UFC/Digital Stores UK

Tainted81

Hello, this is my first post so I hope I've posted this in the right sub-forum?

I recently placed an order on the UFC EU store site on 1/06/10 for some T-Shirts as a Gift for a family member who's Birthday was coming up - 9 days after I placed the order. When I placed the order, all items were shown 'In-Stock' and would be dispatched within 3-4 working days. The payment was taken from my bank account on 3/06/10 by Digital Stores UK who were shown to be acting as an agent for the UFC in the UK. I checked the status of my order over the following few days, the status of the order changed to 'processed' about 4 days after my order was placed, which according the site meant the items had been dispatched and that the T-Shirts were on their way to me.

A few days later, with still no sign of my order, I decided once again to check the status of my order on the site. Low and behold, the site no longer accepted my login details and had completely changed from the site I placed my order on. As a result I was unable to check my order, or get any customer support on my order as the order number I was given was no longer being accepted as a valid order, therefore, meaning I couldn't place an enquiry to customer services on the site.

I had to Google Digital Stores UK to find their Customer Service email address to write off an email about my order. They replied saying they no longer worked as a 3rd-party Company for the UFC and all enquiries should be sent to the UFC directly, despite them having taken my money and sending me out an email receipt of the order.

I then received an email from Digital Stores telling me my order would be dispatched on the 17/06/10. No more than an hour later, I received a further email telling me my order was already dispatched with a tracking number for DHL. I tracked the order to Belfast where it had sat for approx 3 days without my knowledge and on top of that I had to pay £7.43 Customs and Admin Fees to release my order, this despite me paying £4.95 for delivery as part of my original order in the belief the order was coming from a UK-based company considering this was the EU Branch of the UFC's site I'd placed my order on. Again, there was no information telling me that I would have to pay any charges or that the order was coming from the US.

To top it all off, when I opened the package - after paying the fees to DHL to get collect my order at there Depot, etc - I found that I only had 2 of the 3 T-Shirts I had ordered and that the invoice showed only 2 were in the package. I then phoned up Digital Stores asking about the order, the fees I had incurred due to their parting of ways with the UFC and the overall problems I'd had with the order only to be told it was not their problem any more and that I would have to take it up directly with the UFC, despite Digital Stores taking the money from my account. I told them that they had taken the money from my account but they said they had passed the money along to the UFC and that it was nothing to do with them, the guy on the line was telling me this almost laughingly as he heard I was getting annoyed. I have spent upwards of £10 on phonecalls to both DHL and Digital Stores to hear about my order as they told me nothing. I have also spent £7.43 on Customs and Admin Fees at the DHL Depot and paid £4.95 for a delivery that never took place as I had to collect it myself from the DHL Depot.

I have since sent an email to the UFC CS Team in the US (now the 3rd email with no response thus far) and a similar one to Digital Stores telling them of my intention to take up the matter with the OFT if I didn't hear back from them within 24hrs.

Can anyone give me some advice on this issue and where I should go looking for answers or some way I can complain about the way I have been treated for something which was obviously not my fault (the companies parting ways that is)?

Sorry for the long-winded post, I'm just not sure how to proceed with this.

Regards

Joe

unholyangel

Have you double checked the customs charges were valid? I recently had an issue similar where i ended up paying £12.26 (£8 was a Royal Mail "handling fee") but it turned out i shouldnt have been charged and was able to claim a refund by providing my paypal receipt.

Check the customs and excise website for more info. For commercial items it was £18 in value and i think it was around £40 for gifts......although special rules apply for several items in the same package.

As for the UFC, i'm sure in UK law the contract you have/had is with the person you placed the order with and who took the money. However, if they are in the EU, they may not be governed by the same laws.

Tainted81

To be honest, I haven't checked the details of the Customs, Admin Fees and VAT I paid, I just paid it so could finally get my order after all the hassle with the order. I just wanted the T-Shirts sooner rather than later to be honest and didn't expect to have to go through all this to get them, especially since I was not made aware of any of this before I placed the order and expected this to come from a UK Seller as it was a UK company who had taken my money.

