Conned by Wowcher/Candy Bros

[whethergirl]

In case you don't know, Wowcher is like Groupon, KGB deals etc.

Wowcher were offering a £34.99 box of sweets from Candy Bros for the price of £16.50. Alarm bells started ringing when the postman handed me a tiny and very light box this morning.

What I actually got was a box of sweets worth £14.

My calculations are based on the price of the sweets sold individually on their website. Yes, they are also selling a 'sweetie box' for £34.99 but I reckon it was put on the website prior to the Wowcher offer, as part of their 'cunning' plan to make us think we were getting a superb deal. Also, the description on the website reads: "Filled with nearly 1kg of sweets". According to my scales, it weighs 560g!! The sweets are not in any kind of container or anything so there is no reason for it to cost more than if you were ordering the sweets separately.

Either no-one at Wowcher or Candy Bros can count, or they think that no-one else can count.

I emailed Wowcher to complain, who have shunned all responsibility and forwarded me an email from Candy Bros who say: "As I am sure you can appreciate, what was to be delivered to each customer was clearly stated on The Candy Bros website and on Wowchers website. There was no information on either websites that in any way would mislead customers. Further to this, our product was approved by Wowcher which ensured the product was consistent with the deal proposed.

Due to the nature of our products, the item cannot be returned since the goods are perishables."

Does anyone have any advice on what to do next apart from personally taking the sweets back to Candy Bros and shoving it up their arse?

Write a letter of complaint to Wowcher, ask to return the sweets, and tell them you are alerting the Advertising Standards Authority.

Thanks, I have just logged a complaint with ASA.

I have just called and spoken to Wowcher, and told them my beef is with them, seeing as they are the ones who have my money. I have emailed them with details of what I actually received.

I'm just trying to find out if I still have consumer rights because from what I understand, 'fresh' food is exempt, however, sweets are not 'fresh' even though Candy Bros said I couldn't return them as they are 'perishable items'.

Blimey, I've yet to see a cola cube perish!!

Of course you still have consumer rights on perishable goods. If you buy a lettuce from Sainsbury which was full of slugs you would take it back and get a refund, no problem. Sweets can be returned despite what Candy Bros claim. Adverts have to accurately represent the product on offer or they are in breach of standards.

They haven't delivered what you ordered. "Almost 1 kg of sweets" isn't 560g; the product isn't what they advertised, so you can return it and request they send you what was advertised. Though I'm not sure about buying consumables from a company that was annoyed with me

That's true Cogito, (I actually have returned a lettuce to Sainsburys with a huge snail on it!). The consumer rights regarding food refers to the right to return, and on here it says that fresh food and flowers are exempt, for reasons of decay. And despite Candy Bros saying I can't return the sweets, I see that their website has 'product returns' page.

PatriciaHolm, this is the very reason I am careful about complaining in restaurants! Having been practically brought up in restaurants (my dad's), I have seen what an angry chef is capable of!

I've just signed up to get the Wowcher daily emails so interested to read this. In the past I've bought stuff from groupon, kgb and likebees and only ever had one problem with groupon and got a refund straight away.

Thanks for the warning, hopefully you'll get a refund.

I've also bought from groupon, kgb and Wahanda. I've had two problematic ones from groupon, but they've refunded me straight away both times.

What I would say to anyone is to be really wary, and do some research before buying a voucher. Not all of them are authentic deals.

As an example, groupon approached a friend of mine who is a type of therapist (don't want to disclose too much info) as they came across her website. The truth of it is, she had only just qualified and had had a couple of clients. Then she made a deal with Groupon, revamped her website to make it look as though she's had hundreds of customers (which is how Groupon presented her) and put up some completely made up prices on her website so that any Groupon customers would feel they were getting a huge discount, when in fact she had not been charging anywhere near those rates for her clients.

Another time, I paid £20 for a £60 hairdressing 'experience'. £60 my arse. I was rushed through a consultation (while taking off my coat), I was not once offered a drink of any sort, the 'deluxe hair conditioning mask treatment' was just normal conditioner left on for a few minutes, and very minimal effort was put into the haircut/blowdry.

To be honest, after the above experience, I just unsubscribed from all of them. If it's too good to be true, it usually is.

I've steered clear of the beauty/therapy type ones they seem to be the ones that cause problems.

I wonder how all these type of businesses will survive in the long term the market must be saturated with them.

If fresh food is exempt from returns under the distance selling regulations that means you can't return it just because you change your mind. It doesn't mean you can't return something that's faulty or not as described.

Good point DiddyMary.

I bought a deal from wowcher yesterday to get a Guardian Angel Necklace for £8. It was advertised as being originally for £65 from Alvi's fashion so I bought it thinking I was getting a good deal. I also had to pay £4 for p&p bringing the total to £12. Subsequently I have found the same item new on ebay, amazon and other sites retailing for £7.99 inc. p&p. The original price had been made up by Alvi's fashion so they could appear to be selling at a discount when in fact they were not. This is fraudulent. I contacted Wowcher with my isdsues and they fobbed me off twice justifying their actions as legit. This was my first and last buy from wowcher until they admit their fault and make it right. So annoyed.

I saw an offer on wowcher for android tablet from d2d only £34 should be £129.99 plus wowcher code price £9.99 thinking this was a bargain I ordered two for my boys for Christmas this was in October d2d only sent one which may I add is nowhere near worth the original price stated I've been trying now to get the other tablet or a refund by contacting both d2d and wowcher but I'm getting no where fast I will never ever order anything from d2d or wowcher again