TheHut/Zavvi - Robbed Me in Daylight?

leonheart1 on 29/05/2011 - 23:24

Two days ago I decided to finally trust thehut/zavvi despite hearing all the painful experiences some Aussies have gone through and ordered a hoodie (medium sized) and a bag for the princely sum of 21.25 GBP = ~$33 aud.
This amount was from the 2 for 25 pounds 'promotion' plus the 15% coupon (PAY15).
This corresponds to $16 per item.

The next morning I get the not-so-horrible news, that they ran out of Medium sized hoodies and will have to cancel my order.
"Oh well" I thought, maybe I'll find something else in Medium size.

But no.
It turns out they were still charging me for the bag at $20 AUD. This made no deal for me especially since the bag was more of an add-on item and the hoodie was what I really wanted. I tried to cancel it on their website only to receive a 'Failed cancellation' email shortly after because they were 'preparing it for dispatch'. Note that this was done less than 12 hours after the initial purchase and 7 hours after the 'Order cancellation' email. I then tried to contact their 'team' twice through their website to no avail.

Well anyway, to cut it a bit short, they then sent me about 10~20 identical emails saying that my order has been dispatched. And now just then they have sent me an email saying this:

Hi,

Thank you for you for your message.

I am sorry we have been unable to cancel your order as it has already been sent to you.

If you no longer require your order, please contact us once the item has arrived and we will be able to provide you with the relevant returns address and a unique authorisation number.

If you hav any further questions, feel free to contact me.

Regards,

Lorraine

They want me to send it back at my expense? Are they serious?
I'm pretty sure I can't get any sensible response from thehut/zavvi now but could I make a difference if I contacted Paypal instead?
Or will they just side with the big company?

Because what it seems to me is a classic bait and switch except with one major difference, they don't even let you choose.
And now asking me to return it at a huge expense for a small refund seems no different than overseas eBay sellers sending you an empty box.

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Comments

  • punk on 29/05/2011 - 23:45
    +1

    not sure what paypal is going to do but the thats the pitfalls of buying online, still they could have handled that better instead of just sending out the order without you first acknowledging the change.

    Im not sure what their support is like but I guess would write back explaining the reason for trying to cancel and try to get the returned shipping funded as well.

    The reason for returning it, is due to the shipping right? You still like the bag though?

    • leonheart1 on 31/05/2011 - 13:46

      Well as I wrote above, the bag was more of a secondary item.
      The main thing was the hoodie.
      I have contacted 'customer support' again but I'm still waiting.

  • Tal_Shiar on 30/05/2011 - 00:19
    +1

    it might be a pain in the arse to them, but whats to stop you just returning it without receiving it?

    • leonheart1 on 31/05/2011 - 13:48

      I got no idea what you mean by this.
      Hopefully you weren't thinking along the lines of changing address lol.

  • bendertiger on 30/05/2011 - 10:27
    +2

    Hmm…I wonder what happens if someone accidently writes on it 'Not at this address'…I wonder if aus post will send it right back? Or if you fail to sign for it etc

  • c64 on 30/05/2011 - 13:36
    +1

    www.oft.gov.uk might be able to help?

    • leonheart1 on 31/05/2011 - 13:48

      That sounds promising but will they give a damn about someone not from their country?
      Maybe it's still worth a shot though…

  • ectoplasmical on 30/05/2011 - 17:44
    +4

    Curious how many other people also got multiple dispatch emails?

    I received one every 184mins like clockwork for about 36 hours. I was kinda hoping that meant multiple hoodies!

    • Roja on 31/05/2011 - 19:50
      +1

      Yeah got 16 here for 1 single item being sent.

  • Joshyss on 31/05/2011 - 16:24
    +2

    That's kinda like my experience with A1 Supplements in Vic… After waiting about 3 weeks for an item to 'come into stock' after I rang each week and got told 'expecting it in the next couple of days' each time. That I wanted to cancel it… Confirmed cancelled on phone… a week later I recieve the order in full… After trying with them to get my money refunded, I get told I have to pay return post plus restocking fee… Tried going through fair trading but couldnt do anything for me. A1 Supplements stated that 'Nothing was received in writing, therefore no cancellation was made. I had to pay so I recommend everyone stay away from there!