The breakdown of the charges for Customs, etc was as follows:

Customs Duty Payable - £0.00
Excise Duty Payable - £0.00
VAT Payable - £6.09
Admin Fee - £1.24
Total Payable - £7.43

Do you think I could ask the UFC or Digital Stores to cover the cost of the Customs charges as it was not shown on the site when I placed the order? I paid £4.95 for what I believed to be standard delivery, the same thing with most sites but was hit with the extra charge to collect my item from DHL despite me having paid for it to be delivered to my home.

However, the VAT is the smaller issue for me. The UFC/Digital Stores debacle which caused my order to end up this way is what has annoyed me more, especially my treatment by each companies respective CS Teams. The whole thing just smacks of me being caught in a fallout between the 2 companies. My order, money and the additional costs I've incurred trying to resolve the issue particulary telephone costs etc are what has made me lean towards making a complaint. The company who took the money from my account is Digital Stores UK who are based in London and despite my insistence on the telephone that they were responsible as they took my money, they wanted nothing to do with it.

Any further thoughts on which way I should progress with this?

Thanks for the advice so far.

Coopdivi

Quite frankly you can say goodbye to your money.

When ordering anything on the net it's essential that websites display a contact address and a phone number. Well I've had a comprehensive look through ufcstore.eu (assuming this is the same site you're dealing with) and I can't see an address anywhere There's a phone number but, as you found out, that is an American one.

With regards to postage costs, they've got a full list of charges but there is no mention of them paying your customs charges. This is something to bear in mind in the future when ordering goods from outside the EU.

The people behind this company seem rather secretive. I did a Whois lookup and the site registrant has not been disclosed. If you click on the IP address on the site below it will give you a trace route. Now I'm not techie minded but I can see the trace starts in Leipzig, Germany where they're supposedly based and ends up in Minneapolis which I guess is their real location.

http://cqcounter.com/whois/

I would suggest in future that you stick to established, reputable British companies or alternatively ask on MSE in the I wanna buy it or do it forum.

Tainted81

Thank you for taking the time to look through the site, it's perhaps something I should have done before I went ahead with the order myself. I'll be more mindful of such things in future.

I've received some positive feedback from Digital Stores today confirming that the UFC intended to complete my order and perhaps even refund the Customs Charges that I encountered, although I am mindful that this information is coming from Digital Stores and not the UFC themselves who still remain silent and have not responded to any of my emails.

Fingers crossed and thanks for the advice.

Tainted81

Just an update on this issue.

I received the email attached below from UFC Customer Services on 18th June:

Response (Bryan) - 18/06/2010 12.38 PM
Dear Joseph,

Thank you for your email. Please accept my sincere apologies for the complications you've had with this order! Unfortunately I am not able to reship the missing item because as you mentioned, we recently went through some operational changes and we are not able to access order placed prior to the change. I have requested a full refund on your order, and it should process in the next few business days. There is no need to return the items you received. If you would like to place a new order, you are invited to use the code ******** for 25% off your next order. This code can be entered in the field provided during checkout.

If you need any further assistance, please let me know.

Best regards,

Bryan
Customer Service

As yet, I have not received any refund from the UFC which they told me they would process in the next few business days. I have since emailed the company to ask them to confirm processing of the refund as promised to no avail.

Do I have any rights as far as getting the refund they promised?

Regards

OlliesDad

If they cannot access previous orders, how do they have the details to process a refund?

Tainted81

OlliesDad wrote: »

If they cannot access previous orders, how do they have the details to process a refund?

That was one of the first questions that came to mind with me too.

I was just happy to be getting any kind of refund to be honest, considering what had happened with the order as a whole. Now, I'd like them to take action and process the refund, however, I'm not holding my breath...