Online retailer refusing to offer refund on January sale items.

ernie-money

frugal_mike wrote: »

The law has changed since this thread was started. Retailers can now refuse to refund items if a hygiene seal has been broken. If they do offer a refund it must be in the same form as the original payment though, unless they get your consent to give it in another form. That means that store credit is jot allowed unless you paid with a credit note originally.

Ah that's great, thanks for the info! Definitely no broken seal, if there was, they wouldn't have offered me a credit note either. I will email them now & hope they won't argue about it...

frugal_mike

One extra thing which I thought I'd added but haven't, you need to have informed them you were cancelling within the 14 day required timescales

ernie-money

frugal_mike wrote: »

One extra thing which I thought I'd added but haven't, you need to have informed them you were cancelling within the 14 day required timescales

I didn't specifically inform them, but they would've received the return within 14 days, so that would be the same as cancelling I presume?

soolin

ernie-money wrote: »

I didn't specifically inform them, but they would've received the return within 14 days, so that would be the same as cancelling I presume?

Probably beat to wait until someone completely up to date with the new rules responds, however, my understanding is that a return request must be made and that is not the same as just returning.

frugal_mike

Directly from the regulation:

(2)!To cancel a contract under regulation 29(1), the consumer must inform the trader of the decision to cancel it.

(3)!To inform the trader under paragraph (2) the consumer may either—

(a)use a form following the model cancellation form in part B of Schedule 3, or
(b)make any other clear statement setting out the decision to cancel the contract.

In my opinion sending the goods back is a clear statement as long as the goods are uniquely identifiable to your order so the trader knows who to refund and for what amount.

ernie-money

I've just checked their returns policy again, and it states:
When returning an order within the UK, simply send back the products along with the returns section of the delivery note. Please indicate whether you would prefer to receive a refund or an exchange for another size, colour or style.

It does however also state, that you have to return items within 14 days of despatch of the goods, which could be quite different to the date you receive them, so I'm now wondering if I actually got it back to them within 14 days of despatch...

frugal_mike

I do not believe they are entitled to specify that the goods be returned in 14 days. You only need to cancel the contract within 14 days.

(5)!Where the consumer informs the trader under paragraph (2) by sending a communication, the consumer is to be treated as having cancelled the contract in the cancellation period if the communication is sent before the end of the period.

So the contract is deemed to have been cancelled at the point you sent the communication*, not the point they received it. Do you have proof of postage?

*I'm going to have to check to see if the law defines what constitutes a communication, but in the most literal sense I would say sending the return back to them is communicating your intent to cancel.

frugal_mike

ernie-money wrote: »

It does however also state, that you have to return items within 14 days of despatch of the goods, which could be quite different to the date you receive them, so I'm now wondering if I actually got it back to them within 14 days of despatch...

And reading your post fully, this part is also not allowed. Your cancellation window starts on the day that your goods are received, not the day they are posted.

(3)!If the contract is a sales contract and none of paragraphs (4) to (6) applies, the cancellation period ends at the end of 14 days after the day on which the goods come into the physical possession of—

(a)the consumer, or
(b)a person, other than the carrier, identified by the consumer to take possession of them.

Paragraphs 4-6 that are mentioned just talk about scenarios where the goods are delivered in multiple parts on multiple days, so don't apply here.

ernie-money

frugal_mike wrote: »

I do not believe they are entitled to specify that the goods be returned in 14 days. You only need to cancel the contract within 14 days.



So the contract is deemed to have been cancelled at the point you sent the communication*, not the point they received it. Do you have proof of postage?

*I'm going to have to check to see if the law defines what constitutes a communication, but in the most literal sense I would say sending the return back to them is communicating your intent to cancel.

Yes I do have proof of postage, and I know that I returned the items within 14 days of receiving them, but possibly not within 14 days of them despatching them, and I also don't know exactly how long it took before they received them...

I did however also call them before I returned the items, and asked how to proceed. At that point they emailed me a free postage returns label, so I guess that should suffice as proof that I had notified them that I wanted to return the items? Sorry - I realise now that that probably was important, but that only just came back to me!

And - I should probably add, that they at that point didn't mention anything about only offering exchanges or credit notes for sale items either!

ernie-money

frugal_mike wrote: »

And reading your post fully, this part is also not allowed. Your cancellation window starts on the day that your goods are received, not the day they are posted.




Paragraphs 4-6 that are mentioned just talk about scenarios where the goods are delivered in multiple parts on multiple days, so don't apply here.

I think we cross posted, but after reading everything you've written, it sounds like I should definitely be able to get my money back... I haven't heard back from them yet, so I hope it's not going to be a lengthy saga of emails backwards and forwards, but I just wanted to say thank you so much for taking the time to reply anyway! :T