If you order a backordered item that was never in stock in the first place, should you have to pay a restocking fee when you cancel the order? That’s the quandary that Emmanuel finds himself in. Store employees failed to tell him that the couch he wanted was on backorder until after he had already paid, so he came back to the store a day later to cancel the order. Ashley couldn’t do that…without a 30% restocking fee. What did they restock, precisely?

He writes:

My wife and I went to purchase a couch at the Ashley Furniture store at [redacted]. Item was not in stock so we have not received any merchandise. We we’re informed of the back-order only after being charged. We called the next day to cancel the order with the manager and he said they will not give a refund even though we have not received anything nor do they carry it.

He wanted to charge us 30% as a “restocking” fee for something they don’t even have in stock, and are holding my entire funds hostage since they won’t refund any of it. At no point in time did the sales person notify us of store policies during the purchase. We contacted the store within 24 hours of initial purchase, the store manager by email, who replied at first several days later, but has since then stopped responding to any emails.

Taking a big bite out of the purchase price as a restocking fee makes sense once the piece of furniture has already been delivered, but not in this case. Depending on how they paid for the couch, maybe a chargeback would work in this case.

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