Megabuy.com.au - Price Baiting

[Stressball]

Just a heads up for anyone who may be searching for software or hardware online.

My other half recently bought a couple of copies of Windows 7 off Megabuy.com.au

The sale price was $260 for 3 copies. She was suspicious of the price, so she was sure to pay with paypal in order to get her money back if the site turned out to be a bit dodgy. By the looks of it, she was right to do so.

They took her order, showing +5 quantity of the 3pk of Windows in stock.She got an email from them stating that her order had been received, her payment had been received, and the order was being processed. At this point she is now out $260, + $6 paypal fees.

Shortly after, she receives another email from them, stating that their price for the 3pk of Windows 7 has increased considerably just after she ordered. As a result, to sell to her at the previous price would have them making a relatively significant loss. So, they are now stating that the new cost of the software is $730, and to contact them in order to arrange payment of the last $470.

A couple of things.
1) If they were already in stock, then their new cost price has no effect on their loss or profit of stock they already purchased and listed at a set price. They are now increasing their markup considerably.
2) They already have her money. Now they are demanding more. Not sure if this is legal or not, but doesn't sound like it, not in the case of a storefront with set prices for sale items. An order has been placed and confirmed, a transaction has been made, the sale is essentially complete bar the actual delivery of the item.

On further investigation, it would appear that she is not the first to deal with their shoddy practices of price baiting. There are a few reports of people in similar situations with Megabuy.

Just in case anybody on here is hunting for anything in particular on the internet, be wary.

[old mate]

thats not legal i'm pretty sure (going off a half assed attempt at a law subject at uni). she accepted the offer of $260 for 3, not a higher quantity of them at a higher price so she can just walk away (reject the offer) get her money back.

it isnt legal.

[Stressball]

Yeah, it's looking like that. If they take forever to do anything about it then it won't matter anyway, since she can just get the money back through paypal. Might be difficult dealing with them for people who don't pay by paypal though.

[Tom_1569]

I "bought" something from these guys recently for a client.
After it being in "process" for a few days and having a client asking questions, I rang them to clarify it had been sent. This is when they tell me they dont have the parts in stock and wont for atleast two months, at this point i say cancell the order, when they decided to tell for a little bit more they could have one of the parts in. I cancelled my order and got my money back the next weekend. They do returns on a weekend for some odd reason.
I used MegaBuy or another similar named company a few times about 2 years ago and there service was A1, not sure if its a similar knock off company or they have just gone severly down hill.

[dijm8]

lol i was about to buy from this website last night, after abit of reading on the whirlpool forums i decided not too, ive read many dodgy things about them... but i do believe that you should receive the product for the price it was advertised at, their mistake not yours..

but if you do get it for that price....damnnnn!!!! you have scored big time

[Stressball]

Yeah, we are expecting to force a refund, that's all. Would be nice to get them at the cheap price, but somehow I doubt they will honour it.