Dear Sir, I hope that this letter finds you well. I felt that I had to write to voice my dismay with my recent experience using your website to purchase a pair of trainers for my son Owen. If you could just entertain me for a while, I would like to give you a brief background as to why I was doing this. My son had to go into hospital on Saturday 16th January with what turned out to meningitis. He is only seventeen years old, has just left college and found himself furloughed within less than a week of starting his self-employed position in a barbers shop. He has been unpaid since December, but has not complained once. To confirm if this was bacterial meningitis he had to undergo a lumbar puncture, a really painful event where fluid is drawn directly from the spine. I had to sit there and hold my sons hand while he cried out in pain for over five minutes. When I looked at his trainers, they were tattered and worn, and I asked him why he hadn't asked for a new pair, and he said that he knew I had been struggling too, and he didn't want to put extra pressure on me. I must admit this put a lump in my throat. I had to return to work the next day, and my son was discharged and went to stay with his mother in Poole for a week, so she could monitor him. Then I intended to pick him up and return him to our home. I couldn't stop thinking about his tattered trainers and I felt a little ashamed that I have been working so hard to keep us (and as a single dad without any support), that I had not noticed. I found a pair of Nike air trainers in a size ten on your website, and placed the order hoping that the trainers would arrive before he came home, and would be a lovely surprise for him after all he had been through. So at 7pm on monday, I placed the order, paid £90 out of the £117 I had left in my account, and then relaxed knowing that the trainers should soon be here. At 7.06pm I was sent an email telling me that my order had been cancelled. The money had still been taken from my account rather than earmarked. I sent an email asking what was going on and was asked to provide the details of the order and my name etc. I sent this back and hadn't received any response twenty-four hours later. Furthermore, I then posted on Twitter asking why the money had been taken and no one was responding to me, and I was asked to provide the details of the order again. I sent the details and had this response sent to me: Hello Martin! Thank you for contacting us regarding your order. I am very sorry to see that it was automatically refunded due to the item being out of stock, unfortunately. The transaction was processed yesterday, so please allow up to 3-5 business days for the money to return to the original payment method, from that moment. We take all reasonable care to ensure that the items shown on the website are in stock, but, due to a large amount of orders, we do not guarantee that it is updated in real-time based on availability at the warehouse, where the picking of the items takes place. I apologise for any inconvenience this might have caused. Kind regards, Ingrid I asked why the money had still been taken, explained the situation and that i was happy to have a different pair of trainers, and would happily work towards a solution, as I had been told that a refund would take 3-5 working days to appear in my bank and this would be too late to be here for when my son returned. This was the response : Dear Martin, Thank you for contacting us regarding your order. I am really sorry you have encountered a challenging experience with ordering from our online service this time. In order for us to put another order together in the current situation should you want, I would invite you to consider now the refund has been processed to place a new order for the items in question. If you need any further information, support or assistance then please don't hesitate to contact me. Kind regards, Matthew JD Sports Customer Care Team. So now the refund had been actioned, but would still take 3-5 days. I was very disappointed at this. At this point I asked for your contact details. They were not passed on to me. Instead, I was sent this response: Martin, as much as I would like to help you, I am afraid that we are not able to create replacement orders in this case, as the refund is issued automatically, and we cannot always guarantee that the website is fully updated. Please accept my apologies regarding the situation, and my wish for a full and hasty recovery for your son. Kindest regards, Razvan. At this point I had given up ever being able to buy these trainers from yourselves, costing you a £90 sale. It isn't the earth, I accept that, but it's a lot of money to me. On Wednesday 20th, the money was paid back into my account (thank you), so I decided to take another look online. I did a google search and JD Sports came up, and I thought that I would take a look. Low and behold, the trainers were showing as available in a size ten. To say I was a little annoyed was an understatement, and I went back to twitter to voice my annoyance. Surely this was a mistake? No, it turns out that you now have the trainers in stock. This was the response: We have had quite a big restock of them today which is why they are back on the website. Thanks, Gaynor I questioned why no one had mentioned that they were due back in stock two days ago. This was the response: When we went to pick your order, there must have been no stock. The warehouse staff who pick the order do not know when restocks happen. Thanks, Gaynor Again I asked for your contact details and mentioned that this was the third time I had asked. This was the response: Hello Martin, I would like to express my deepest apologies for the inconvenience created regarding your order. Unfortunately, I am unable to provide you with the requested information. I would gladly assist you further regarding any enquiry that you may have. Kind regards, Vlad. This is shambolic at best. Money taken for goods not in stock, a 3-5 day wait for a refund No alternative colours or styles offered Staff not knowing when stock is due and offering to despatch later No one responding to questions when I wanted to advise you of all of this. Ultimately the loss of sales for your company. I just wanted you to be aware of what I have gone through, and to let you know the reason you have now lost a customer. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on the above as well. Kind regards, Martin McGregor. M.C.M.I.