Sally Beauty cancelled order...please advise!

[DizMe]

I would appreciate any suggestions about what to do, if anything.

Nov 29 I placed an order for a Beliss Pro Curl Genius with a 30% off coupon and free shipping. It was a special edition red one with a cheetah case. I also ordered some hair color at the same time. I received an email confirmation for all items and 5 days later, an email confirming shipment of ALL of it.

I received a shipment the next week, but it only contained the hair color. There was a vague note about the Curl Genius which said "item is not setup in the shipping Whse" and "some products were unavailable at time of shipping."

I thought it was just going to ship separately, but when I checked the UPS tracking number today it said it had been delivered. I called Sally's and they told me it had been out of stock when I ordered and they wouldn't have it again so they hadn't charged me. I never received any notice of that! I keep all receipts and emails and there is nothing from them about cancelling the order.

She offered me a 20% off coupon, but the deal I got was for an item that was on special and I used the 30% off coupon so my cost for it was only $53. They are regularly $99 so 20% off is $80 and it doesn't have the case etc.

My question is this: I've requested a manager call me (my only option to speak to a manager). What should I ask? Can I ask to have my original price honored on a regular Curl Genius? This was to be my daughter's main Christmas present.

Thanks!

 

[Aryn]

I would fight that! Sounds like a bait and switch to me, now they want you to pay more, because they messed up the pricing or the stock on hand.

I am calling Amex right now to fight a credit that I am supposed to get, so good luck to both of us!

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

You can ask the manager to honor the price, but they may be all out of the special edition Curl Genious. They may have oversold. Technically, if they didn't charge you for the item, I don't think you have any further recourse.

 

[DizMe]

Thank you for your answers. Here is what happened:

I called the local Sally's. They had the regular Curl Genius and I happened to get the district manager. He VERY kindly told me he'd go ahead and sell me the regular one for $59 (my store didn't have the special edition).

Then I called the online customer service number again and they told me it was not in stock at the time of purchase, they'd refunded my cc (which is true, as I checked it before I called), and since they don't do backorders they would not honor the price I paid. They told me they don't have 'live' inventory which essentially means they don't know what they have in the warehouse so the website doesn't necessarily show that something is out of stock.

I find this a very nice loophole for the online store. I suspect they figured out that the discounted price for the special edition combined with the 30% Black Friday discount was too low. All they have to do is claim not to have it in stock at shipping time and poof! There goes your deal and there's nothing you can do. They don't even let you know it isn't coming.

The local manager did not have to make good on the deal, but the fact that he did means a LOT to me and I'll continue to shop there. I won't shop online with them, though. Not only did the store manager give me a great discount when he didn't have to, when he found out the neighboring store had the special edition, he called them and arranged for me to trade the one he'd sold me for the special edition, so my daughter will be getting the one I ordered after all!!!

Thank you, district manager in Northern California! You rock!

Good luck with your amex credit, Aryn!!

 

[maxiesmom]

Stores, even online ones, do not have the time nor the manpower to mess around with people's orders, just to keep them from buying an item. If they didn't intend to sell it to you, they wouldn't have offered it in the first place. As someone who helps fill orders for a major retailer, I can tell you that stock flies out at breakneck speed during the holiday season. And the system is not 100% accurate. The computer can think we have merchandise that we cannot find to ship out.

It does stink that you are missing a major part of a Christmas Gift. Bait and Switch? Most businesses don't have the time for that nonsense.

 

[DizMe]

Stores, even online ones, do not have the time nor the manpower to mess around with people's orders, just to keep them from buying an item. If they didn't intend to sell it to you, they wouldn't have offered it in the first place. As someone who helps fill orders for a major retailer, I can tell you that stock flies out at breakneck speed during the holiday season. And the system is not 100% accurate. The computer can think we have merchandise that we cannot find to ship out.

It does stink that you are missing a major part of a Christmas Gift. Bait and Switch? Most businesses don't have the time for that nonsense.

You are probably right, as I had posted about my disappointment on FB before I had heard from anyone. I just got an email from the FB site apologizing and asking me to send my WSA number so they could look into it. I let them know I had gotten it worked out but thanked them for contacting me. I don't know if they would have done something or not, but both the local people and the FB team are much better with customer service than the online center.