Amazon Marketplace Refunds

First some apologizes in response to the comments on post #2, 3 & 4.

Post 3: I will attempt to break up my comments into more manageable issues. Sorry - i have edited post 1 in any attempt to make it more readable without changing the content.

Posts 2 & 4: While the company trades as a 3rd party seller in Amazon’s marketplace, I discovered that it was purchased by Amazon in 2011 by a search for information about the seller via Google. However, this is really a side issue as Amazon considers it a 3rd party seller.

Post 2: The end-date delivery was originally 14 Sept. The seller then revised this date on 12 Sept to the 18 Sep after I thought I had cancelled the order. With regard to the A-Z claim, Amazon have replied that the claim will be addressed by 29 Sep.

Post 4: Thanks for your insights. To be honest, I do not expect to change either Amazon’s or the seller’s position in this matter, but simply wanted to better understand, what if any, consumer rights I have when ordering products online in the future.

So, by way of general clarification:

1) I was trying to better understand consumer rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which makes reference to the "Failure to deliver within a reasonable time and outside of the agreed deadline is considered to be a breach of contract”. From my perspective, the revised delivery date of 18 Sept appeared to breach my original contract, which was compounded by the fact that there was no tracking information or proof of dispatch.

2) Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 appears to state that “if estimated demand exceeds supply, marketing communications must make clear that stock is limited”. The Amazon website indicated that there was 1 in-stock. However, it also states “Marketers must monitor stocks. If a product becomes unavailable, marketers must, whenever possible, withdraw or amend marketing communications that feature that product.” In this respect, it appeared that either Amazon or the seller failed to comply with this requirement as I believe the seller knew it would have to order the product from a foreign company based in Germany, hence the delay in dispatch. However, I have noted post 4's comments on this aspect.

3) Much of my annoyance with this process was due to the fact that I had assumed that I was entitled to cancel the product prior to dispatch as the Amazon website allowed me to do this. I did not really understand that the T&C’s of Amazon’s marketplace only forwards the cancellation request to the seller, who then appears to have simply ignored the request and changed the status to 'dispatched' later in the day, i.e. 6 hours later, without replying to my request to cancel the order.

4) Finally, I was concerned that I had no proof, by way of tracking information, to know whether the product had actually been dispatched. This concern was based on the fact that the seller predicated any refund on the return of the product to them at my expense, which was another annoyance given that I had thought I had cancelled the order before they had dispatched it.

Sorry for the length and number of issues, but as indicated, I am simply trying to educate myself on these issues when making online purchases in future. Thanks

Thanks for the response. While I do not disagree with any of the advice given, I would from a learning perspective like to raise a few comments

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

I also wouldn't be too worried about being able to quote chapter and verse of the Consumer Rights Act with regard "late" delivery. You will have been given an "estimated" delivery date, not one cast in stone.

If the Consumer Rights Act does not effectively define an ‘agreed deadline’ such that a ‘breach of contract’ has any meaning in terms of delivery date range, does it mean that a seller could simply extend the delivery date for whatever reason, e.g. the in-stock claim was false and therefore allows them more time to order in the product. In part, this was why I was interested to learn whether the in-stock claim was a form of false advertising.

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

Neither is cancellation guaranteed in the circumstances you describe, but Distance Selling means you are entitled to a full refund if you decide to return it.

I agree, it was my ignorance of the Amazon T&C’s in respect to their marketplace sellers that led me to the assumption that if the Amazon website allowed me to seemingly cancel the order before dispatch, this request would be honoured. I was also somewhat taken aback by the fact that while the Consumer Rights Act places the responsibility on the seller to deliver the product, the refund then required the buyer to return the product at their cost. However, is this last issue defined by the seller’s T&Cs?

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

I doubt very much that the seller "ignored" your cancellation request and doubt even more that they deliberately changed your delivery status to "despatched" in order to prevent any such cancellation.

I hope not. However, I suspect that most buyers operating through the Amazon marketplace know very little about the seller, such that it can appear suspicious when a request for cancellation is ignored and the seller claims the product to have been dispatched some 6 hours after the cancellation request. Does a seller have anything to lose if the refund is predicated on the buyer returning the product at their cost? I was also worried by the absence of any delivery tracking information to ensure the product was in transit, such that I could be reasonably sure that the product would arrive so that it could be returned in order to get the refund. Again, if the product was lost in transit, would the buyer have to prove this fact?

Again, many thanks for the feedback.