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On 6 January my card still has not been charged and the order hasn't been shipped. I email them asking if the order has gone through ok and get a reply that yes, everything is ok, the order will be shipping soon.
On 7 January the card has been charged (or the funds were rather blocked - technically the money was not yet charged but I couldn't use it either) but status is still "shipping soon". I email them again asking if the order has been shipped yet (it's been 2 days and I've paid for expedited delivery so I'm becoming rather concerned). They say no, the order has not been dispatched because their supplier has not yet provided them with this item but they still expect to fulfil the order by 8 January.
On 8 January (the deadline) the order has not arrived. Upon checking order status I can see that it has not been even shipped yet! I call them and a nice lady on the phone tells me the item is out of stock and they don't know when it will be in stock again (probably early next week, 10-13 January) so it will not arrive before 10 January. She offers to cancel the order and I agree, but then she goes "oh no, i can't cancel it" and explains that the order is fulfilled by an operating centre that doesn't use the same system but she sends then an email hoping they would be able to stop the order.
Then I get an email telling me that if they can't cancel the order it will be shipped and they expect me to refuse delivery or return the item following their return process.
So far Amazon.co.uk has violated UK Distance Selling Regulations by:
- not fulfilling the order by the agreed time
- not notifying me of the delay
- not cancelling the order when they failed to fulfil it (under DSR if a seller is unable to deliver before the agreed time and a customer does not agree to a revised date a contract should be treated as if it has not been concluded - Amazon therefore has a legal obligation _not_to_ship_ the order).
They have also falsely advertised the product as being in stock while it was clearly unavailable.
So on 10 January I have an order for an item that I will be unable to collect as I needed it before 10 January. I don't have the money to place an order with a different seller as Amazon has not cancelled the order and has not released the funds even though the order had not been sent yet and they don't even know when exactly it will be dispatched and delivered.
And yes, I have paid £7 for expedited delivery instead of using their free super saver shipping option.
Amazon.co.uk has ignored 2 emails I have sent but the funny thing is that I can't actually prove I sent them. If you are contacting a Markeplace seller you may tick a box below the contact form which says "send me a copy of this email" but there is no such option when you email Amazon directly and the message is not saved in the Amazon inbox either. I can't file an A-to-Z claim or leave feedback for them either, what a wonderful system it is.
So when it's been 2 days since the customer service lady sent a request to cancel my order (10 January) and it still has not been cancelled or dispatched I send another message with another request to cancel the order and issue an instant refund since they are violating the law and get the most inadequate and unhelpful reply that I could have expected:
"In your query, you demanded a refund for the order.
However, We don’t debit money from your payment card until just before your items are dispatched. Your payment card is charged approximately 24 hours after the items in your order have entered the dispatch process."
Today I get an email notifying me of a revised delivery date, 21 January. Remember, I have paid for expedited delivery and they don't offer to refund the fee for the service they haven't provided.
I notice, however, that the order status has been changed again, from "shipping soon" to "not yet dispatched", and a CANCEL button has appeared. The customer service rep did not say anything about that. So I go and click "cancel" and get an email confirming the order has been cancelled.
However, it's been about 5 or 6 hours and the funds are still unavailable and my bank says the money is still blocked by amazon.co.uk. I appreciate it may take some time but if the card has not been charged yet I can't understand why there is a delay. I've sent another email but don't expect a proper reply, I'll probably get a copy of the email quoted above.
Any comments, ideas, suggestions?
Upd. Called my bank again and have been told it may take up to 30 days for hold to drop. That is hell.
Amazon.co.uk fails to deliver, cancel or provide an estimate for delivery.