Company taking credit card payment for out of stock item??

What are the legalities on this……..?

Wife had seen some garden furniture for sale at our local garden centre and went back the day after to buy it but they had sold out and also said the online shop was sold out to.

I had spoke to the online customer services about it the night before about sizes and they said they had loads in stock.

I phoned the online thing again and they confirmed they now had only a few in stock so I placed the order there and then they took payment which has come of our credit card the same day.

This was 3 days ago, so I went online to check the tracking info and its still showing as “in picking” even now.

The site is showing out of stock now.

Ive phomned up again today and they cant explain why they have took payment before making sure they had allocated stock,needless to say Im not very happy.

Can they take payment for something they havent got or not??

cheers

Steve

When I looked into getting merchant status for my website many moons ago, one of the terms was not being allowed to take payment for out of stock items, another was items must be desptached wihtin 24hrs of taking payment.

May have changed since then, but I don’t see why it should have done.

Retailers can take payment well in advance of shipping goods – I think they have 28 days.

iirc, the rules that govern the payment are badly written, allowing the retailers to take the money, when the spirit of the rules/laws are that they shouldn’t.

Really ??

So they can take payment for something they now isnt in stock and not sure when its coming back into stock??

Same here with a well-known purveyor of cycle frames, bikes & accessories.

Website showed the part in stock, so I ordered. They did promptly email me to say that unfortunately it was out of stock, although they were expecting delivery thatr day. Further email then said they had received the delivery but the part was not included. They would contact the supplier and get back to me.

Order placed Sunday, first correspondence Monday, last heard from yesterday so not panicking yet, but they have taken my cash.

Everything else I have ordered from them (a number of bikes, frames and lots of bits) has always turned up in a couple of days.

Some retailers want or will take payment up front for items ordered in?

I guess as long as you agree.

now 6 weeks for a big orange cycle equipment retailer to supply me with a rim i have ordered and paid for ….

Perhaps when you order it, it decrements the stock count at that point. So yours isn’t counted as in stock, it’s being processed.

Maybe.

Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2008/1277/contents/made

http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/buying-services/consumer-protection-rules-2008/the-law-explained/

recently rang a guy up who has a website selling bespoke stuff for my honda.. clearly asked do you have it in stock to mail today.. yes i can see it on the shelf.. send me one says I.. billed my card within 5 minutes.. a dozen calls and 4 weeks later some of the stuff arrives sent a sticker to apologise.. got the rest a week later.. all a month after i needed it..

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/cpregs/oft979.pdf/
“5. Special offer – not in stock
Making an invitation to purchase products at a specified
price, without disclosing the existence of any reasonable
grounds the trader may have for believing that he/she
will not be able to offer for supply or to procure another
trader to supply, those products or equivalent products
at that price for a period that is, and in quantities that are,
reasonable having regard to the product, the scale
of advertising of the product and the price offered.
This is known as bait advertising.”