J D Williams Late return fee? Info please

louisdog

Hi

Hope this is the right forum, please can someone advise me.

Mum has returned an item from J D Williams outside the 28 day returns window and they have imposed a £2.95 late return fee, which my Mum says is not owed. (I'll spare you the finer details but she only returned it late because she was awaiting the other part of the outfit that was on a delay; not saying I agree with her stance.)

She is now being chased by Reliable Collections, which appears to be the debt collection department for J D Williams, and they are adding a £12 admin fee, and telling her this is her last chance to pay before a personal collection team gets involved (does this mean bailiffs?)

She has not contacted them at all to explain the situation and does not intend to.

My Dad is really worried and wants her to pay, she is defiant that she shouldn't have to and they can't make her, and he is scared that the bailiffs will turn up and take his or her / their stuff.

Would anyone be able to tell me anything about the validity of the late return charge?

I'd rather not go into the rights and wrongs of this but TBH I probably would have contacted them paid the £2.95 rather than risk bailiffs etc.

My parents are elderly and it's hard to reason with my Mum sometimes I am so worried this will escalate

Thanks for any info you can offer and sorry if this is in the wrong place.

Cheers

stapeley

I would just pay this for her, it is not worth the hassle !

louisdog

She won't tell us where she has hidden the paperwork! She claims to have thrown it all in the bin. She is also adamant that nobody is to pay :mad:

Edit: my Dad asked me to find out if the late fee is a valid / lawful debt but I don't really know how

louisdog

Bump! Can anyone help me please?

beanielou

I think it will be in the terms and conditions that they can charge the fee.
Most catalogues have something similar now I thiink.
It would be best for her to pay it & move on.
If she doesent it could affect her credit history.
Hardly worth it for £2.95 is it?

louisdog

Thanks, yes I completely agree with you. She thinks they shouldn't charge a fee when she hasn't any goods, it's really hard to reason with her.

Presumably if it's in the T&C then when she ordered she implicitly agreed to the T&C, therefore she does owe the money and the debt is enforceable.

I have tried to tell her that if bailiffs come, she will lose more than £2.95 plus £12 admin fee because there will be a charge for their visit but she just laughs at me.

Argh!

She also wants to write them a letter along the lines of "how dare you say I owe money and hound me for it" but that's obviously not going to get her anywhere. :rolleyes:

Next step, my Dad's going to have to intercept the next letter. Or he could leave it to run its course, but I don't know what would happen if a bailiff did visit, could they take his stuff as well? Plus a lot of their stuff e.g. TV is jointly owned.