Kogan-ebay - Bought LG G2 Phone after a month they want to cancel order but they keep selling them - Is this legal ?

rmamila on 21/07/2014 - 14:05
Last edited 22/07/2014 - 21:16 by 1 other user

I bought LG G2 from Kogan - ebay with the deal below and they took my money 3 weeks back.

https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/150885?page=11#comment

Kogan sent me an email last week saying that they ran out of stock and I have to wait 5 more days until they can ship it. Fine I was waiting.

Then they have now sent me another email saying that they can't source the phone and have to cancel my order. I talk to Kogan support and the guy suggested me to buy the 32GB version which was around $370 and free delivery on the day I paid for the one I ordered. Now he is asking me to pay $499 + delivery for this. This is how nice Kogan can be after taking my money.

To my surprise I just saw that they have still been selling the same phone yesterday while they telling me that they don't have stock and push me to pay a lot more to get a phone from them. See below deal on OZB and that's also from Kogan-ebay selling the same phone.

https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/153415

I already bought a phone cover on the same day. My cover is now delivered. But I don't want to pay so high price to get it from Kogan when they play dirty tricks like this. If I have to pay full price + delivery I can be better off buying from JB or DickSmith. They can be trusted for their sales and can talk to them if something goes wrong.

Is this legal? Can Kogan do this?
There might be so many others in OZB in the same situation who paid for the phone 3 weeks back and waiting for delivery and received the email asking to pay a lot more for the 32 GB version when they still selling the 16 GB version for higher price. Why would Kogan lie to customers if they still have stocks. Just to get more money after locking the customers for 3 weeks and using their money??

What would you do in this situation ?

PS:
I found out that it's not the exact same LG G2 Kogan is selling in the second deal. The next deal is for LG G Pro 2 D838 16GB Black $352.80 and free shipping. So this is only $22 more and people might still be happy to pay $22 extra and get this.
However the strange thing is that Kogan didn't give this option for those customers that they can't deliver the phone now. In the email Kogan has only given below options that would cost me $ 409 + $23 shipping. This is $432 in total and $104 more than what I paid for 16GB one. I wouldn't pay over 100 more to go from 16 GB to 32 GB as this was just $40 more on the day I paid Kogan for this.

From the email…

"So that we can assist you in the best way possible, we have the following options for you:

Option 1.
Change your order to another product available on our website (please refer to our website for price differences if applicable). Similar items include:

Complimentary Upgrade to LG G2 D802 4G LTE (32GB, White)
Or a Complimentary Upgrade to LG G2 D802 4G LTE (32GB, Black)
Option 2.
Issue an immediate store credit voucher to the value of your product, that you can use on our full range at www.kogan.com.

Option 3.
Receive a refund for this product. Please note: refunds can take up to 7 days to appear in your account after processing.

Simply reply to this email with "1", "2", or "3" to let us know how you would like to proceed.

Thank you for your understanding and we look forward to hearing from you soon!

Kindest Regards,
The Kogan.com Team"

Update:

The issue got resolved as Kogan have given a complementary upgrade when the stock ran out. Which was not known by the previous support guy that I called.

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Comments

  • MustResistPurchase on 21/07/2014 - 14:18
    +1

    You're probably better off without them, I bought a G2 as well only to find it being DOA. Took a month to finally receive my refund and that was only because of a Paypal dispute. Gave up on them and went into JB Hifi to price match Mobileciti. Got it for $469.

  • sparkles on 21/07/2014 - 14:52
    +1

    I'd get my money back from Kogan (out of principle), rip them a new one on Facebook/Whirlpool/OzBargain/Review Sites (because I could), and wait for the next 20% eBay deal (because a new one will be along soon enough).

  • timmypete on 21/07/2014 - 15:08
    +1

    I would be telling Kogan that you'll raise the matter with Consumer Affairs Victoria if they don't provide the phone. This might prompt them to be more reasonable.

    In terms of whether this is legal or not, its a little hard to discern without knowing whether this was a pricing mistake on their behalf or not.

    From Consumer Affairs Victoria:

    If a business advertises an incorrect price by mistake, they are not obliged to sell their product at that price. However, they must withdraw the product from sale until the price is corrected.

    If a customer places an order at an incorrect price, the business must inform the customer of their mistake before processing the order and give them the choice to continue with their order at the correct price, or cancel it. Alternatively, the business can choose to honour the discounted price as a sign of good will.

    If a price seems unusually low, the customer can prevent any issues by asking the business if the price displayed is correct.

    By my reading, their actions seem to indicate they aren't acting in a way that suggests this is a pricing error, and therefore can't claim some of the protections consumer law affords them. I would be showing Consumer Affairs this email and mentioning that there is no clear statement indicating a price error, and say that this is evidence of shonky behaviour.

    While I'm not sure how much CAV can compel them to sell it to you at a lower price, they do seem to cover this sort of scenario on another part of their website:

    Multiple pricing occurs when a supplier displays more than one price for the same item. If a supplier displays the same item with more than one price then they must sell it for the lowest displayed price or withdraw the item until the price is corrected.

    A price published in a catalogue or advertisement is a ‘displayed price’. If mistakes in catalogues or advertisements have occurred, they can be fixed by publishing a retraction in a publication with a similar circulation or audience to the original advertisement.

    I'd argue that selling the same item at different online location meets the situation above, but it might be tenuous. You might also read up on the CAV pages on bait advertising and Group buying and daily deals as they both mention things partially relevant to your situation, and if you do lodge a complaint it is more information to couch it in terms likely to garner attention.

    Finally, instead of accepting a refund, you can always try a chargeback or open a Paypal dispute. When you impact upon their reputation and cost of doing business, they might be more willing to behave in a manner that meets your needs too.

    • timmypete on 21/07/2014 - 15:19

      See also http://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/sales-delivery/non-delivery…

      CAV can help you in relation to this.

    • rmamila on 21/07/2014 - 15:48

      Thanks for this information. As I know most of the merchants who charge customers first and later agree to refund take another month to refund the money. This happened to me couple of times before as they know that they can keep some one else's money and do business with them for two months long before returning it.

      In a widely published deal like this on which so many people ended up paying them, they can easily accumulate large sum of money. One dodgy business would think why need banks to lend money in case of financial trouble. Just publish a deal and collect the money from many and use them before returning later stage. In finance, the speed you exchange money between hands matter a lot.

      • timmypete on 21/07/2014 - 16:14
        +1

        Which is why consumers need to do something to cause them to reconsider in the future. Seriously, heat from the consumer authorities (CAV complaint) or their merchant bankers (Paypal dispute, CC chargeback) is probably the only thing they'll listen to.

  • kvince on 21/07/2014 - 18:14

    Isn't Option 1 a free upgrade to the 32GB version? The Kogan support guy probably didn't know about this.

    • rmamila on 22/07/2014 - 15:05

      Yep, that was resolved now and I am getting the complementary upgrade to 32GB version.

  • rmamila on 22/07/2014 - 14:41
    -1

    Some one from Kogan called me in the morning and mentioned that it's a free upgrade. When I called their support before I was told to pay the balance for the normal price and shipping.

    Now it's clear and happy with how it got resolved.

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