it would be honoured.

What redress do you expect? Do you have a refund or were you charged?

[HateHomework]

This is shit customer service OP! Do you have the original email confirmation from them? I'd call them up get them to explain and ask them for a voucher compensation!

[HateHomework]

OP google the offer it's there in their website just out of stock
Take a pic and send it to them and ask for compensation for shitty service!!!!

[drumsPlease]

It's sad that everything has to be about compensation.

It was obviously a mistake on the website.

[HateHomework]

A mistake by a retailer like this needs to be taken care of! They make their profits nicely they can say sorry for their mistakes when the OP clearly needs to make rearrangements ...

[confusedlittleone]

Has paypal actually taken the money tho? Often they don't take it straight away

[Ausparent]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. My frustration is that they are claiming that I cancelled the order which I didn't and now the item is out of stock so I can't have it.

I agree that this seems like trying to smooth over an error in pricing on the website which is why I would really like to know if anyone else ordered them and actually got them. If it was just an error on the website, I don't understand how 3 weeks after I placed the order they saif they could see my order and there had been an unforseen error and that my nappies would be dispatched immediately.

I paid for the item at the purchase time and have the PayPal receipt and am now chasing a refund although they are claiming I wouldn't have been charged because there was no order in the first place.

They can't seem to decide if there was no order in the first place, if I cancelled the order or if my order was delayed so long they ran out of stock.

If this was a seller on ebay my con meter would be going off right now.

[Ausparent]

Confused you are right. Because they did t process the order they didn't take the money.

I am annoyed because the offer was up for ages after I had ordered and am cross that they may have sold out because mine didn't get processed.

Ah well, live and learn. I guess the third one will be getting terry squares and walking like John Wayne just like her older siblings

[RhiannonOHara]

they are claiming that I cancelled the order which I didn't

This is the real issue for me – if it was an error on the site and they'd never meant to sell them for that price, they should have fessed up rather than lie, not once but twice, about the customer cancelling and also about 'an unforseen error'

I'd go right to head office, all guns blazing.

[JohnLapsleyParlabane]

If you have a local nappy library you could hire some...

[baffledcoconut]

Apparently there is an issue with PayPal and their ordering system too. Which I why I ended up with over £300 of toys that I had no order numbers for and was charged for. Their customer service is bullshit and utterly impossible to deal with. Good luck.

[KimmySchmidt1]

I suspect it was a pricing error that they are trying to cover up. Most of customer service is about how you present your complaint. Write them a formal letter, make it coherent, intelligent and reasonable, setting out clearly each stage and attaching documents. When someone takes the time and has the nounce to do this they basically realise you are not going away, and are not taking the mickey, and they stump up some sort of offer of redress.

If you propose redress you would be happy with that is even better as it makes it easy for them to know how to appease you (but don't ask for something ridiculous).

You will not have a legal claim (and would have to be insane to try to bring one given the huge difference between the cost of doing so and the actual amount of your loss. but that doesn't mean you cant get them to offer you something from a customer services perspective.

[araiwa]

You tried to take advantage of a mistake, they realised, stopped the order and havent charged you.

What losses are you expecting to be compensated for?

[MrsPicklesonSmythe]

Pricing glitch. They didn't honour it. Happens all the time. Move on.

[RhiannonOHara]

You tried to take advantage of a mistake

I don't think the OP's posts indicate that she knew they'd made a mistake.

[Coconut0il]

But she's paid £8 and has nothing for it so can't just move on?
I'd be disappointed not to get the item but I'd want my refund. Surely everyone would?

[LIZS]

They didn't process the order or take the £8. It is only an offer to buy, subject to availability etc. Their system may have recognised that it was not in stock initially or that other orders placed on same day had already used up what there was , hence the order not being processed, but this was only confirmed when they tried to pick it in the warehouse. Disappointing but not uncommon with offers.

[confusedlittleone]

@Coconut0il she hasn't paid anything. Paypal don't take the money until the orders processed

[Coconut0il]

Sorry confused I see that now. I've never used PayPal and that'll teach me to read while DS2 is jumping on me.
In that case I'd still be disappointed to not get such a good offer but I don't think there's much you can do.

[CrohnicallyEarly]

It was either an error or a clearance item- the first few people to order did indeed get their nappies. However then word got around on fb, lots of people ordered the sets and either the error was spotted and mothercare cancelled all pending orders, or if it was clearance the stock ran out. You aren't the only person to have missed out, and you didn't miss out because your order got cancelled- your order was cancelled because you had missed out.

[CrohnicallyEarly]

Ps if you join a nappy related Facebook group, you can get the same stuff for about £30 second hand, and sell it on for roughly the same after you've finished. And those nappies are only one step up from terry squares anyway, and only fit till about 6 months, so I don't think walking like John Wayne is a problem at that age!