Returning goods incurring a 15% handling charge?

eldudereno

hi everyone, some advice please would be very much appreciated...

I ordered some goods (car seats) to the value of £915 using an online site. I've made an error with buying the goods as they aren't suitable for my purpose so I would like to return them and get a refund, ie, applying the distance selling regs etc. The goods weren't special order or anything like that, they were straight off the shelf.

9 days after ordering the goods and 8 days after receiving them I emailed the seller asking if it would be possible to get a refund and I also asked them for a return address. They said that they would send out a 'return form' and after I signed it and returned it to them they could then arrange collection.

A further 7 days after they told me they would send out a return form I told them that it had not arrived. They blamed the delay on the post office but low and behold this form arrives on my doorstep the next day. I strongly suspect that this was a delaying tactic by them in order to push my return past 14 days.

The form states the following,

Please we aware as stated online during the order process and on the reverse of your invoice once the seat is delivered there is a 15% surcharge on cancellations/returns due to us having to hold stock and for admin costs. This is a standard charge in our market.

I have been back on their website and there is no mention what so ever of this 15% charge during their checkout process. There was also no 'terms and conditions' box that I ticked without reading them.

The only place the 15% is mentioned is on a supplemental piece of paper that came with my invoice but there is certainly no mention what so ever of the 15% on the invoice.

I wouldn't mind if there was a 5% charge but 15% is pure extortion as this amounts to almost £150 !!!

What absolutely takes the biscuit is that they're asking for a further admin charge of £7.50 to cover their costs for sending out the bleep bleep return form !!! I thought they said that the 15% was for admin/handing on returns !!!

I would be extremely grateful for any advice.

thanks

4743hudsonj

Remember DSR is 7 working days to notify them, so not including Saturday, Sunday or Holidays. So when you notified them, you were within your time limit. Therefore they cannot charge you a restocking fee what-so-ever.

Quote some of this

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/general/oft698.pdf

Page 17 (3.22 onwards) refers to basic rights of cancellation

Page 20 (3.26/7/8) refers to notification of cancellation

Page 25 onwards refers to refunds (time scales etc) in particular 3.48 which states what they should refund

Page 27 (3.55) explicitly states that they cannot charge a restocking fee.

Freddie_Snowbits

DSR says you have to notify them in 7 days, so you are out of time. As for restocking fees, I assume you agreed to the T&Cs

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2000/20002334.htm

OlliesDad

Freddie_Snowbits wrote: »

DSR says you have to notify them in 7 days, so you are out of time. As for restocking fees, I assume you agreed to the T&Cs

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2000/20002334.htm

It is 7 working days starting with the day after delivery.

4743hudsonj

Freddie is wrong... As above its 7 working days so taking away weekends the op is definitely within the limit (they notified them 8 days (inc weekends) after receiving the items).

eldudereno

Many thanks for the excellent and very quick replies.

4743hudsonj, fantastic stuff, it's very much appreciated that you took the time and effort to help me out.

I'll now email the seller and I'll then report back on their response.

4743hudsonj

eldudereno wrote: »

Many thanks for the excellent and very quick replies.

4743hudsonj, fantastic stuff, it's very much appreciated that you took the time and effort to help me out.

I'll now email the seller and I'll then report back on their response.

Email is pointless, if they dont respond then you will have to send the recorded letter anyways so you can prove to the court you wrote a suitable LBA. Just write a letter and be done with it.

eldudereno

Ah, I wasn't aware of that, a recorded letter it is.

thanks again for keeping me right...

4743hudsonj

eldudereno wrote: »

Ah, I wasn't aware of that, a recorded letter it is.

thanks again for keeping me right...

Its ok, make sure you keep a copy. Courts just like to see that you have attempted to allow them to put it right, and you have to be able to prove it so recorded mail is the easiest way to do so.