Online Order Placed, but no product received

Dublinstiofán

Just want to know where i stand in regards to this.

Ordered a book from 'The Book Depository' on the 10th of November intended as a
Christmas present. Book still hadn't arrived 5 weeks later, so on the 18th of December
i asked them to send me a replacement and to try to get it to me before Christmas. I
was told that they had re-ordered the book and it would be dispatched to me as soon
as it arrived. It didn't arrive before Christmas and another month later i still haven't
received anything.

I e-mailed them again on the 13th of Jan informing them that it was now 55 days
(almost 8 weeks) since i placed my order and that i wanted to know where the
book was.

I got the following e-mail back:

Dear Stiofán,

I'm sorry to hear that this has still not arrived.

I can confirm that a full refund has now been processed for this order; please allow 1-3 working days for this to appear back into your account.

I'm sorry for any inconvenience caused.
Kind Regards,

M

I e-mailed them back stating that i didn't ask for a refund, i asked for the book that i ordered to be sent to me and i got this:

Dear Stiofán,

Unfortunately we are able to reorder title once, that is why you have been refunded, however you are welcome to place a new order.

Sorry for any inconvenience.
Kind Regards,

• Personally i'd rather be struck down than to not get this book after two months of waiting.
• I've asked for them to call me, i've had no call.
• I've asked for them for the e-mail address for the complaints department, just ignored it.
• There is no number listed online for 'The book Depository'.
• There is a business address but i'd rather not spend a tenner reg posting a complaint
  that will probably just go in the bin.

My questions are:

• Is it legally ok for them to Cancel my order without my permission after two months?
• What is the best way to get them to just fulfill the order so i can forget about it.

Worth noting:

I would just re-order the book but it is now almost three times the price i bought it at!

Any input welcome,

Thanks,

Stiofán

slimjimmc

Dublinstiofán wrote: »

[*]Is it legally ok for them to Cancel my order without my permission after two months?

Yes, you agreed to that by accepting their terms and conditions

Availability of goods you order
If The Book Depository has insufficient stock to deliver the goods ordered by you, we will notify you as soon as possible and any sum debited by The Book Depository from your credit card will be re-credited to your account and The Book Depository will notify you by email at the address given by you in your order form. The refund will be made as soon as possible and in any event within 30 days of your order.
:
:

Dublinstiofán wrote: »

[*]What is the best way to get them to just fulfill the order so i can forget about it.

Your previous order has been terminated in accordance with the terms of the contract, you can't make them fulfil it now as the order no longer exists.

Dublinstiofán

slimjimmc wrote: »

Yes, you agreed to that by accepting their terms and conditions




Your previous order has been terminated in accordance with the terms of the contract, you can't make them fulfil it now as the order no longer exists.

You not think thats a bit of a cop out after a customer waiting two months for it! If i don't get the book i'll never order from them again, ever!

MagicMarker

Was the book ever actually dispatched? As in was it lost in the post or was it just out of stock?

Personally I think you should forget about it, you got a refund, move on.

Dublinstiofán

The book was dispatched on the 11th of November. They claimed they sent a replacement but i don't think they sent a second copy at all.

I would forget about it normally but 55 days is a long time to be waiting on something that never arrived. It really is taking the piss!

Cabaal

Seems people are never happy,

They acted within the T&C's that YOU agreed to, you have your money back now so this allows you to order the book either from them or someone else at this stage.

They sent you two books, both weren't received. At this stage its a waste of their money to send you a third so it makes perfect sense for them to refund you.

At this stage I'm afraid you are just being unreasonable and your not going to get anything more from them, if you want them to send you a third copy of the book then your certainly welcome to place another order with them

Dublinstiofán

Cabaal wrote: »

Seems people are never happy,

They acted within the T&C's that YOU agreed to, you have your money back now so this allows you to order the book either from them or someone else at this stage.

They sent you two books, both weren't received. At this stage its a waste of their money to send you a third so it makes perfect sense for them to refund you.

At this stage I'm afraid you are just being unreasonable and your not going to get anything more from them, if you want them to send you a third copy of the book then your certainly welcome to place another order with them

Are you having a laugh Caball, i'm the one being unreasonable asking for my book after waiting 55 days for it? I don't think so!

I'm not paying three times the price for the book now and especially won't ever be placing an order with them again. I'm not a moran, what happens then i wait another two months for the new order and it never arrives. Give me a break.

