Currys.co.uk not abiding by Distance Selling Regulations

halibut2209

@Mulder00

Well both of those are non-legal issues and could be found anywhere. There are always conditions to price-match guarantees, and incorrectly priced stock does not give you the right to purchase at the incorrect price.

Slowhand

spacey2012 wrote: »

Send them a letter before county court claim and instruct them you will let a district judge decide on the DSR using contract law.
All you want are your rights and a refund, if they want to argue it out in court and fund a solicitor for the day, let that be their problem.
Issue the LBCCC and see what that net brings, if you can do it within DSR time-scales it might help the case.

...or preferably just ignore this.

Jakg

Fosterdog wrote: »

When I've asked about this policy I was told that you can only return items to a store if they are faulty or unopened but you can return them to the web team if they are opened. They also don't take reconditioned items back into store.

I was told that this is because the stores are then left with opened/used/reconditioned stock that they can't sell but they can go back for sale on the website with a discount

This is not the case (or, at least 6 months ago, it was not).

Stores can take back opened etc stock - but it's quite rare. In reality a lot of stores would return it as faulty just to get it sent somewhere else (who buys a 2nd hand xxx for full price? Whose pocket does it come out of if they have to discount to clear it? It's not looking good for the retail store in all this!)

McKneff wrote: »

Just curious, but why didn't you have it delivered, it would have saved all this hassle.

The crazy thing is that Pay & Collects are delivered... just to the store. You get just the same shipping label, receipt and returns policy as with a parcel delivered to your home because it's processed in exactly the same way.

Slowhand wrote: »

Anytime I've ordered from Currys online for store collection there's been no dispatch involved...the items have come directly out of the store's stock.

It depends on what the stores stock is as to what you'll get.

If the store has it, you'll be able to reserve it and it'll say "ready to collect within an hour". If the store doesn't have it, you'll still be able to buy it but it'll say "available from 5PM on your chosen day of delivery".

halibut2209 wrote: »

Well, that's the general argument and I don't think the "collection from store" aspect has yet been challenged. DSRs state that the entire transaction must be done "at distance". Personally I don't think that collecting in store would meet that requirement, and that any decent lawyer would also successfully show that.

I beg to disagree.

Looking at Currys training materials, they make it clear that they consider Pay & Collect (where payment is taken online, in advance) to be covered by the DSR's (even going as far to re-iterate DSR's to store colleagues who wouldn't usually have to deal with it).

If they thought they could get away without having to honour the DSR's - I'm sure they would (they set up an eBay store to help clear through all the ex-display, pre-owned and distressed stock it was difficult to sell in store - it sells at a large loss* and makes every returned product very expensive).

* Can't find the exact number, but the overall profit per item that was cleared via eBay was -40% (yes, minus).

shaun_from_Africa

McKneff wrote: »

Just curious, but why didn't you have it delivered, it would have saved all this hassle.

It can sometimes cause just as much hassle getting goods delivered to your house, especially if the delivery company is one of the cheapies.

I order a lot of stuff online and just about all of my Amazon purchases get delivered to an Amazon locker, and my John Lewis purchases go to my local Waitrose store.
This way I can collect them at my leisure and I don't have to wait in for a courier delivery that may or may not turn up.

Slowhand

Jakg wrote: »

This is not the case (or, at least 6 months ago, it was not).

Stores can take back opened etc stock - but it's quite rare. In reality a lot of stores would return it as faulty just to get it sent somewhere else (who buys a 2nd hand xxx for full price? Whose pocket does it come out of if they have to discount to clear it? It's not looking good for the retail store in all this!)


The crazy thing is that Pay & Collects are delivered... just to the store. You get just the same shipping label, receipt and returns policy as with a parcel delivered to your home because it's processed in exactly the same way.
It depends on what the stores stock is as to what you'll get.

If the store has it, you'll be able to reserve it and it'll say "ready to collect within an hour". If the store doesn't have it, you'll still be able to buy it but it'll say "available from 5PM on your chosen day of delivery".I beg to disagree.

Looking at Currys training materials, they make it clear that they consider Pay & Collect (where payment is taken online, in advance) to be covered by the DSR's (even going as far to re-iterate DSR's to store colleagues who wouldn't usually have to deal with it).

