Drinks company refusing refund

ardmhacha

I bought a bottle of special vodka as a present from an online uk based drinks company about 6 weeks ago. The order was delivered midweek by a courier company however there was no-one at home to sign for the delivery so as normal they left a card requesting that I ring and arrange to have the delivery resheduled. It turned out that the courier does not deliver on Saturdays and we are out working midweek. We could not collect it as nearest depot is approx 25 miles away. I emailed the drinks company but they were very unhelpful. They have admitted that the item has now been returned to them but they refuse to give a refund, as they say we should have arranged to have it delivered to an alternative address. They are prepared to send it out again at a cost of another £7 delivery charge. Obviously that is not going to happen. I have emailed them since advising that I would refer the matter to Trading Standards but they are not responding to my email.

I appreciate there is not a large amount of money involved here but I think there is a principle at stake. Can anyone advise if I am entitled to a refund and if so how I should take this further?

Your advice would be greatly appreciated

viktory

Were you given the option of arranging delivery to an alternative address (such as a workplace?).

Personally, I would think you are backing a loser here, as it is your responsibility to arrange for delivery.

Forris

When you ordered the items, how exactly did you expect to be able to take delivery of the item if you knew that you would not be home during the week. No courier will redeliver on a Saturday, at least not without an extra charge.

If you are not in to take delivery of the item and are unwilling to collect it from the depot, perhaps in future you should buy it from a shop, at your convenience.

Ivory_Tinkler

The drinks company probably had to pay for the item to be returned to them by the courier as well as they also paid for it to be delivered in the first place. I think you'll either have to pay for a redelivery or take a refund less their courier costs. You might be able to cancel your order under the terms of the distance selling regs but I don't know how that would stand as a delivery was attempted 6 weeks ago and you were unwilling to go and collect the item. Distance selling regs allow you to cancel your order and the cost of the product plus delivery must be refunded. However, if the item was collected by the company (which technically you could argue it was as it was returned to them by the courier) they the company is able to deduct the cost of that from your final refund which is probably why they aren't offering you your money back.

You might like to try consumer direct and see if they can offer any advice.

emg

Forris wrote: »

When you ordered the items, how exactly did you expect to be able to take delivery of the item if you knew that you would not be home during the week. No courier will redeliver on a Saturday, at least not without an extra charge.

If you are not in to take delivery of the item and are unwilling to collect it from the depot, perhaps in future you should buy it from a shop, at your convenience.

Maybe they thought that it would be a Royal Mail delivery and that it would be taken to a local sorting office if they were not in I've ordered a couple of things recently that didnt explicitly state they used couriers.

4743hudsonj

simple fact is, the distance selling regulations make it your statutory right to return anything (almost) bought online or via catalogues etc with absolutely no legal comeback on the other side up to 7 days after the day after delivery (working days).

this means that you may ring them, cancel the contract (assuming it has not since been 7 days) get a FULL refund including delivery (no restocking fees etc and be done with it

its a very clear cut part of your statutory rights, if they do not allow you then they are committing a criminal offence of denying you your statutory rights and the matter should be taken up with trading standards either way.

just write an email stating you wish to cancel the contract under the distance selling regulations and keep the sent email as proof.

EDIT: JUST READ IT WAS 6 WEEKS AGO!!! HAHA SO FORGET DSR

ardmhacha

Forris, maybe I should have explained more. The item was bought online on a Monday and I was off work all that week however the item didn't arrive during this time. By the time it did arrive I was back to work. I appreciate these things can take more than 4/5 working days to arrive. It was a chance I took I suppose. I have purchased many items online and this is the first problem I have encountered. Had the courier been Parcel Force or Royal Mail, it would not have posed no problem, as they have depots within a 10 mile radius. As for buying in a local shop at my convenience, I can assure you I would have done so, but this was a special brand of Vodka, meant as a present, that was not available locally.


I wasn't aware of DSR, but I will keep it in mind in future, so thanks for that. At the end of the day it was a relatively small amount of money and I have learned to firstly check what courier company a retailer uses before purchasing.

Thanks again for all your advice.