Help with getting my refund from pawsforacause.co.uk

stayinganonymous

Hi all, new here...

I'm sorry but this is going to be long, I thought it would be best to explain the whole situation to give people a good understanding on what has gone on, so no one gets confused...

I bought a Ferret cage from pawsforacause. co . uk on the 16th June (4 weeks ago tomorrow). It should have been with me by the 18th or 19th June, but it wasn't, so I contacted them on the 18th just to check when it was dispatched, I got an email on the 19th saying her computer had broke so she hadn't managed to send my order out, told me they would order it for me (order it? I thought it was coming from them... anyway I will get to that later) and it would be with me by the 24th June instead. I wasn't too pleased about that, but what can ya do.

I recieved it on 24th, I open up the box and started getting all the bits ready to put together (it was a big cage and weighed over 50lbs). I started to notice it was damaged. One of the metal handles had snapped off the bottom tray, the bars were bent, it was rusty and scratched... also, the one I bought off the site said in the description that it had TWO fully opening doors and the shelves were full floors. The one I received had ONE opening door and the shelves were bars. So it wasn't even the one I wanted and it was damaged.

I emailed them about it saying I want it collected and wanted my money back as it is both damaged and not as described on the website (on their site it stated in the terms and conditions that any item received not as described or damaged will be collected and refunded). They get back to me saying they are in contact with the supplier... suppiler? what supplier? I never knew about this, I thought it was coming directly from the people I bought it from! I wouldn't have bought it from them if I knew they were the 'middle man' as such. Anyway, the 'supplier' wanted to know whether I signed for it as damaged (I think they wanted to claim through the courier so they didn't lose out)... but I said no, because it wasn't damaged by the courier. The box/packaging was in perfect condition so I don't see how such a large and sturdy cage could have been damaged when on it's way to me and the box remain in perfect undamaged condition. It was soiled goods that had been damaged when made or packed. Anyway, I managed to eventually get it collected from me after many emails (a few unanswered). That was another nightmare, having to email pawsforacause, then wait for them to email the supplier, wait for them to get back to pawsforacause and then wait for them to get back to me!

It was collected from me on Tuesday 30th June and was received by them (I tracked it online) on Wednesday 1st July. By the way, it was returned to the 'supplier', not the person I had paid for it from.

By Friday 3rd July I hadn't heard anything. So I thought I would email pawsforacause (who I bought it from) to let them know that the 'supplier' (melton pets direct) had signed for it on Wednesday 1st July. Come Monday 6th, I still had no reply to my email even though I know they had been online (they are in my Gmail chat area)... So I got a bit peed off and phoned them (pawsforacause). Some man answered saying the lady (that has been dealing with this) is out and can't speak to me... he wasn't much help, but he apparently doesn't deal with that side of things anyway so I asked if he could get her to call me when she gets in, he said yes. Later that day, I had no phone call but did get a reply to the email I sent on Friday, saying that she had tried to contact the supplier on Friday but couldn't get through. She tried again Monday and got through and they said they were waiting on the warehouse and would then refund her (so then she can refund me), she gave them her bank details so they could refund to her bank account. By Wednesday I hadn't heard anything, so I emailed her to see if she had heard anything and guess what? I got no reply. So on Friday I decided to ring the 'supplier' (melton pets direct) myself to see if they had issued pawsforacause with a refund, they confirmed that they had last week. So then my mum phoned pawsforacause and told her that we had already had confirmation from the suppier that she had received a refund (so she couldn't deny it) and she didn't sound too pleased that we had done that. She said "yes, the refund went in my account today and it will clear in your account by next Friday (17th)"... next Friday? I thought when you issue a PayPal refund it goes through pretty much instantly? Well, that's what it's been like with me before, I have had refunds from a couple of eBay sellers and once they issue the refund it goes through instantly and PayPal send me an email explaining I have received a refund.

Basically, does anyone know where I stand here? What can I do to get my £130 back? Sorry, but money is tight right now and I need that money back. I cannot buy another cage to replace the one I bought until I have that money back.

Is it me or should pawsforacause have refunded me first and then they should have waited the supplier to refund them? Why did I have to wait for them to refund pawsforacause to get my money back? Afterall I bought it from her, not the supplier that I didn't even know about! She is (or should I say was) a business and it just seems back to front to me.

It's been 4 weeks now since I ordered the cage and I am still waiting for my money, and I just feel like I am bashing my head against a brick wall.

Another thing is, the pawsforacause website disappeared on Monday and is still gone...

I'm frustrated because she doesn't reply to my emails. Even if she just said "I'm sorting it" would be ok, but to be ignored is just annoying.

By the way, I opened up a PayPal dispute on Sunday 5th July because she wasn't replying to my emails. I haven't forwarded it to a claim, I don't see much point, because it wont effect her as her website is gone now so she obviously isn't running her 'business' anymore, so she has no use for her buisness PayPal account. She never even replied to the dispute email either...

Can my bank help me with this at all? Even though I paid for the cage through PayPal, I had to draw funds from my bank account to my PayPal to pay her.

If not, I'll have to seek help from my Solicitor, but I don't really want to do that if there is another way to sort this.

