Retailer refusing to pay return postage costs on return under SOGA

beefturnmail

Hi,

I purchased a frying pan from a third-party retailer through Amazon Marketplace. In the product description the frying pan was listed as 28cm, but when it arrived the frying pan was slghtly smaller than this - measuring about 27.4cm. A small difference, but I selected a 28cm pan specifically as I wanted a replacement of an existing pan I had which broke which measures slightly above 28cm. I didn't want to go any smaller, and would have selected a 30cm pan had I known there was a chance the pan I got would have measured 1cm less than my old pan.

I raised a return request stating item not as described. The seller has agreed to refund (they would have to under Distance Selling Regs anyway) if I return the pan, but is refusing to cover the cost of return postage, stating that it 'clearly says that sizes are approximate'. I have rechecked the product description on Amazon and it clearly refers to the pan as measuring 28cm - nowhere does it say anything about sizes being approximate. On the packaging that came with the pan the 28cm is asterixed with the asterix saying 28cm +-0.5cm, however this information was not contained or visible on the website.

I've pointed all this out to the seller and stated that I am refusing the item under the Sale of Goods Act, but they are refusing to budge. Just wondering what the best thing to do is now:

- send the pan back and chase them for postage later? I'd rather not do that without agreeement from them as postage costs will be fairly significant compared to the price of the pan.
- I think Amazon operate a dispute service? Does anyone have any experience with that - I presume my contract is with the third party seller, not Amazon, so I can't go after Amazon?
- If I keep hold of the pan, how long do I have to return it before I start losing my statutory rights under DSR and SOGA? I've already stated that I'm refusing the item

arcon5

I'd return then argue for the money back, but others may disagree.

Although we're talking about a difference of 6mm on a 280mm pan, this seems quite immaterial to me. I'd argue the following clause of SoGA may protect the seller:

(1)Where in the case of a contract of sale—
(a)the buyer would, apart from this subsection, have the right to reject goods by reason of a breach on the part of the seller of a term implied by section 13, 14 or 15 above, but
(b)the breach is so slight that it would be unreasonable for him to reject them,

bod1467

±0.5cm ... yours is -0.6cm, so technically out of tolerance, thus a valid reason to reject. (Assuming you have measured it correctly and accurately). But I suspect DSRs are going to be your only real avenue of return.

carmel11

Why don't you go into the help section and do live chat with amazon.

johny2013

bod1467 wrote: »

±0.5cm ... yours is -0.6cm, so technically out of tolerance, thus a valid reason to reject.

Interestingly enough though the op states their measurement is about 27.4 cm!

Fire_Fox

Unless you have a very accurate method of measuring the diameter (and not slightly off centre, which would be smaller) the pan may well be within tolerance. Even if you are returning under Distance Selling Regs - no fault/ changed your mind/ not what you expected - the seller has to pay return postage unless it specifically says in the listing the buyer pays returns.

Contact Amazon directly. There are numerous threads on MSE about how good their customer service is and how to involve them if you run an advanced search.

Hintza

Much better if you bought instore I think OP. You can then take your callipers (tape is potentially npt accurate enough) to measure the diameter of the pans before you buy.

bod1467

johny2013 wrote: »

Interestingly enough though the op states their measurement is about 27.4 cm!

You neglected to include the part in ( ) of my response when you quoted my post.

beefturnmail

Thanks all for responses. I take the point that the pan may be technically within tolerance (i.e. it may be in fact 27.5cm - I'm only using a tape measure) but the point is more that it was not stated on the advert that the 28cm was +-0.5cm, or that the 28cm is 'approximate' as the seller is claiming, so I didn't know there would be a tolerance - I expected a 28cm pan to measure 28cm down to a reasonable level of accuracy. - in terms of surface area (which is what counts for a frying pan), a pan of diameter 27.cm is 3.5% less than a pan of diameter 28cm - if a buy 1kg of flour I expect 1kg of flour, not 965g, so the same should be true here.

I don't think this is a reasonable level of accuracy, although if it had been made clear that there was such a tolerance, I would have accepted it, but not bought a 28cm pan, but I would have opted for a 30cm pan, as I didn't want one smaller than my existing (broken) pan which measures 28.4cm (looks like I got lucky the first time round!). The pan is noticably smaller than the replacement I bought it for - I could tell as soon as I got it out of the box.

It appears that legally it comes into a bit of a grey area as to whether this amounts to a 'material' difference, but in my opinion, a seller with good customer service would give me the benefit of the doubt and accept that their advert is not clear, include the (+-0.5cm) and/or footnote in the advert in future, and cover the postage for me to return.

I will try approaching Amazon, but I certainly shan't be using this seller again.

meer53

OP, what effect will this difference in size have on your cooking ? Seems a bit of a fuss over nothing really. You'll soon get used to the new one.

Your mistake was telling them you wanted to send it back because of the size.

System

meer53 wrote: »

OP, what effect will this difference in size have on your cooking ? Seems a bit of a fuss over nothing really. You'll soon get used to the new one.

Your mistake was telling them you wanted to send it back because of the size.

I would agree with this.

I don't see how a pan being 0.5cm smaller is going to make a massive difference in your cooking.

It does seem a very random thing to be complaining about.