Being Threatened with trading standards

Amnesia · 3 Sep 2010 at 00:33

put it this way, if overclockers advertised a $30 case with a 1000w power supply and then when i opened up the case and found there to be no power supply, i would expect them to either send me a 1000w power supply (as advertised) or offer a full refund, not turn around and say 'yeah mistake on our part but you have opened the box now'.
yes it would have been too cheap but thats what customers like to take advantage of...very good deals.

Morlock · 3 Sep 2010 at 00:36

What is the name of your shop, so I can avoid it in future?

You should give her a full refund or the two extra licenses. I think she has a very good case against the shop, just cut your losses.

muon · 3 Sep 2010 at 00:37

It's also not as obvious when software is mispriced. So you couldn't argue that it was an obvious misprice.

Since you have stock of extra licenses, from what I've read on a certain deals website, you have to honour the contract.

sanaxe1 · 3 Sep 2010 at 00:38

hmm you guys might be right but i can't get my head around it. I may not be clear enough.

Here is a example :

The customer needs windows 7 on 3 Home PC's.

She comes to my site and purchases windows 7 ultimate retail due to our error saying it has 3 licences. Now this is not correct and she could have just purchased the OEM version for £14.99 less. Now if we had not made a mistake and put 1 licence she would have had to purchase the 3 OEM versions which would have cost nearly 3x the amount. So we agree to refund her the difference in price of OEM to retail which is £15. This means she has now got a Retail version for the price of the oem version. But she will need to purchase 2 other OEM versions which she would have needed to do in the first place had we not made a mistake. I do not see how she has lost out?

alex24 · 3 Sep 2010 at 00:39

See my above post Tefal, I said if she wants a refund for the sake of £15, give it to her for the sale so far, but don't give away any more free software. Classic OcUK selective quoting of my text back to me. I did assume, perhaps wrongly, that he'd offered to put it right already (i.e. apologise and sell 2 more licenses or refund the purchase), hence what I said, 'my bad'. I just don't want to see the OP give away more stuff when he's been almost threatened to do so, it's damned annoying when you're the retailer and have to deal with this ****, though I (and perhaps he) would have probably given them to her should she have been nice about it. This should be a lesson to everyone, don't bitch and moan to retailers (especially small ones) as it's counter productive to your cause.

Rotty · 3 Sep 2010 at 00:42

we don't know how much the refund should be

muon · 3 Sep 2010 at 00:42

sanaxe1 said:
hmm you guys might be right but i can't get my head around it. I may not be clear enough.

Here is a example :

The customer needs windows 7 on 3 Home PC's.

She comes to my site and purchases windows 7 ultimate retail due to our error saying it has 3 licences. Now this is not correct and she could have just purchased the OEM version for £14.99 less. Now if we had not made a mistake and put 1 licence she would have had to purchase the 3 OEM versions which would have cost nearly 3x the amount. So we agree to refund her the difference in price of OEM to retail which is £15. This means she has now got a Retail version for the price of the oem version. But she will need to purchase 2 other OEM versions which she would have needed to do in the first place had we not made a mistake. I do not see how she has lost out?

Is there no actual product which bundles 3 licenses? Can you not say, such a product does not exist and so she can have a refund or the difference?

Rotty · 3 Sep 2010 at 00:43

ghost101 said:
Is there no actual product which bundles 3 licenses? Can you not say, such a product does not exist and so she can have a refund?

yes but not of £15 it must be the full amount she paid

alex24 · 3 Sep 2010 at 00:43

sanaxe1 said:
hmm you guys might be right but i can't get my head around it. I may not be clear enough.

Here is a example :

The customer needs windows 7 on 3 Home PC's.

She comes to my site and purchases windows 7 ultimate retail due to our error saying it has 3 licences. Now this is not correct and she could have just purchased the OEM version for £14.99 less. Now if we had not made a mistake and put 1 licence she would have had to purchase the 3 OEM versions which would have cost nearly 3x the amount. So we agree to refund her the difference of the extra of OEM to retail which is £15. This means she has now got a Retail version for the price of the oem version. But she will need to purchase 2 other OEM versions which she would have needed to do in the first place had we not made a mistake.

OK now that makes more sense, the product wasn't £15, but the difference was. Well if you're happy to refund the difference I'd say that's a good way to go and should have diffused the situation but she sounds like an a-hole. If you want you can sell two more OEM copies at cost price to the customer but the way I see it you don't have to at all. Giving that refund on the difference would be more than acceptable unless you can refund the whole product and re-sell it yourselves. That might not be possible with MS software like that once it's activated or similar. Whether that means swallowing the entire cost of the product or not I don't know, but if she kept it she'd be getting more for her money, so it makes sense to take the difference.

