Noel Leeming has been warned by the Commerce Commission for potentially breaching the Fair Trading Act after waiting almost two weeks to offer customers refunds for products it knowingly sold without stock.

During April and July Noel Leeming sold products which it didn’t have in stock, and which it didn’t have resupply timeframes for. Around 100 customers complained to the Commerce Commission after they didn’t receive their products within delivery timeframes that were initially represented, and couldn’t contact Noel Leeming support or were not offered a refund when requested.

In at least one instance the business waited almost two weeks to contact customers and offer refunds.

“Noel Leeming Group faced unprecedented consumer demand and delivery services were significantly impacted at this time,” said Commerce Commission chair Anna Rawlings.

“However, it should have taken a more cautious approach to representations it made about product availability and delivery time frames.”

The commission began investigating the customer complaints in April, concluding that Noel Leeming was likely in breach of Fair Trade laws around taking payment for goods they didn’t know they could fulfil.

The commission said Noel Leeming fully cooperated with its investigation, and highlighted the difficulties of the trading environment during the time in question – during which New Zealand retailers were struggling with varying alert levels, trading restrictions and a surge to online business.

Taking these factors into account, the commission opted to issue a warning rather than proceeding with legal action, though said it could reference this warning in future should Noel Leeming make similar mistakes.