Deceptive offer of free gift

[Deceived]

So I just ordered a Galaxy Tab S7+, and as expected a Harmon Kardon Speaker (worth £179) was added to the order for free. The speaker remained on the order right up to payment, however when I received the order confirmation the speaker was gone. I phoned the helpline and was told that the free gifts were out of stock and I wouldn't be receiving one.  

Both the customer service person I spoke to and their manager seemed to think that this disappearance of the free gift was normal, pefectly legit and within the terms and conditions since the product page stated the free gift was 'while stocks last'. 

Am I alone in thinking that any ecommerce site should actively check any items, including free gifts, are in stock before adding them to the basket? I find both the fact of it and the customer service response outrageous.

I was offered no compensation so have now cancelled the order. It's actually put me off buying this tablet from samsung.com or any other site.

[Penguinbo]

Yes. The free gift is still showing when you add to the basket. Must be after it processes that the stock of speaker is then retracted or something. That's irritating. It's free but it is an enticement. Did you ss your order with it showing?
Weirdly my order for that and the tab s7 said 7- 10 days but the speaker came 2 days later....yesterday. I found receiving that first really odd. Hoping the actual tab comes soon.

[Penguinbo]

They need to remove the free gift offer from website ASAP if the are out of stock. Even the Harmon kardmon speakers are out of stock currently.

[Deceived]

I did screenshot the order actually but the call centre were having none of that. There is also no path for escalation or to make a complaint according to them, which brought me here. I don't know what the legal position is on this. If you place an order now it still adds the speaker to the basket so I imagine this has happened to a lot of people today.

[Penguinbo]

That's not good. They can have great service at times but sometimes it takes many calls to get it and sometimes it still doesn't solve an issue.....so that's not great.
I find it infuriating that the are so rigid with orders and you are unable to add or change even before its at dispatch stage.....that should also mean they can't alter it like taking off the free gift if it was in the basket at the time.
Live chat, fb,twitter and Instagram are not very helpful and can do much. The emails to the help desk rarely get a reply. You need to ring up like you already have and possibly a few times. Unfortunately many companies are not always as good as the should be. 😞 as you have cancelled then the customer contract is ceased ..... whatever it's called.
If you do it again and the same thing happens and you have the ss etc.. keep calling them. That's if you have the time and energy.
X

[Deceived]

Well, I managed to got this order successfully placed in the end with the speaker included. 😀

What I didn't mention earlier was that my first two attempts to place the order failed due to by bank flagging the transaction as suspicious and I had to call them to get it unblocked. After that it went through without the speaker, but an hour or so after cancelling that, I got emails that the other two orders had been canceled due to not being completed - strangely one with the speaker and one without. My best guess is maybe they have a limit of one free gift per customer so the incomplete order messed up the later ones.

Anyway I tried the live chat again and they confirmed they did have stock of the speaker (contrary to what i was told on the phone, but ok), ordered with different email and different card and all looks good.

Took 3 hours instead of 5 mins, Santander overactive fraud prevention mostly to blame here. Samsung support a mixed bag,

Anyway looking forward to both items 😁

[Penguinbo]

Fab. Glad you got it sorted. Samsung support is definitely a mixed bag. It maybe 1 free gift per person...associated with email address like the promotions you have to apply for.
I've not opened my speaker yet. I would have prefer the tablet to have arrived first or at the same time. 😆 on order lookup it still says order placed 7- 10 days on the tablet...wheras the speaker says delivered. Just hope it comes soon. Think they had many buying this last few days with all the offers. X

[Deceived]

Thanks for the help. Yes it is a long wait. But, a much better deal that anything else around and with any luck might not be that long.

[Penguinbo]

Yes they have some great deals on atm. They need to work on customer service definitely but I do love their products. X