Retailer not fulfilling order

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mattwnz

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#273127 5-Aug-2020 16:45

I ordered a product from a website. This was a big NZ retailer and website.

The following day they emailed me to tell me that they were unable to locate the product, and their staff were out sourcing the product for me, an that they would get back to me within 5 days.

I didn't hear anything after 5 days but could see that it was on 'backorder' in their websites admin panel. A few days later I checked again, and the status said 'refunded', so it appears they had refunded my card back.

However they hadn't contacted me at all to say they had cancelled it or why they couldn't provide it. I emailed them to find out what was going on, as I checked and could see that the manufacturer in NZ still stock of the product and it is still a current product. The retailer never got back to me.

Eventually after a few weeks I recontacted the retailer again, and they said they couldn't source the product in any of their stores, so cancelled the order. They then offered me a voucher.

It appears they are no longer wanting to stock that particular product anymore, even though they do still stock other similar products of the same brand, so they are still dealing with that manufacturer. So I can't see any reason why they couldn't source the product to fulfill the order from the manufacturer.

Does anyone know if the store has to provide the customer with they product, especially if they can still source it from the manufacturer? I thought I had a sales contract, which they have to fulfill. The fact that they didn't even contact me to tell me they had cancelled my sales contract, without my knowledge is also a concern.

I understand retailers can cancel an order if it was being sold at the wrong price and was a mistake, but I didn't think a retailer can just cancel any order. Would be interested in peoples opinions.

antonknee

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#2535390 5-Aug-2020 17:18

Is this a serious question?

Of course a retailer can cancel an order - there might be a myriad of reasons why they would need to cancel an order. What they could not do is deliberately offer products for sale with no intention of supplying them, but an isolated example of this does not fall afoul of the Fair Trading Act.

Here's an example of terms of sale outlining this:

We reserve the right to cancel any order (in full or part) where... RETAILER becomes aware after order confirmation that the good is out of stock; or (iv) there has been a genuine pricing or product description error by RETAILER or its supplier. We will refund any amount already paid in respect of any cancelled order (and in the case of part cancellation of an order, we will refund the the amount paid that relates to the cancelled portion of the order...

As an aside, just because they have other products from that supplier does not mean they can order you the thing you want. It could be that the supplier no longer deals with that retailer (but the retailer still has some stock), or that particular product has been exclusive to another retailer, or that particular product is currently out of stock at the supplier, or any number of other factors.

What I will say is that lack of contact to explain this is very poor service, as is the lack of followup.

Dunnersfella

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#2535401 5-Aug-2020 17:43

The product may have gone end of line and no replacement has been announced.

We live in uncertain times...

mattwnz

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#2535404 5-Aug-2020 17:47

antonknee:

Is this a serious question?

Of course a retailer can cancel an order - there might be a myriad of reasons why they would need to cancel an order. What they could not do is deliberately offer products for sale with no intention of supplying them, but an isolated example of this does not fall afoul of the Fair Trading Act.

Here's an example of terms of sale outlining this:

We reserve the right to cancel any order (in full or part) where... RETAILER becomes aware after order confirmation that the good is out of stock; or (iv) there has been a genuine pricing or product description error by RETAILER or its supplier. We will refund any amount already paid in respect of any cancelled order (and in the case of part cancellation of an order, we will refund the the amount paid that relates to the cancelled portion of the order...

As an aside, just because they have other products from that supplier does not mean they can order you the thing you want. It could be that the supplier no longer deals with that retailer (but the retailer still has some stock), or that particular product has been exclusive to another retailer, or that particular product is currently out of stock at the supplier, or any number of other factors.

What I will say is that lack of contact to explain this is very poor service, as is the lack of followup.

The thing is that they have never contacted me to cancel it, and I could have got another retailer to price match them if they had. I would have thought that if those were the terms, then they would need to actually contact the customer within a reasonable period of time, to tell me why they couldn't provide it, and to specifically then cancel the contract . Only after I contacted them why they hadn't fulfilled the order, and I saw they had refunded me, did they then explain that they couldn't find what I ordered, but they never said they couldn't get the product from their manufacturer if they ordered it in, as they were only looking at floor stock. But they had obviously oversold their stock, so their inventory systems weren't correct. . So yes it is poor service, but I would expect a big company to have processes to prevent this lack of communication occurring, if they could provide the product and had to cancel the order, such as emailing me to specifically tell me they have cancelled the order.

antonknee

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#2535412 5-Aug-2020 17:57

I suppose marking it as backorder and cancelled and refunded in their admin panel achieves that function - notifying you your order (contract as you call it) has been cancelled. I totally agree with you an email saying so would be the minimum I would expect, although I would strongly encourage you to check your spam folders etc. Every single retailer I've worked for, including most recently building one retailer's ecommerce capability from scratch, does this.

In fairness, I don't think a retailer is obligated to explain to a customer every step of their internal process (ie have they tried to order it from supplier, get it from another store, etc etc etc). A simple notification that says "sorry we had to cancel your order and it's been refunded" probably suffices, but it would be good service to show you made an effort to stop that from happening.

I get the feeling that you may have ordered something at a much better price than it's available elsewhere. If it makes you feel any better, most retailers would not price match another retailer who can't actually supply the product. It also suggests me to think that the product is either no longer available to that particular retailer, or no longer available full stop, and was on some kind of clearance price when you ordered it - which would make sense given they've cancelled your order and said they couldn't find it.

Dynamic

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#2535415 5-Aug-2020 18:06

I agree. It's not hard to email a brief canned apology message.

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SirHumphreyAppleby

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#2535423 5-Aug-2020 18:16

I agree that they should have informed you of the cancellation.

To answer your question, no, there is nothing you can do to compel the retailer to supply you with something they don't have or would have to source, even if you could show they were in breach of contract. At best you might be able to recover an actual loss, but most retailers will be able to point to terms allowing them to cancel orders, often for any reason.