If they thought they could get away without having to honour the DSR's - I'm sure they would (they set up an eBay store to help clear through all the ex-display, pre-owned and distressed stock it was difficult to sell in store - it sells at a large loss* and makes every returned product very expensive).

* Can't find the exact number, but the overall profit per item that was cleared via eBay was -40% (yes, minus).

Where are these for us to have a look at? Indeed can you back up anything you claim with verifiable factual links?

whitegoods_engineer

halibut2209 wrote: »

Well, that's the general argument and I don't think the "collection from store" aspect has yet been challenged. DSRs state that the entire transaction must be done "at distance". Personally I don't think that collecting in store would meet that requirement, and that any decent lawyer would also successfully show that. We repeatedly hear "as if you could try the item out in a store", and that is a phrase used in a governmental document. So collecting from a store would allow you to do that, thus rendering the DSRs inappliccable

I would say that sounds spot on to me. I'm no fan of Currys/PCW but I can see how they could argue that since the item is on display in the store, and the customer has in fact visited the store, then rejecting the item would be due to having a change of mind.

The transaction was not done at distance in its entirety. The purchaser could have tried the product in store, and would have decided he didn't like it.

shaun_from_Africa

whitegoods_engineer wrote: »

I would say that sounds spot on to me. I'm no fan of Currys/PCW but I can see how they could argue that since the item is on display in the store, and the customer has in fact visited the store, then rejecting the item would be due to having a change of mind.

The transaction was not done at distance in its entirety. The purchaser could have tried the product in store, and would have decided he didn't like it.

There is no requirement for the entire transaction to be carried out at a distance in order for the DSR's to apply.
The OFT are of the opinion the distance requirement only applies up until the point that the contract is concluded and this can be once payment has been offered by a consumer and accepted by the retailer so the consumer being able to look at the item in the shop after paying and before collection doesn't automatically invalidate the DSR's.

Distance contract [FONT=COPCNO+Univers,Univers][FONT=COPCNO+Univers,Univers]means any contract concerning goods or services concluded between a supplier and a consumer under an organised distance sales or service provision scheme run by the supplier who, for the purpose of the contract, makes exclusive use of one or more means of distance communication up to and including the moment at which the contract is concluded.[/FONT][/FONT]

When is a contract concluded?

[FONT=COPCNO+Univers,Univers][FONT=COPCNO+Univers,Univers]3.3 This would need to be considered on a case by case basis. Frequently a contract forming process goes through the following steps: [/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=COPCNO+Univers,Univers]
[FONT=COPCNO+Univers,Univers]a supplier invites a consumer to consider purchasing a good or a service. [/FONT]
[FONT=COPCNO+Univers,Univers]The consumer places an order for the good or service. This constitutes an offer, and a supplier accepts the offer, either expressly, or by acknowledging receipt of the offer then acting in a manner (for example by taking payment for [/FONT]
[FONT=COPCNO+Univers,Univers]the order or preparing the order) consistent with supplying the good(s) or [/FONT]
[FONT=COPCNO+Univers,Univers]service(s). When the offer is accepted, a contract is concluded.[/FONT]

[/FONT][FONT=COPCNO+Univers,Univers][/FONT]

[FONT=COPCNO+Univers,Univers]http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/general/oft698cons.pdf[/FONT]
[FONT=COPCNO+Univers,Univers][/FONT]
[FONT=COPCNO+Univers,Univers]



[/FONT][FONT=COPCNO+Univers,Univers][/FONT]

frugal_mike

Being able to view items in store is not relevant if the contract has already concluded before the customer enters the store to collect. Once the contract concludes then the terms are binding, so the customer cannot back out any more (without the DSR's). That is why I advised the OP to check when the contract concluded.

CoolHotCold

Slowhand wrote: »

Where are these for us to have a look at? Indeed can you back up anything you claim with verifiable factual links?

Jakg is correct. In the "manual" for Pay and Collect on the Dixons Retail Intranet, it states that Pay and Collect are covered by Distance Selling Regulations, Reserve and Collect are not.

Fosterdog

The way I'm reading this and what I have been told before is that they do honour DSR returns on opened items but only if they are sent back to the online team/department.

Them allowing any returns to store from online sales is above and beyond what DSR say they have to do so if they refuse opened items through that channel then they are doing nothing wrong as long as they still accept the items back to the web department.

OP doesn't say that they have refused to take the iPad back at all, only that it has been refused at store and customer services also said the opened item can't be returned to store.