Mijn Klacht:

Dear Sir/Madam,

We have previously registered our complaint with Bol.com about the order No. 1523014297 made on 20 November 2022.
When we firstly submitted our complaint for the cancelation of our order, Bol.com transferred our complaint to the seller Colenis to solve directly with them, but Colenis has failed to complete the purchase. We have corresponded with Colenis to try and resolve this issue but they have failed to supply the goods.
We have set out a summary of our issue below.
– On 20 November 2022 we purchased from Bol.com and paid for the 6 green chairs the listed price – EUR 239.
– On 21 November 2022 we received an email from Bol.com informing us that Colenis had cancelled the order because they had sold it at the wrong price.
– On 27 November 2022 we wrote to Colenis informing them that we did not accept the cancellation and asked them to complete the sale of the chairs in accordance with Bol.com’s Terms and Conditions (TC). We explained that Colenis does not have the right to cancel the transaction because Article 5(1) of the TC’s provides that the agreement is concluded at the moment of acceptance of the offer by the consumer in compliance with the conditions. The only conditions relating to this sale was that we pay the purchase price, which we did. This created a legally binding contract for Colenis to provide the chairs at that point in time.
Article 4 of the TC’s also does not provide Colenis with the ability to cancel the order as it only provides that it can do so where obvious mistakes or errors occur. This does not apply as the price we paid was not an obvious mistake or error because:
– The 6 chairs were offered for EUR239 (EUR40 per chair) which is not an obvious mistake, low or under valued selling price (of for example EUR10). This is also supported by the fact that Colenis continues to sell the 6 chairs for EUR358.50 (EUR59.75 per chair) as shown here (https://www.bol.com/nl/nl/p/colenis-adama-eetkamerstoel-set-van-6-groen-fluweel-velvet-industrieel/9300000131145184/?s2aproductTitle). The price we accepted the offer for therefore represented a 33% discount from this normal price which is not an obvious mistake or under valued price;
– The price for the chairs represented a discount during the Black Friday retail week where it is common for large discounts of up to 50% to be applied to furniture. In that context a 33% discount was perfectly reasonable and does not represent a mistake;
– We received an email immediately after the purchase on 20 November 2022 ing the sale, with no indication that the price was incorrect.

– On 29 November 2022, in response to our email, Colenis wrote to us saying they had the right to cancel the order due to a mistake under Belgian consumer law – they included a link to such law (https://economie.fgov.be/nl/themas/consumentenbescherming/opkomen-voor-uw-rechten/uw-aankopen/een-aankoop-annuleren/wanneer-hebt-u-een-wettelijk/uw-herroepingsrecht-uitoefenen). This regulation absolutely does not apply in this situation! They therefore refused to supply the chairs.
– On 8 December 2022 we wrote to Colenis explaining that the we did not accept the cancellation for the reasons we had previously given and explaining that the law they were relying upon did not apply to sellers but only consumers who had the right to unilaterally cancel within a 14 day cooling off period. We once again asked them to complete the purchase for the stated price.
– On 9 December 2022 Colenis responded saying that it was clear that the price difference did not add up to the number of the chairs and that it was clear to them that they would not sell at this price.

As shown above, we have attempted to resolve this matter directly with Colenis without success as they refuse to acknowledge their legal obligation to supply the chairs.
While we generally enjoy using Bol.com, this transaction has been deeply dissatisfying. For the reasons explained above, we cannot objectively understand how the price we paid was an obvious mistake or error as provided for under Article 4 of Bol.com’s TC’s. If we cannot rely upon these TC’s to enforce our rights, we will lose faith in their meaning and also lose confidence to continue making purchases on Bol.com in the future, rather preferring other online websites who better enforce their terms.
We have wrote after this again to Bol.com to try and overcome this issue, still requesting the purchase to be proceed. Their answers were that the partner has canceled the order due to the incorrect price on their website. The partner is allegedly not obliged to enter into the purchase agreement, and unfortunately they can do nothing.
Worth to repeat again the fact, the price for 6 chairs: EUR 239 (EUR 40 per chair), listed during the Black Friday Week – does not indicate obvious price mistake !
This creates the impression that the seller was only using the low price to attract prospective customers to their offer in a form of bait advertising, with no intention to complete the transaction.
Given this unsatisfactory outcome, we ask Bol.com, as a website responsible for this transaction, to arrange for the transaction to be completed, or to provide us with a credit to purchase the equivalent number of seats through your platform at the current price (less the EUR239 that we will pay).

Please let us know if you have any further questions in regard to this matter.

Kind regards,
Emilija and Cameron Mills

Gewenste Oplossing:

We ask Bol.com, as a website responsible for this transaction, to arrange for the transaction to be completed, or to provide us with a credit to purchase the equivalent number of seats through your platform at the current price (less the EUR239 that we will pay).