What would you do? Would you cancel order?

[BlueOceanWave]

I put in an online order the weekend before last on an online shop with a location in Ireland. I'm in Ireland by the way.

By Wednesday, I never got a dispatch email and I checked my account on the shops website and my order said 'processing'.

There was no update to my order on Thursday or Friday. I emailed them on Friday to require about my order and to ask about dispatch and when can I expect dispatch.

It was Monday by the time they rep8and they said one of the items that I ordered was out of stock and they are waiting for delivery.

Straight away I thought it was poor form, how they never made contact with me last week to inform me there was something in my order out of stock.

I do a lot of online orders and from one shop I order from, if there's something out of stock they let me know. They usually offer an alternative or a refund.

The email never gave me a timelime as to when they are expecting a delivery and they said my order will be dispatched soon.

I checked my email and there is no dispatch email and my online account still says 'processing'.

If this was you, what would you do at this stage? Would you cancel?

I went back to the shop I ordered from and I browsed around looking for terms and conditions or policies on online orders but I couldn't find that information on their shop.

I checked the confirmation email that I got after I placed my order and I'm horrified to read - please allow 21 days to receive your order. If I read that at first on their shop, I never would have placed an order with them at all.

Well, it would depend how much I wanted the item and whether I can get it elsewhere. If you really want it, and can't get it elsewhere, contact them again asking for a timescale, and then it'll be a matter of how long you're prepared to wait but at least you'll know what you're dealing with.

It's pretty shoddy though, and I'd find that irritating.

I sent an email cancelling the ordering and requesting for refund a.s.a.p or I will be starting the charge back process.

I never would have ordered from them if I knew that information up front about 21 days processing time.

I think in the current climate, I’d be inclined to cut them some slack and wait a bit longer. But it rather depends on whether this is a John Lewis type company who should know better or Katie who sells homemade gifts on Etsy, and is still learning to run a business.

It's not a big shop or organisation like John Lewis nor is it an etsy maker. I would expect a long processing time from etsy because of crafting and making pieces. It's a middle of the road, small business type of shop.

I would expect some delays especially considering we are in a pandemic and in the run up to Christmas but not this long. It's 7 working days past my order and it still read processing on my order. I think that's far too long. I would also expect delivery delays but my order wasn't even dispatched yet for a delay in delivery to occur.

I sent an email earlier at about noon to cancel the order and ask for a refund back. They haven't responded to the email yet.

How long do I wait to start a charge back process with the bank?

It depends if you really want it or not.

I ordered putty for hand exercises because I have some pain in a hand.

It was something that I do need and I would have liked to have received by now.

I suppose a problem I have is that communication from the shop was slow and limited. I really don't want to be waiting any longer when I could probably order it from amazon Germany and it will get to me quicker at this stage.

I sourced it from another shop and hopefully it will be with me by the end of the week or early next week.

I made some online orders last week from England and all the packages arrived to me yesterday from England. 3 packages from England to Ireland within a few days. That's good going. Yet here I am still waiting on an Irish shop just to dispatch my order.

I would cancel the order and order from somewhere else.

I agree OP, it's bad form for the company not to let you know about an out of stock item.

I am trying to order from independant companies but I always get so frustrated with delivery times and give in to amazon prime 🤦

Nobody replied back to my email that I sent yesterday asking to cancel the order and asking for a refund.

The order still says processing.

Hello OP

I would personally allow a small/medium retailer up to 48 hours to respond to me (excluding weekends) before chasing up. It's been just over 24 hours since your most recent email.

Do they have a contact telephone number you can call? That might get a quicker response than email.

I don't think you'll be successful with a chargeback, but double check as the rules might be different in Ireland. In England, you would have to prove there was a breach of contract.

If no delivery time frame was available on their website, the Consumer Rights Act says retailers must deliver your item within 30 days of your order. Your receipt said 21 days, which means there is no breach until after this date has passed.

Now you've cancelled the order, the retailer has 30 days to issue your refund. A chargeback could only be requested if you've not received your refund 30 days after you cancelled the order.

Again check the consumer protection regulations for Ireland, as they may be different. The above timescales apply to England.

I'm in Ireland and have an online store. Personally, I don't sell items when they out of stock so if I don't physically have them I don't sell them. I can understand your frustration and I would have sent a quick email.

I will say though that you cannot imagine the pressure that has been put onto online stores since the lockdown. My processing times went to shit for a while because I literally couldn't get my hands on packaging material. My order volumes are up a ridiculous amount. The postal system has gone to shit which affects the speed I can get stock in and get packages to customers. I usually never have customers complain but the amount of rude, ridiculous emails I have to deal with on a daily basis is nuts. People expecting me to storm an post and personally sort the mail for them. People expecting me to track their packages instead of use the tracking number emailed to them. People angry because things are out of stock. All of these emails prefaced with "I know we are in lockdown but...".

For me anyway it is absolute chaos and last weekend I nearly had a breakdown from the pressure and stress that is being put on me from all sides. I literally spent 2 hours just bawling my eyes out, then I had to keep working until 11pm. That turned into a bit of a rant but just to shed some light on what is going on behind the scenes. No retailer wants to keep customers waiting longer than we have to, it doesn't benefit us in anyway whatsoever to do that.

I work for an online store in Ireland and agree with every word @Aloethere says.

@BlueOceanWave I'm sending you a PM.