DSR's regarding online purchase but collected from store?

mo786uk

The key point under the DSR is when the contract is concluded - not when you pay or when you collect - you will have to read the terms and conditions to see when the contract is concluded. Often it is not until the goods have elft the retailers possession but there is no blanket answer.

It is possible to try and word the contract in a way which says you pay online but the contract is only concluded when the person takes the good (i.e there is then face to face contact and the sale is not a distance sale). A consumer may think it is a distance sale though and there is no onus on them to inspect the goods when they go to pick up.

IMO a delivery to story is a delivery and not holding.

frugal_mike

I guess an interesting thing here is what DP say will happen if they deliver to store but the customer does not collect. If there is no contract before the customer collects then DP would have no right to charge the customer any money.

mo786uk

The £2 is referred to as a DELIVERY charge on their site.

Their returns page says:

Order cancellations must be made in writing to Customer Services quoting your order number. If you cancel your order under the Distance Selling Regulations, we will refund the purchase price of the item(s) affected and the delivery charges.

Their returns page says the item can be posted back or returned to the shop.

I would therefore conclude that if DSR applies you can return to the shop or post it back for a full refund.

As for whether DSR applies:

Their website makes no mention of when the contract is made (or concluded), It is therefore reasonable to assume this is when you pay and the item is sent out for delivery to the store.

halibut2209

Unless it states otherwise, it could equally be reasonable to assume that the contract is made when you've paid for and received the goods

OlliesDad

halibut2209 wrote: »

Unless it states otherwise, it could equally be reasonable to assume that the contract is made when you've paid for and received the goods

I would say that as it was past the point where either party are able to withdraw from the contract it was already concluded.

Fosterdog

mo786uk wrote: »

The £2 is referred to as a DELIVERY charge on their site.

Their returns page says:

Order cancellations must be made in writing to Customer Services quoting your order number. If you cancel your order under the Distance Selling Regulations, we will refund the purchase price of the item(s) affected and the delivery charges.

Their returns page says the item can be posted back or returned to the shop.

I would therefore conclude that if DSR applies you can return to the shop or post it back for a full refund.

They may well be able to return the items to the shop but that is above DSR, you've quoted the relevant bit

Order cancellations must be made in writing to Customer Services quoting your order number. If you cancel your order under the Distance Selling Regulations, we will refund the purchase price of the item(s) affected and the delivery charges.

The order wasn't cancelled in writing (or other durable medium) which is what DSR say you should do.

OP also doesn't say anywhere that any attempt has been made to contact DP to query this, apart from initially in store, and whether it is a company wide policy or just a jobsworth in one store, they may agree to refund the £2.

milliemonster

Thanks everyone for your opinions on this, this was the main reason I started the thread as I felt it was a grey area and as a lot of stores now seem to be offering this service whereby you can buy online but instead of waiting to have it delivered to your home if you're out etc, you can choose to collect it from store instead at a time convenient to you, I wondered how this affected your protection regarding DSr's right to return etc etc

I don't think the DSR's actually mention what's right or wrong here as with this being a new service and progression of online shopping, they're not up to date, for the record I haven't been arguing til 'I'm blue in the face' or insisting I am right, I merely started the thread as I honestly didn't know what the answer was , couldn't find it in the DSR's myself and thought I'd get opinions or find out if someone did know the answer, but I just couldn't see myself how DP were right when the entire order and payment were made online, but was happy to be corrected if someone could show me evidence of where DSR's state that this scenario is not covered. So far no one has and it is as I expected, people have different opinions on whether this scenario is covered by DSR's or not, interesting.

The £2 refund in itself isn't an issue, but I have emailed DP just to see what they reply with and will let you know the outcome.

Thanks again

frugal_mike

Ultimately this may turn out to be a moot point because (and I think someone mentioned this already) the DSR's allow the company to charge you for return postage (if they inform the buyer that return postage is the buyers responsibility).

If the buyer does not post the item back and the company arranges returns themselves then they can charge for this also. I suspect that returning the item to the store may fall under this category.

In this instance I anticipate that the cost of returning the item through the store will be the £2 that we've been debating.

fluffnutter

I think it's a grey area. You can look at it two ways - 1) you're obtaining goods from the store or 2) it's a distance sale whereby the courier has taken the item to a store instead of your home. Why is the store any different to any other place, e.g. your workplace, neighbour etc.?

OlliesDad

frugal_mike wrote: »

Ultimately this may turn out to be a moot point because (and I think someone mentioned this already) the DSR's allow the company to charge you for return postage (if they inform the buyer that return postage is the buyers responsibility).

If the buyer does not post the item back and the company arranges returns themselves then they can charge for this also. I suspect that returning the item to the store may fall under this category.

In this instance I anticipate that the cost of returning the item through the store will be the £2 that we've been debating.

In this particular case they do not advise that return carriage is charged to the customer, therefore they would not be able to make the deduction.

As said earlier, the T's and C's on DP's website allow the return by any means and to get a full refund.. this is whether they are following the DSR or their own returns policy. In both cases they advise that they will return the carriage cost.