How’s this?? Seen anything like it before?
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I have not seen that wording before. Are you sure there were sufficient funds available and that the payment mechanism (eg paypal) was functional?
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Seems like a clumsy way of saying they don’t want to sell the item any more at that price, or perhaps they have sold out of that item.
Who can really tell with the company you are alluding to.
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Welcome to the Community @Marcspix
No, never. Assuming you are referencing Harvey Norman Online so I merged your topic into this existing one.
HN has a special place in many hearts because of their almost unique approach to customer relationships. It has to be about the GST, not experiences such as yours, right?
Moments ago -
https://www.harveynorman.com.au/jbl-tuner-portable-bluetooth-dab-fm-radio-black.html
Delivery does not show out of stock, and a number of local HN stores show it as in stock, so probably not that.
Sometimes companies arrogantly consider security issues for new customers, such as leave at front door. If the address is thought to be on a busy street for example they might not want to do that, but normally they would ship and decline to honour an authority to leave if the premise was not attended.
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A couple of questions:
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did you place an order or did the text message come out of the blue? If it was out of the blue, it could be a scam which may be worth reporting to Harvey Norman. If you did order, has monies been debited to your payment account and have they been refunded?
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if you placed an order, have your contacted Harvey Norman to see why the order was declined. Other members have indicated why the order may have been declined. In addition to the above, another could include address included with the order was wrong or you bank/credit card issuer has blocked the purchase for some reason.
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It seems this kind of thing is not new for HN Online. Several sites such as Productreview, Facebook etc are scathing and a number of posts mention similarly mysterious reasons for HN terminating transactions. I couldn’t see any joy in purchasers getting an explanation and several mentioned delays getting their refund.
I note that HNO have no phone number! The best you can do is ask for a call back.
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Some pearls from HNO terms and conditions. My bolding.
5. Orders
(1) We recommend you carefully preview any proposed Orders before adding them to your shopping cart and proceeding with your Order.
(2) Representations of products for sale made by Harvey Norman Online via the website do not constitute an offer to sell but an invitation to treat.
(9) Harvey Norman Online may, in its sole and absolute discretion, accept or reject any offer made by you for any reason (or no reason), including an error in the advertised price for, or description of, the products on the website, or an error in your Order.
There you go.
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This seems like such a weird clause. It’s not very consumer friendly to decline an order because you listed the wrong price, but I can see why they’d do it. Saying you can reject it for no reason though? So we’re meant to believe they just changed their mind and didn’t want to sell it anymore?
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Who knows why HNO declined the offer to sell, after the in good faith buyer already ordered and paid for the item. According to the terms and conditions, the buyer has agreed to be not told a reason if HNO declines a sale!
Any wonder there is a thread dedicated to this mob.
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There is a good explanation of the difference between the two here. There is a comparison between bricks and mortar stores and online and it seems that the “invitation” as opposed to the “offer” is rather more common than most people think.
The distinction does not shed any light on the refusal to sell in the example given by the OP so we are left to wonder. I checked the price for the tuner and it is still $144 so it seems the reason is not that HN are engaging in ‘flexible’ pricing.
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