Tefal · 3 Sep 2010 at 00:44

alexhull24 said:
See my above post Tefal, I said if she wants a refund for the sake of £15, give it to her for the sale so far, but don't give away any more free software. Classic OcUK selective quoting of my text back to me.

I think you should reread the thread before getting arsey tbh.

JBuk · 3 Sep 2010 at 00:45

sanaxe1 said:
hmm you guys might be right but i can't get my head around it. I may not be clear enough.

Here is a example :

The customer needs windows 7 on 3 Home PC's.

She comes to my site and purchases windows 7 ultimate retail due to our error saying it has 3 licences. Now this is not correct and she could have just purchased the OEM version for £14.99 less. Now if we had not made a mistake and put 1 licence she would have had to purchase the 3 OEM versions which would have cost nearly 3x the amount. So we agree to refund her the difference in price of OEM to retail which is £15. This means she has now got a Retail version for the price of the oem version. But she will need to purchase 2 other OEM versions which she would have needed to do in the first place had we not made a mistake. I do not see how she has lost out?

you're looking at it from the wrong perspective

she bought a product and was expecting 3 licenses, you either provide what you advertised at extra cost to you or refund her the full amount, you can't simply refund her the difference from the nearest alternative

Rotty · 3 Sep 2010 at 00:45

alexhull24 said:
OK now that makes more sense, the product wasn't £15, but the difference was. Well if you're happy to refund the difference I'd say that's a good way to go .

but legally he would be in the wrong

muon · 3 Sep 2010 at 00:45

Rotty said:
yes but not of £15 it must be the full amount she paid

Yep, I'm referring to a full refund. I don't see any other way out of this.

If I was the buyer and going after this amazing deal, I wouldn't be accepting a simple difference refund.

EdGey · 3 Sep 2010 at 00:45

Personally I think sanaxe1 is in the right. You have offered to refund the difference and she is trying to get free things because of a simple mistake.

Seek advice from a reliable source though, its the law that matters.

sanaxe1 · 3 Sep 2010 at 00:47

Looks like i'll have to give her the 2 extra licence keys then. As she has already registered the product and as such i would have to give her her money back plus not be able to re-sell the item. God dammit 1 number causing me hassle

Rotty · 3 Sep 2010 at 00:48

ghost101 said:
Yep, I'm referring to a full refund. I don't see any other way out of this.

If I was the buyer and going after this amazing deal, I wouldn't be accepting a simple difference refund.

and seeing as he could lose any "loss of bargain" claim this woukd be his best bet

Cybermyk · 3 Sep 2010 at 00:48

sanaxe1 said:
But she will need to purchase 2 other OEM versions which she would have needed to do in the first place had we not made a mistake. I do not see how she has lost out?

I think the best you could get away with would be to offer 3x OEM's but I believe you are really obliged to provide the other two Retail versions.

ghost101 said:
Is there no actual product which bundles 3 licenses? Can you not say, such a product does not exist and so she can have a refund or the difference?

He's only using Windows 7 as an example.

alex24 · 3 Sep 2010 at 00:48

Tefal said:
I think you should reread the thread before getting arsey tbh.

I'm not being arsey at all mate, but you've gone and done it again!

Rotty said:
but legally he would be in the wrong

Because he hasn't refunded the whole product cost, OK. Still, it would be best for the customer, shame they can't see it.

Then I suppose he has to offer to refund the entire cost of the retail software and get it back from the customer. At least if it's retail it can be re-used to some extent.

EDIT: OK so you're going to lose the entire product with a full refund, that sucks. So why are you giving away more licences?

Amnesia · 3 Sep 2010 at 00:49

sanaxe1 said:
hmm you guys might be right but i can't get my head around it. I may not be clear enough.

Here is a example :

The customer needs windows 7 on 3 Home PC's.

She comes to my site and purchases windows 7 ultimate retail due to our error saying it has 3 licences. Now this is not correct and she could have just purchased the OEM version for £14.99 less. Now if we had not made a mistake and put 1 licence she would have had to purchase the 3 OEM versions which would have cost nearly 3x the amount. So we agree to refund her the difference in price of OEM to retail which is £15. This means she has now got a Retail version for the price of the oem version. But she will need to purchase 2 other OEM versions which she would have needed to do in the first place had we not made a mistake. I do not see how she has lost out?

but then when she looked at the price she may have decided to shop elsewhere if she found it cheaper or choose a different OS which she could find cheaper or maybe not bought it at all.....you took those options away from her.

if overclockers advertise an ati 5970 for 135 quid i would buy it even tho i dont need it. but then if i open the box and find a 5770 should they argue that the 5770 is worth that much ?
it's false advertising and the least i would expect is my money back and yes i would be pretty annoyed at them.

EdGey · 3 Sep 2010 at 00:49

It angers me slightly. She is practically trying to steal from you.

Probably best to just settle it though and move on.

You win some you lose some and all that.