Refund for bespoke online order

ooberandy

I'm trying to get a refund for a mothers day present that I tried to cancel, but not having any luck.

The item was a print of a photo of my baby daughter, in a bespoke picture frame.

I bought it on 13th March, for a Mothers Day present.

It was bought via an internet site.

I paid by debit card (£40 ish)

I contacted the seller on the afternoon that I placed the order to ask about a delivery date, but didnt get an answer. The only options for communication were an online form & a twitter feed. I was getting anxious that the site was no longer active as my order number was only 136 & the twitter feed hadn't been used for nearly a year. I didnt get a reply the next day, so tried to get in touch again to cancel - but still didnt get an answer. Yesterday (the 22nd) I got delivery of my product.

I managed to track the vendor down through the registration of his website.

He is saying that he didnt receive an email requesting cancellation & that the order was processed immediately & cannot be refunded.

The T&C's of the vendors website say...
'you will receive an e-mail from us acknowledging that we have received your order. Please note that this does not mean that your order has been accepted. Your order constitutes an offer to us to buy a Product. All orders are subject to acceptance by us, and we will confirm such acceptance to you by sending you an e-mail that confirms that we have accepted your order together with an invoice.'

I received the first acknowledgement email, but no further emails. Under their T&C's, does this mean that the order is still not accepted?

PS - he deleted my questions from his twitter feed.

fluffnutter

As the item is bespoke you've no legal right to return it anyway (unless faulty), regardless of when you tried to cancel. They have every right to continue with your order, I'm afraid.

ThumbRemote

As a bespoke order you cannot cancel under the distance selling regulations (DSRs)

You may have a claim as they didn't follow their own terms and conditions, but I suspect you'd have to take it all the way to the small claims court and even then I'd say it was limited chance of success.

To be fair, you did leave very little time for delivery before Mothers Day. Best to chalk this one up to experience.

halibut2209

She still has the picture, and will soon forget that it was a few days late

Not worth the fight or hassle, this one.

ooberandy

ThumbRemote wrote: »

As a bespoke order you cannot cancel under the distance selling regulations (DSRs)

You may have a claim as they didn't follow their own terms and conditions, but I suspect you'd have to take it all the way to the small claims court and even then I'd say it was limited chance of success.

To be fair, you did leave very little time for delivery before Mothers Day. Best to chalk this one up to experience.

Last year I bought the present on the day, so this was quite a long time for me

ooberandy

halibut2209 wrote: »

She still has the picture, and will soon forget that it was a few days late

Not worth the fight or hassle, this one.

When I wasn't getting any communication from this company, I used another site to make sure I got the present - so I now have 2!!!! Hence my eagerness to get this money back.

ooberandy

For future reference, would I have been covered by this if I used a credit card? Could I have contacted the credit card company after the payment had went through, but before the item arrived stating the same concerns above?

halibut2209

You might have a case through a small claims court seeing as they were unresponsive to your contact attempts.

Prior to receiving the item, did you get ANYTHING from them at all? emails etc

ooberandy

I got an automated order confirmation by reply. This basically states what my order was.

Because of their T&C's state...
'you will receive an e-mail from us acknowledging that we have received your order. Please note that this does not mean that your order has been accepted. Your order constitutes an offer to us to buy a Product. All orders are subject to acceptance by us, and we will confirm such acceptance to you by sending you an e-mail that confirms that we have accepted your order together with an invoice.'

I was hoping that having not received any other communication from them the order would be ok to cancel.

Another part of their T&Cs state...
'8.1 Cancellation: Due to the bespoke nature of our products, orders CANNOT be cancelled once a despatch date has been allocated and production has commenced or a proof has been agreed.'

The order confirmation only states the method of delivery (24 hours), not a despatch date. So again, I felt that I would be within my rights to cancel the order at this point

McKneff

You wouldnt have had any comeback, even on an S75.

Its the Bespoke word that seals it.

How much was it anyway?

ooberandy

McKneff wrote: »

You wouldnt have had any comeback, even on an S75.

Its the Bespoke word that seals it.

How much was it anyway?

I was hoping that the 8.1 reference noted above would cover the bespoke nature of the order

The order was £43.76 including taxes and shipping.