The company is at the center of a storm on the network and is accused: "Cancels orders made on Black Friday on the grounds that they have run out of stock but sells the same products at full price"
Zara branch in Dizengoff Center
Photography:
Gideon Markovich
The Zara website was especially popular at the last Black Friday.
That day Zara offered up to 40% off a variety of items, while most Zara stores were closed that day, many consumers bought Zara items at a discount online.
Naomi, a Zara customer, also purchased at specials at Black Friday and received a message from the company stating that the order had been canceled because the items were out of stock.
To her surprise, the discounted item was available on the site but without a discount.
In a post she wrote angrily in the "Zara-Initiated Club of Fans" group, it was stated that "there is a new trend in Zara, please note. Cancel Black Friday orders if they are not in stock. I checked a minute after the order was canceled on the website This is how they make us buy the product at full price. I am petty, but it has two words in Hebrew - consumer oppression. Mazara was then informed in response that "the case was carefully examined and the customer was updated accordingly."
Another customer also told "Israel Today" that she had purchased several items, one of which was at a discount.
"Today I saw that in the personal area on the website inside the order, it says next to the item 0 shekels. I contacted customer service and they told me that it means the item is no longer in stock so they canceled it from the order. I went in today to check "And now they cost NIS 139.9. Since they took down this item for me, they charged me a delivery fee of NIS 30. This is because the order dropped below NIS 200."
Mazara was quoted as saying: "There is no response."
We checked with the Consumer Council and it turns out that the council has received a number of complaints on the subject.
According to Adv. Yael Cohen-Shawat, Deputy Legal Adviser at the Consumer Council, "According to the Consumer Protection Law, there is an obligation to publish all the terms of the operation and any restrictions.
If the promotion is valid for a limited number of items or until a certain date.
If the stock runs out, the site must be updated and the promotion must be stopped.
In the event that the consumer purchased the product at a discount and the stock ran out near the date of purchase, the consumer should be updated immediately.
If the consumer was notified that the stock ran out only a few days after the purchase and the next day the product appears in the original price, a question mark arises regarding how to publish the information regarding the quantity of items on sale and whether the stock ran out at the time of purchase. "
The Consumer Council believes that an online sales site is not a platform for advertising but a tool for sales.
This means that the site is expected to be updated at any given moment, and if the product is out of stock and it is not known when the product can be delivered, it is appropriate to delete the product from the site or add a warning that the product is out of stock.
"A large site is expected to use the appropriate technologies to update the site online, in order to prevent consumers from having a negative experience that will deter the surfer from repurchasing."
It should be noted that recently there have been many complaints in Zara Israel and other Israeli fashion sites about delays in the arrival of Zara shipments in Israel.
Inditex was then told in response: "At Inditex our main ambition is to provide customers with the best shopping experience, at all times. We take each case very seriously and always with full intent to resolve issues that arise. During 2020 we experience an unprecedented growth in online brand groups. We strive for continuous improvement in the level of service. You can also select and collect packages through the service of delivery points for the convenience of customers. "
