Distance Selling Regulation - returning goods rights?

unholyangel

(3) On cancellation, the consumer shall be under a duty to restore the goods to the supplier in accordance with this regulation, and in the meanwhile to retain possession of the goods and take reasonable care of them.
(4) The consumer shall not be under any duty to deliver the goods except at his own premises and in pursuance of a request in writing, or in another durable medium available and accessible to the consumer, from the supplier and given to the consumer either before, or at the time when, the goods are collected from those premises.
(5) If the consumer—
(a)delivers the goods (whether at his own premises or elsewhere) to any person to whom, under regulation 10(1), a notice of cancellation could have been given; or
(b)sends the goods at his own expense to such a person,
he shall be discharged from any duty to retain possession of the goods or restore them to the supplier.
(6) Where the consumer delivers the goods in accordance with paragraph (5)(a), his obligation to take care of the goods shall cease; and if he sends the goods in accordance with paragraph (5)(b), he shall be under a duty to take reasonable care to see that they are received by the supplier and not damaged in transit, but in other respects his duty to take care of the goods shall cease when he sends them.

I cant remember/find the exact info I want but I'm sure its covered by either unfair trading or unfair contract terms also.

I'll keep looking to see if anything jogs my memory. In the meantime, the above quotation is from the Distance Selling Regulations.

iBoudica

For information, I've had an interesting response from Citizens Advice this morning:

Dear XX

Thank you for your enquiry to the Citizens Advice consumer service dated 28th November. Your reference number for this case is ***** and should be quoted in all further correspondence regarding this case.

Based on the information you have provided, the key legal points in response to your enquiry are as follows:

When you enter into a contract with a trader by means of a distance communication (telephone, internet, mail order etc.) you will often have cancellation rights under what is known as the Distance Selling Regulations. These state you are entitled to a written notice confirming the details of your order and the fact you have cancellation rights. If you have been given the notice at the time you place the order, your cancellation rights run from the time of order until 7 working days starting from the day after you receive the goods. If you have not been provided with this written information, your cancellation rights are extended for up to 3 months and 7 working days. To cancel you must inform the trader of your intention, either by letter, email or fax - where you may ask for a full refund (including any delivery charges). The trader must provide this refund within thirty days. To be effective, your cancellation notice must be sent before the end of the cancellation period described above.

The trader may ask you to return the goods and / or pay return costs, but can only do so if this was made clear in the written information:

• If the written information does not specify that you are responsible for returning the goods, you may expect the trader to collect.

• If the written information does not specify you are responsible for the cost of return then the trader must bear this cost.

Please note that you have a ‘duty of care’ over the goods until they are returned to (or collected by) the trader, so it is important not to use the goods or do anything else which may damage them, as this may mean the trader is not obliged to provide a full refund, i.e. you may not get all of your money back.

Finally, when writing your notice of cancellation, we would advise you include details that may help the trader match your cancellation request to their records, e.g. order reference numbers etc. It is also advisable to keep a copy of your cancellation request and, if posting, to obtain some proof of postage - to help show the notice of cancellation was sent in time.

It is worth noting that the refund is not dependant on the trader receiving the goods back in advance.

There are template letters available on our website, https://www.adviceguide.org.uk; these refer to your rights if you wish to use them. The template which may be applicable to your enquiry is listed below – you may have to alter them to suit your enquiry:
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/consumer_e/consumer_different_ways_of_buying_e/consumer_buying_by_internet_mail_order_or_phone_e/consumer_cancelling_a_distance_sale_order_e/cancelling_a_distance_sales_contract_goods

Further to this, the trader may in breach of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts regulations as it may have been reasonable to assume that the goods would be returned to a UK address. As this may be a criminal act, we will be forwarding the information to Trading Standards for further consideration. The case details will also be placed on a central database that can be accessed by all other Local Authority Trading Standards Services throughout the UK.

Although we work closely with Trading Standards departments, we are a separate organisation. Individual complaints do not necessarily lead to immediate enforcement action as, sometimes, numerous complaints are needed before effective action can take place. The information is, however, valuable intelligence for Trading Standards Services and other Government departments. Trading Standards will only contact you if they need further information or feel they could be of further assistance. We cannot make any commitment that Trading Standards will definitely contact you.

If you require any further advice or information about this case, please do not hesitate to contact the Citizens Advice consumer helpline on 08454 04 05 06 quoting the case reference number.

Thank you for your enquiry.
*****
Citizens Advice consumer service

iBoudica

* I don't think I received the T's & C's in 'durable form', it isn't on the email.

wealdroam

iBoudica wrote: »

* I don't think I received the T's & C's in 'durable form', it isn't on the email.

Often sent packed with the goods.

On the back of the invoice or delivery note?

iBoudica

wealdroam wrote: »

Often sent packed with the goods.

On the back of the invoice or delivery note?

Unfortunately I don't have the original box that the box with the actual equipment (box within a box - the outer box was just for packing) was in but I don't think there was any reference about returns being outside of the UK.

*I DO have the original box with the name of the product etc on it, this was delivered inside another box, it's the outer box I don't have.

neilmcl

Well as you can't prove otherwise you'd have to assume that you did get the T&Cs in a durable form. Regardless you're only required to return the item to seller or make the goods available for collection. If you have a UK address to return the goods to, regardless of whether it's the address they want, then this should be good enough. They have to refund you within 30 days anyway, as their own T&Cs make clear and I don't think they'd get very far trying to chase you for any extra return costs as long as the item is back in their possesion.

halibut2209

neilmcl wrote: »

Well as you can't prove otherwise you'd have to assume that you did get the T&Cs in a durable form.

And how are you expected to prove that you didn't get something?

iBoudica

Thanks all, I've now emailed the following and will let you know what the response is:

Dear *****,

I have taken legal advice in respect of this and am advised that it is unreasonable to expect me to return this item to an address outside of the UK mainland and indeed may constitute a criminal act (you may be in breach of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts regulations).

I would therefore be grateful if you could give me a UK address to return this to, alternatively, please arrange collection.

Kind Regards,

iBoudica

Hi all,

Just to let you know, I had an almost immediate reply:

Hi ******

No problem if you would prefer to have it sent to our UK warehouse that’s fine. We were just trying to speed up your refund. It may take up to 20 days to inspect and process the refund from our UK warehouse in the run up to Christmas.

Please pack securely and please send with a cover note of your name and order number to –

***
***
***
Crawley
West Sussex
RH** 0TG
United Kingdom
Tel: ***

If you don’t want to wait that long for the refund and are ok to send it to Ireland I will issue you an additional £10 refund for the extra shipping costs to send to Ireland when booked with UPS on interparcel.com

Kind Regards
****

So thanks very much for all of your kind assistance - I'll be packing securely and returning to Crawley this week.

*It isn't actually a problem but I though they had to issue the refund within 30 days of cancellation anyway?

bod1467

iBoudica wrote: »

*It isn't actually a problem but I though they had to issue the refund within 30 days of cancellation anyway?

That's what the DSRs say. But I've yet to see a retailer refund before having received the goods back.