direct selling: 3% charge???

chiefdave

I'll try and keep this brief, basically I ordered a new TV after mine went bang from digital direct. I chose them even tho they were slightly more expensive than my local richer sounds as they had them in stock. Ordered last Thursday and paid £29.99 so i expected it to be sent same day or at least sent the next day.

Anyway phoned the shop Thursday afternoon to make sure everything was OK on the payment front and whilst on the phone asked when it was likely to be delivered and was told it wasn't likley to be sent out until the end of the following week and they couldn't give any real explaination as to why!

So on the Saturday I found a store about 45 mins from me (another Richer Sounds that had them in stock) and drove up to collect it. When I got back I rang Digital Direct to cancel the order and was told that they couldn't do anything about online orders until Monday again no explanation why although they did confirm that it still hadn't been shipped.

Phoned back Monday spoke to one person, explained I wanted to canel and he hung up, phoned back and spoke to a second person same result. Third time round I managed to cancel although they kept questioning me about why I wanted to cancel and in trying to get me not to cancel made some claims I know to be false about both their own and richer sounds extended warranty.

So finally having cancelled (and bearing in mind they haven't even shipped anything yet) he tells me they're going to charge 3% for cancelling, I questioned it but he insisted it is in their terms and conditions.

I've looked up their terms and conditions and here it is

Your order will only be processed once an authorisation code has been received. Cheques and postal orders take a minimum of 10 days from receipt until payment has cleared then goods can be released for dispatch. Digital Direct reserve the right to charge 2.5% for credit card transactions, with 3% for Amex. All offers are inclusive of V.A.T.

now bear in mind that the terms don't say anything about charging you for returned goods and also that they charged my credit card on the day I placed the order without charging the 3%, they are taking the 3% off what they are refunding. Is this legal?

derrick

Under DSR you can cancel anytime,(even before delivery), up to 7 working days following receipt of goods,

See OFTs Business guide to DSRs

Also they cannot charge any sort of fee, see pages 17-27

This is from page 27; -
You are not allowed to make any further charges, such as a restocking charge or an
administration charge.

4743hudsonj

derrick wrote: »

Under DSR you can cancel anytime,(even before delivery), up to 7 working days following receipt of goods,

See OFTs Business guide to DSRs

Also they cannot charge any sort of fee, see pages 17-27

This is from page 27; -
You are not allowed to make any further charges, such as a restocking charge or an
administration charge.

this is correct

they CANNOT legally charge you a single penny under the dintance selling regulations

refuse to pay it and contact trading standards about this as they will be interested to hear about this

tell them about trading standards and also threaten with court action if they do take the money

stugib

chiefdave wrote: »

now bear in mind that the terms don't say anything about charging you for returned goods and also that they charged my credit card on the day I placed the order without charging the 3%, they are taking the 3% off what they are refunding. Is this legal?

They will have been charged a percentage of the amount you paid by their card merchant, so they wouldn't have added 3% on to your invoice. But that's their business costs, nothing to do with you and you aren't liable for them. If they want to charge cards before dispatching goods then that's the risk they decide to take, should someone later cancel.

chiefdave

thanks guys, i'll be sending a letter off and see what response that gets. tbh if they'd charged a 3% credit card charge when they took the initial payment and then only refunded the cost of the item I may not have queried it. the fact that the 3% has only come into it when the order is cancelled is what made me question it.

trevormax

I know its the principle of the matter that they shouldn't charge it, but is it really worth bothering about when its only 90p? It probably will cost you more for the letter sent to complain anyway.

Also the 3% would have been factored into the price of the item so was in fact charged when you made the purchase.

The_Plush_Doormat

trevormax wrote: »

I know its the principle of the matter that they shouldn't charge it, but is it really worth bothering about when its only 90p? It probably will cost you more for the letter sent to complain anyway.

Also the 3% would have been factored into the price of the item so was in fact charged when you made the purchase.

I read the post as £29.99 being the delivery charge, not the price for the TV. I think we are talking about more than 90p.

trevormax

The_Plush_Doormat wrote: »

I read the post as £29.99 being the delivery charge, not the price for the TV. I think we are talking about more than 90p.

Sorry but I don't see where it says this is the delivery charge. All I see is the OP ordered a TV and paid £29.99 so expected it to be sent the same day as they took the money from their card.

Ultimately the only amount the op has paid is £29.99 and 3% of this is 90p.

The_Plush_Doormat

It doesn't explicitly say anywhere in the post that OP paid £29.99 for delivery. I am assuming because of the way it was worded. "Paid £29.99 so I expected it to be sent same day, or if not ..."
I have a Richer Sounds near me, and yes they are cheap, but not that cheap. £29.99 for a TV? I hope OP comes back and clarifies.

If the TV is £29.99, I will order a few.

chiefdave

trevormax wrote: »

I know its the principle of the matter that they shouldn't charge it, but is it really worth bothering about when its only 90p? It probably will cost you more for the letter sent to complain anyway.

Also the 3% would have been factored into the price of the item so was in fact charged when you made the purchase.

apologies if that wasn't clear, the point I was making was that having paid £29.99 for delivery I would expect it to be pretty swift. The TV itself was £619 so we're still only talking about £20 but it was the principle of it really and the fact they only tried to charge it one I cancelled.

Also to be clear, £619 is the total including delivery if you pay by debit card. If you pay by credit card they say they can add 2% and by Amex 3%. This does also raise the issue that shouldn't this be a lot more clearly signposted rather than hidden away in a terms and conditions page, which it took me a while to find even when I knew it was there!

Finally if anyone knows someone who's selling 32" LCDs for £29.99 can they let me know!!!