ABH_3

stayinganonymous wrote: »

Hi all, new here...

I'm sorry but this is going to be long, I thought it would be best to explain the whole situation to give people a good understanding on what has gone on, so no one gets confused...

I bought a Ferret cage from pawsforacause. co . uk on the 16th June (4 weeks ago tomorrow). It should have been with me by the 18th or 19th June, but it wasn't, so I contacted them on the 18th just to check when it was dispatched, I got an email on the 19th saying her

Sorry, I meant to reply to this earlier but for some reason I forgot. I'm surprised one of the others didn't jump in however, anyway, obviously the retailer pawsforacause is responsible for delving to you a complete cage plus bits and bobs in a 'merchantable quality' or a usable state. Broken doesn't count, what the woman has essentially been doing is playing you along safe in the knowledge that after 28 days Paypal will not want anything to do with your claim as it will be outside of their rather limited responsibility period. That said, report it to paypal, tell them everything though you may wish to put the important bits in bullet points, or number points:

1) Purchased Ferret cage from pawsforacause. co . uk on the 16th June.
2) Delivery expected 18th June...

That kind of thing, point out the woman has had you hanging on, hopefully they may see shes been playing the system and reimburse you with the money from her account.

Chances are however, that they'll tell you it's past 28 days and as such there is nothing they can do.

So you'll have to resort to writing letters, yes you read that correctly: I did say letters! Or emails at a push, but please NO phone calls. This is because you need a paper trail, of who said what taking a telephone call into court is a little difficult unless you've recorded it.

So to keep things simple write them a letter\email advising them that as they already acknowledged they have failed to meet their part of your consumer contract and as such they agreed to reimburse you the money you paid to them. As of yet this hasn't been forthcoming and unless they return to you the money they took you will be launching a civil action under the Sales of Goods Act 1979 as revised to reclaim your money, plus any additional fees.(It will cost you an additional £30 which you can claim back through the County Court to make a Small Clams Court Claim which obviously you'll be adding on and claiming back).

Advise them they have 7 days to get back to you or 14 if you're feeling generous. Then send that letter\email to all the addresses you have for them, including the one under their previous domain name, send the emails request 'receipts' and be sure to print the letter out and send it Recorded Delivery to the physical addresses which you're allowed to add onto the amount ie: (Cage) £150 + Postage Costs of Cage = £ __ plus £5 for letter postage costs:

Edited: Incorrect Whois information removed.

Then wait for the period of time you provided them, I would say 7 days. Then simply file your claim using https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/csmco2/index.jsp they will more than likely want to avoid the hassle and pay up before any court action, but that's the process. The advantage of going after someone with a business is that it's a dead certainty this assumes it's the same woman, that she's got assets. Which of course you can ask the court to lay title to on your behalf so you're guaranteed getting your money back

HTH

stayinganonymous

Hi, thank you for your reply... it's much appreciated.

I am probably going to forward the PayPal dispute to a claim anyway, as it says in PayPal I have upto 45 days to do so from the transaction date.

Thanks for explaining it all to me

Oh the quote you made "Whois Record" is for pawsforthought.co.uk not pawsforacause.co.uk... so isn't the place/person I am dealing with , just thought I'd mention that as I wouldn't want Ann-Marie getting a bad name for no reason.

Thanks again

NotQuiteNorbert

Domain name:
pawsforacause.co.uk

Registrant:
Wendy Magee

Registrant type:
UK Individual

Registrant's address:
19 Friday Acre
Lichfield
WS13 7HJ
United Kingdom

Registrar:
1 & 1 Internet AG [Tag = SCHLUND]
URL: http://registrar.1und1.info

Relevant dates:
Registered on: 01-Mar-2009
Renewal date: 01-Mar-2011
Last updated: 15-Apr-2009

Registration status:
Registered until renewal date.

Name servers:
ns1.byethost28.org
ns2.byethost29.org

WHOIS lookup made at 15:08:56 14-Jul-2009

Looked up pawsforacause for you.

Escalating to a claim through Paypal sounds like an idea, although if they've cleared the account you may have a job getting your funds back. If that's the case, then the course of action outlined by ABH is probably the way to go.

ABH_3

stayinganonymous;]Hi, thank you for your reply... it's much appreciated.

I am probably going to forward the PayPal dispute to a claim anyway, as it says in PayPal I have upto 45 days to do so from the transaction date.

Thanks for explaining it all to me

You're more than welcome. Good luck with the claim.

Oh the quote you made "Whois Record" is for pawsforthought.co.uk not pawsforacause.co.uk... so isn't the place/person I am dealing with , just thought I'd mention that as I wouldn't want Ann-Marie getting a bad name for no reason.

Oops, my bad. My apologies to Ann-Marie, I've edited out the incorrect whois information now. Thank you for drawing that to my attention.

ABH_3

NotQuiteNorbert wrote: »

Looked up pawsforacause for you.

Escalating to a claim through Paypal sounds like an idea, although if they've cleared the account you may have a job getting your funds back. If that's the case, then the course of action outlined by ABH is probably the way to go.

Thanks for getting the correct whois information

NotQuiteNorbert

ABH wrote: »

Thanks for getting the correct whois information

Not a problem.