Lousy service from fiatshop.com

[VilleV]

A word of warning for anyone thinking of buying something from fiatshop.com / fiatshop.at!

A month ago I ordered a set of vintage hubcaps and tricolore badges for my 500. The price for hubcaps was 61.20 euros for a set and for tricolore badges 48,20, plus postage from Austria to Finland, all together summing up to 128,11 euros.
All was well for a week, but then fiatshop.com staff sent me an e-mail saying, that they had a new price for the hupcaps, 144 euros for a set. They said that I could either pay the difference or we could cancel the deal. I replied to them wondering how it was possible, that I needed to bay the difference, since I had made the purchase a week before they changed their prices? I mean, my local food market doesn´t charge me for extra, if I have bought a bottle of milk a week before they raise their pricing... I also said, that they could send me the tricolore badges and only charge me for those because I wouldn´t pay a whopping 144 euros for a set of hubcaps!
Well, now a month later, I recieved my visa bill saying I owe them 128,11 euros. They haven´t sent me anything I ordered and they haven´t answered any of my e-mails since they told me I had to bay more to get the hubcaps.

I have now contacted my creditcard company and they were very nice giving me advise how to proceed if they still don´t reply.

I was wondering if any of you have had similiar experienses about fiatshop.com? I´m very pissed off about all of this and I will for sure let as many people as possible know about it!

Hope You understand what I mean...
-Ville

[Tino]

I'm not sure how credit / contract law works across the internet but if you have proof e.g. a receipt or confirmation of your order at the original price, then I think you have a binding contract which Fiatshop should honour. If you have problems make a complaint to Fiat customer care in your country, or threaten them with an article in your local automotive press!

[VilleV]

I have already thought of almost every possible way to proceed, but I hadn´t thought about writing to a car magazine yet. That is actually a good idea!

[tonywalk]

Originally Posted by Tino

I'm not sure how credit / contract law works across the internet but if you have proof e.g. a receipt or confirmation of your order at the original price, then I think you have a binding contract which Fiatshop should honour. If you have problems make a complaint to Fiat customer care in your country, or threaten them with an article in your local automotive press!

Someone at work had a very interesting case of this a few weeks ago. They bought (over the net) a satellite tracker doofer for £500 rather than £1300. The item was on a van on its way to being delivered and the retailer pulled it back saying it was the wrong price. My coleague was advised by either the Citizens Advice Bureau or the government's online one (Consumer Direct?) that the company was within its rights as the goods hadn't been delivered. I thought that once they had taken money for the item that it was a done deal.

[Socrates]

There is a little known English legal concept called "snatching" which has developed through case law whereby a contract can be declared void on the basis that a reasonable buyer knew or ought to have known that there was a mistake in the price or some other feature of the contract and with that knowledge the buyer has attempted to "snatch" at a bargain. Internet contract law is largely the same as general contract law but it is simply applied to the different circumstances of e-commerce.

An example of this occurred in 1999 when Argos had an online sale for televisions which were wrongly priced at £3.00 instead of £300. As you can imagine a lot of people snapped these up (or tried to) and only the online ordering system requiring confirmation emails to customers saved Argos from having to fight out this concept at Court with many consumers.

Although it is not a case of "snatching", the situation that VilleV is in could be even more complicated by the different jurisdictions. The shop is based in Austria (.at domain) although Austrian contract law will not necessarily apply as there is a specific piece of EC legislation which regulates cross border disputes of this kind. Effectively, under the legislation you can sue the Austrian company in an English Court (after a few technical legal arguments to persuade the Judge they can actually rule in this Austrian based case) and then when you get your Judgment you take it to an Austrian Court where you can get an Enforcement Order (again after a few more technical legal arguments) to get your money back and a huge great big lawyer's bill to go with it.

I bet you're all fired up to take your legal battle to Court now!!!

In all seriousness, use section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (you're just in the £100 lower limit for your whole order) and get your credit card company to foot the bill for non-delivery of your goods as they are jointly liable with the company selling you the products for any breach of contract, including abroad. Write to the credit card company with copies of your order enclosed and say that your goods have not been delivered. If they're a nice credit card company they will have already told you this in their advice to you but don't let them put you off if they didn't mention that.

[VilleV]

Originally Posted by Socrates

In all seriousness, use section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (you're just in the £100 lower limit for your whole order) and get your credit card company to foot the bill for non-delivery of your goods as they are jointly liable with the company selling you the products for any breach of contract, including abroad. Write to the credit card company with copies of your order enclosed and say that your goods have not been delivered. If they're a nice credit card company they will have already told you this in their advice to you but don't let them put you off if they didn't mention that.

Thank You Socrates! This is exactly the same advice I got from my creditcard company. And fortunately I have copies of all e-mails and receipts they have sent me so I think I should get my money back.
I guess I just have to go and take my business to Delta-auto (finnish Fiat dealer) and get the stuff from there. It´s just that they are well known for their expencive prices here...

[VilleV]

Finally fiatshop.com gave me an answer today. They said that they hadn´t recieved my earlier e-mails, which may well be the truth, even though I´ve sent all of them to same adress. Even so, I have to say, that the service I got now, was very good indeed; they sent me the tricolore badges immedeately and also refunded my paypal account for the price of the hubcaps. So in the end all is good now, I hope.

[gumball]

Ah good, glad they have come through....... I really like those tracksuit tops