DSR Madness

bitemebankers

bap98189 wrote: »

Is it fraudulent? Morally it is down the toilet, round the U-bend, and halfway across the North Sea, but it's not illegal surely. You are entitled to return the goods for a refund. This will cost the retailer money as they have to bear the cost of the original postage plus all the charges associated with credit card transaction fees. You tell the retailler you are not happy with the goods, but will make do if you get 5% off. The risk to you is that the retailler says no and you have to stump up the postage to actually send them back (which frankly I would hope they would do on principle) but if you do so both parties are out of pocket.

I'm not advocating this by the way, just suggesting it is probably not illegal.

Sorry - I misunderstood what you were saying. You're quite right, that wouldn't be illegal, just very sharp practice.

TILER

The bottom line is the customer has the item says he wants to return it under DSR but he will keep it if we negotiate a better price.........

I dont want it back its hastle with collection restock refund etc but if I don't he wants money off............

The guy is just extracting .....:(


..

Ivory_Tinkler

TILER wrote: »

The bottom line is the customer has the item says he wants to return it under DSR but he will keep it if we negotiate a better price.........

I dont want it back its hastle with collection restock refund etc but if I don't he wants money off............

The guy is just extracting .....:(


..

I agree with other posters, tell the guy he has his 7 days to confirm if he wants a refund and then he should send it back, in resaleable condition, and you will refund the original cost plus outgoing postage. Do not let this guy bully you and get away with it - if you do he'll tell his mates and it will soon become common practice for people to do this. Although it's a pain to accept a refund, you have to stand your ground.

bitemebankers

For what it's worth, I really do sympathise. But like bap98189 says, the vast majority of people are decent and honest and won't try and use the law to extort money from retailers.

TILER

Thank you for your help and comments !!

steve

paulofessex

Just be careful because if the customer reads the DSR correctly he will see that the seller should in fact refund the money even before the item is returned, of course no seller in their right mind would do this however it is in the regulations. Also if l recall correctly a customer can actually teller the seller to make own arrangements to collect the product.
Also requesting the seller to confirm/return the item within 7 days would be in my opinion a bad move as again if l recall correctly the seller has 30 days to refund the money, so let the customer keeping trying to barter for 30 days (this 30 days issue conflicts with the instant refund issue l also mentioned, but please understand this is how the DSR explains it.) Personally l feel the DSR was written by an Ebay/Pay Pal employer as yet again there is little protection for the sellers

Ivory_Tinkler

Paulofessex you are right about the customer requesting the seller collect an item but if the seller has made it clear that the customer is liable for any costs to return an item, then the collection cost can be offset against any refund made (that's how I understand it anyway)! I agree with your comments about the regs themselves though, they are a bit of a nonsense in parts, especially the bit about having to refund within 30 days regardless of whether the item is returned or not.

bitemebankers

One of the daftest things about DSR is the fact that all orders have to be fulfilled within 28 days. This effectively means that no product can be sold online if it's likely to take more than 28 days to deliver, regardless of customer demand. This is just crazy.

All of this just underlines the importance of having a solicitor with a good working knowledge of online retail to prepare and review your T&Cs. Even if it costs a bit, I think it's probably worthwhile in the long run.

neilmcl

bitemebankers wrote: »

One of the daftest things about DSR is the fact that all orders have to be fulfilled within 28 days. This effectively means that no product can be sold online if it's likely to take more than 28 days to deliver, regardless of customer demand. This is just crazy.

All of this just underlines the importance of having a solicitor with a good working knowledge of online retail to prepare and review your T&Cs. Even if it costs a bit, I think it's probably worthwhile in the long run.

What's so hard in fulfilling a delivery within 28 days, if its an instock item. If takes longer due to it being a bespoke item then DSRs wouldn't apply anyway. If it takes longer due to it being out of stock at the manufacturer/supplier then you have a duty to outline this upfront to the customer and stop taking orders you can't fulfill. It's actually 30 days anyway and this can be extended if both parties agree.

bitemebankers

neilmcl wrote: »

What's so hard in fulfilling a delivery within 28 days, if its an instock item. If takes longer due to it being a bespoke item then DSRs wouldn't apply anyway. If it takes longer due to it being out of stock at the manufacturer/supplier then you have a duty to outline this upfront to the customer and stop taking orders you can't fulfill. It's actually 30 days anyway and this can be extended if both parties agree.

The real problem is bespoke orders. The fact that it's a bespoke order does *not* automatically negate the whole of DSR. The maximum delivery time clause is unaffected - it only affects the specifics of the return requirements, i.e that the order must be wrong in some way and customer can't just change their mind.

You're correct that a retailer could in theory negotiate separately with each customer, but this is ridiculous from a business POV. As I said, DSR *effectively* prevents retailers from servicing orders bespoke orders which might take more than a month.