    • Circly on 06/10/2013 - 18:35

      lol they are the worst. Very bad customer service at that company.

  • leonheart1 on 02/06/2011 - 22:16

    Update: They've offered to partially refund me so now I'm paying 9 GBP for the bag.
    I guess it is less hassle than having to post it back in a month's time.

  • stumo on 03/06/2011 - 10:12
    +3

    You could always just refuse to sign for it.

    That is very poor form that they fast tracked the order even though they changed it. They deserve all they get for pulling that bs.

  • infinite on 04/06/2011 - 01:33
    +1

    Don't sign for the goods & either block the company from charging your credit card, or do a "charge back" if they already have.

  • leonheart1 on 15/06/2011 - 14:54

    I got the bag today. 17 days after dispatch.
    And guess what? It's too small for my needs.
    Ah well, that'll be the last time I buy from these scumbags.

  • moocher on 29/07/2011 - 10:07
    +1

    Sorry to hear about your experience with zavvi.

    I just had an unpleasant experience with them too. Ordered some DVDs for someone's birthday 1 month ahead just to be safe, on 19 July, payment was made using PayPal. I had forgotten about it for a while, and then checked my zavvi account on 27 July, which said that order was awaiting pickup from the warehouse. I sent a query via their online messaging system as to why the item hadn't been dispatched after 9 days, and got an email response the next day, saying that there was a problem with the payment, and asked me to save my credit card details in my account so that they could reprocess it.

    Whilst unhappy to not be able to use paypal, for the sake of saving time, I did as they said, thinking that the items were ready to be dispatched and it would be quicker this way rather than cancel the order and start all over again. I replied to the message to tell them I had updated my credit card details, and today, got another reply that said that they can't re-process paypal payments or re-process the order in any way, please cancel order and start again.

    Based on this experience, I would say that their communication with customers is very poor. Firstly, there was no notification to me when the first paypal payment failed (and yes, there were sufficient funds). Secondly, there were conflicting instructions from staff - one had clearly instructed me to update my account with credit card details.

    I cancelled my order and ordered from Amazon UK instead.

  • Frantic on 05/10/2013 - 04:05

    I tried cancelling less than 20 mins after ordering (wanted an extra item.. mistake that was trying to give them more money) but apparently that was too late, lol
    Not to mention its 7:00pm in England (on a Friday) at the time of cancelling.. doubt theirs a jolly Englishman postie picking up my order at that hour..
    So now I'm trying to cancel the second order with the extra item that's 'awaiting stock pick'.. hopefully that takes and I'm back to where I started.

    EDIT: doesn't look good.. second order has magically changed to dispatch.. these guys don't want you cancelling orders (despite their FAQ showing how easy it is to do so).. emailed support will see..

    EDIT2: Second order failed to cancel too.. lol.. these guys must be damn efficient and have no life on a Friday night that they are busy packing boxes

    Seriously are these guys retarded? I've ordered a tonne of stuff from this mob and granted shipping sometimes takes ages but everything always arrives perfectly.. now they are probably gonna lose a customer forever.. all because I wanted to give them MORE money.. wtf?

    • exc3113nce on 05/10/2013 - 08:11

      I tried cancelling roughly 1 minute after placing my order to no avail.

  • cloudy on 07/10/2013 - 15:35
    +1

    I remember buying a 3 pack of Bravesoul Tees, its a package, so i only choose the size for all 3 items in the same pack.

    When i received the item, there was a Small Medium and large inside, so i really only into the 1 Tee.

    I told them about it, and after a few emails i just decided the items were too cheap to send back and forth, i just gave the wrong sizes i didnt want away to peole.

    The fact is, as easy and convinent and cheap it is to buy online, there's a million things that can go wrong, and will go wrong. We either have to just take the good with the bad, or buy from a local retailer, that if anything goes wrong, we can go back into the shop and speak to a real human being that understands us.

    There is a price to service, its often not seen, but every now and then, its highly valued.

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