They might be within their rights to cancel the order now as they 'say' they have sent the book twice. This doesn't make it
right to do so. If they had any sort of Customer Service at all i'd have my book next week by Registered post.

If it was you you'd be raging!

Cabaal

Dublinstiofán wrote: »

Are you having a laugh Caball, i'm the one being unreasonable asking for my book after waiting 55 days for it? I don't think so!

Your unreasonable asking for the book now considering they sent you two and now you have the money back. As they no longer have your money do you now expect a free book?

If you want the book now your only option is to place another order, if its gone up in price then either buy somewhere else or just put up with it as they've done nothing wrong here.

Bottom line is, if you didn't agree to their Terms & Conditions then why did you use the website in the first place?

You have a reasonability here to be an adult, it seems you will pick and choose when T&C's apply to you, in this case its unsuitable if they go against you so now your crying about it.

As you have your money back they will not be sending you another book.

I'm not paying three times the price for the book now and especially won't ever be placing an order with them again. I'm not a moran, what happens then i wait another two months for the new order and it never arrives. Give me a break.

If you are not willing to wait anymore then whats the problem?

If your not going to use them again and your not willing to wait anymore then why even waste your time and ours by starting this thread?

They might be within their rights to cancel the order now as they 'say' they have sent the book twice. This doesn't make it
right to do so.

Its your mistaken belief they didn't send you any books, this is a completely baseless assumption on your part. Please stick to actual facts ie: they confirmed they ordered a replacement.

From their perspective they sent you two, both are via un unregistered method which is perfectly normal and your claiming that you didn't get them.

At this stage its perfectly reasonable for them to come to the conclusion that perhaps you didn't enter the address correctly and thats why your not getting them or perhaps you have a neighbour thats stealing your post etc but thats not their problem, refunding you at this stage is very very reasonable.

If they had any sort of Customer Service at all i'd have my book next week by Registered post.

Sure thing
:rolleyes:

if you want registered mail then i'm sure you can pay for this option,

Sure while your at it you might as well argue that in the first place they should have sent it to you via registered mail and that would have been good customer service. :rolleyes:

But then you could also say that if the book was that important maybe you should have ordered it via registered mail instead when you first placed the order.

Of course you appear to not realise that yes customer service is important (thats why they replaced the book already) but at the same time companys need to make money (thats why they can't keep sending you stuff that you state you haven't received).

If it was you you'd be raging!

Here you are assuming stuff again, wrongly of course and with no basis.

If it was me I'd perfectly understand, infact I've had similar situations happen to me numerous times in the past...with far more expensive items then a book

Sure its a pain but I understand the limitations of what a company can do, I'm a reasonable person and approach such situations from a logical perspective. Sadly you don't appear to do this.

You have to remember its not the company you are ordering from thats delivering the order, its royal mail or an post or whoever.

If items are going missing between them and you there is very little they can do as they can't track the item, as such they don't know if its being lost in transit to you or if you are simply claiming that you didn't get it even if you did.

Of course in this instance they've very reasonably replacement the book once which you've also not received so its only right at this stage that they just refund you.

Dublinstiofán

Cabaal wrote: »

Your unreasonable asking for the book now considering they sent you two and now you have the money back. As they no longer have your money do you now expect a free book?

If you want the book now your only option is to place another order, if its gone up in price then either buy somewhere else or just put up with it as they've done nothing wrong here.

Bottom line is, if you didn't agree to their Terms & Conditions then why did you use the website in the first place?

You have a reasonability here to be an adult, it seems you will pick and choose when T&C's apply to you, in this case its unsuitable if they go against you so now your crying about it.

As you have your money back they will not be sending you another book.

It would be unreasonable asking for my book now had i asked for a refund, but i didn't. They automatically processed
a refund without my permission. As one of the comments above pointed out they have the power to cancel the order
however i didn't agree to this and its not the solution i was looking for! I made it clear i wanted the book and i should
have had it after a week. 8 weeks later with no explanation from their customer services other than they 'think' that
the replacement was sent isn't good enough.

