False Advertising By Very.co.uk ??

[sunny-dave]

I've held off posting about this (in the hope that the company would at least engage sensibly with me), but it seems that they are determined to be incomprehensible on the phone, unreachable by normal email and then rudely dismissive when I eventually used a webchat to get through to them - simply not understanding that there was even a problem.

So - essentially the problem is that very.co.uk listed some cameras with a big banner saying CASHBACK - not just the one I was interested in, but several others as well.

The actual text on the page listing for the one that caught my interest included an offer from Panasonic of £200 cashback if the camera was bought within specified dates.

Being a cautious chap, I even rang the Very CS line to check that the offer was still valid - it has been going for a while - they confirmed that it was. I also (fortunately) took a screenshot of the listing page at that point.

So I bought the camera - and tried to register for my £200 - only for Panasonic to tell me that the offer closed on 30th January - I have an email from them confirming this.

So - I'm £200 out of pocket and Very won't talk to me (at least not in any sensible way). What they have done is change the listing of the item to remove the cashback offer - hence their dismissive reply to my webchat complaint.

Is there anything sensible I can do - or do I just parcel the whole thing up and send it back for a refund (without the cashback it's way overpriced) ??

Cheers

Dave x

[sunny-dave]

They can take stuff off their own page/feed Baz - which means that other 'visitors' don't see it there - the trick then is to get visibility in places that they can't censor.

[sunny-dave]

Not yet NoM - only reached the end of my (fairly relaxed) tether this afternoon after three days of contacting, waiting and getting nothing useful.

[Hopkirk]

Just send it back for a refund and move on.

It's not worth you doing any more, it's only you who will suffer.

[sunny-dave]

You may well be right Hoppy - but I have the time for a little bit of a nag at them first, before the 'free returns' deadline.

[cashier]

They can't censor your F/B page. At the top there should be Good evening Dave what's on your mind. Write out what you've written here, then share with all your friends and ask them to share with their friends, and so on. It soon gets around.

[Kathyan]

Very's customer service is non existent but try missing a payment!

[murraymints]

Trading standards is the way to go with the threat of small claims court...

[sunny-dave]

Indeed, Kathyan - I've heard they're not very nice about that - which is another reason for making a quick decision - I don't want them to accidentally 'fail to process my return' in time to clear my bill.

[sherrardk]

If you've got the time, play merry hell and contact the ASA.

[sunny-dave]

My worry there, minty, is that it's a third party offer which they may say they have no control over - even though they are palpably in the wrong for using it to generate a sale.

[bhg481]

For future reference, Panasonic's Cashbacks are always shown on their own web page - panasonic.co.uk

I always check thee before I buy expecting a cashback.

[DTCwordfan]

sounds like a case for the Ombudsman......seriously.

[sunny-dave]

Thanks everyone for your input.

The key advice was to engage with Very's twitter team - and then talk to them offline via a webchat. The guy I spoke to was charming, intelligent and really understood the problem - a first for this particular company.

I didn't get the whole £200 (I think they'd probably have been losing money on the camera at that price), but settled for £100 plus a 50% discount on some other bits & bobs I will need.

Add to that the free 5 Year warranty that Panasonic are now offering and it hasn't ended too badly.

Time to unbox the camera and get snapping

sunny dave xx

[woofgang]

glad you had a good outcome

[Sipowicz]

A camera?.....try snapchat!

[kvalidir]

I'm so glad, Twitter always seems to be the way forward with difficult companies. As I said Yodel found our package in 2 hours after basically having been ignores and told to clear off for a couple of weeks previously.