I agree i should have read the terms and conditions, i didn't, i'd say very few do! From the €1000 i spent online in
the 30 days up to Christmas this was the only order i had any problem with. I learned my lesson, i won't ever order
from them again. Their Customer service is ****e, anybody i talked to had pigeon english and didn't answer the
questions i had posed in the e-mail to them. Also there is no consistency. If you e-mail in about an issue, any one
of their staff can contact you back as its a generic e-mail address. This creates confusion as your not dealing with
just one person.

Cabaal wrote: »

If you are not willing to wait anymore then whats the problem?

I didn't say i wasn't willing to wait anymore (you made that up), i asked them to ship me the book again and
gave no timeline in which to do so. Also i don't think my patience can be called into question at all here as i
waited over 7 weeks for a book that never arrived.

Cabaal wrote: »

If your not going to use them again and your not willing to wait anymore then why even waste your time and ours by starting this thread?

Again, i didn't say i wasn't willing to wait for the book, you made this up. The aim of this thread was to ask where i
stood in relation to securing the book i had waited a long time for. It was pointed out above that they are within
their rights to cancel the order and refund it at any time which has happened. This answered my question. The thread
is only still valid because i don't agree with the rubbish thats coming out of your mouth and this will be my final post
on it. I'm as entitled to create a thread as anybody else around here. Moderator or not i've probably been around here
longer than you.

Cabaal wrote: »

Its your mistaken belief they didn't send you any books, this is a completely baseless assumption on your part. Please stick to actual facts ie: they confirmed they ordered a replacement.

I didn't claim they didn't send me any books, (please read the thread if your going to continue to accuse me of
making baseless assumptions!). I said that i don't believe they sent a replacement at all. My reasons for thinking this
are. 1) Because in my online account there is no mention of any replacement being sent, and i was told to keep an
eye there as it would be up there when its dispatched. 2) When i made my second enquiry about the replacement
book, the agent had no record of the replacement order. FACT!, they may have ordered a replacement, but from the
looks of it they certainly didn't sent it to me.

Cabaal wrote: »

From their perspective they sent you two, both are via un unregistered method which is perfectly normal and your claiming that you didn't get them.

At this stage its perfectly reasonable for them to come to the conclusion that perhaps you didn't enter the address correctly and thats why your not getting them or perhaps you have a neighbour thats stealing your post etc but thats not their problem, refunding you at this stage is very very reasonable.

I was asked to confirm my address when the first order didn't arrive, and it was correct. My neighbour's on either
side are the nicest people you could ever meet and would never steal my post. I don't think a refund is reasonable
when i didn't ask for one and just wanted the book. But i'm willing to accept it as my order is now closed.

Cabaal wrote: »

if you want registered mail then i'm sure you can pay for this option,

Sure while your at it you might as well argue that in the first place they should have sent it to you via registered mail and that would have been good customer service. :rolleyes:

If there was a registered mail option i probably would have paid for it. But i don't think there was. I do think that
any company that has half a brain in their head would send ANY replacement order with tracking. This would ease
the customers mind as its guaranteed to arrive. And ease the companies mind as they know it will arrive and
hence no further claims of lost post can be made.

Cabaal wrote: »

But then you could also say that if the book was that important maybe you should have ordered it via registered mail instead when you first placed the order.

Of course you appear to not realise that yes customer service is important (thats why they replaced the book already) but at the same time companys need to make money (thats why they can't keep sending you stuff that you state you haven't received).

I address the rest of your post above.

Thanks for any HELPFUL posts folks,

Mods can close this thread cheers

Cabaal

Nice one, so we've established they've done nothing wrong as they've acted in-line with the T&C's you agreed to and you just want stuff they are not going to give you, good to know. Legally they've also done nothing wrong either, so case closed i suppose.

You;'ll find there's many a company out there that you'll have to fight to get that refund from even if they say they've sent you the goods so in this instance they've acted nice and quick to do what they can. They acted with what you agreed to so your complaint about permission is void I'm afraid.

If you think they are providing horrible customer service I'm very curious to who you think provides excellent customer service when it comes to buying books etc online,

Dublinstiofán

Cabaal wrote: »

If you think they are providing horrible customer service I'm very curious to who you think provides excellent customer service when it comes to buying books etc online,

Apple and Amazon

nompere

Dublinstiofán wrote: »

Apple and Amazon

But Amazon owns the Book Depository.

Dublinstiofán

nompere wrote: »

But Amazon owns the Book Depository.

I Know that, you think the service would be the same!