Allthingsshabbychic.com won't refund our money

MrsT36

Long story, not so short - order placed for table and chairs on 26th Nov, paid by Bacs (I know, mistake number 1) They promised delivery for 20th Dec. On 20th Dec they emailed to say that delivery can't be made until 4th January. We requested to cancel the order and they accepted our decision to cancel on 21st Dec. They promised refund will be made by Bank Transfer on 23rd Dec. On the 23rd Dec they said that the Accountant had left for the holiday period and she was the only one that had access to the company's bank accounts and that a cheque had gone in the post. Needless to say this never happened and they are not returning our emails and telephone calls.
I have sent a Recorded Post letter quoting the Distance Selling Act. Where do we stand on getting our money back? I now think we were the victim of fraud or the company are in trouble and can't refund us but they are not responding to us.
Please help - how do we get back our £399??

agrinnall

They have 30 days to refund on an order cancelled using the DSRs, so there's not a great deal you can do before that time is up.

wealdroam

You mention "mistake number 1".
That would be enough for me to give this company a miss.

You ordered in November when their card systems were not available.
Today their website still says:

***PLEASE NOTE OUR CARD PAYMENT SYSTEMS ARE DOWN***

Over a month to fix a "broken" card payment system... amazing.

Despite describing how one can pay via Paypal, their website says:

***PLEASE NOTE THE ONLY OPTION AVAILABLE TO PAY AT THE MOMENT IS THROUGH THE BACS SYSTEM PLEASE SEE THE DETAILS BELOW. PLEASE ACCEPT OUR APOLOGIES FOR THE INCONVENIENCE CAUSED***

Does Paypal rely on 'card payment systems' too?

Op, I fear you will not see your refund.

bod1467

And taking them to court for it (if you were considering this) will be, I fear, throwing good money after bad.

MrsT36

Thanks guys for your replies. I have now resigned myself to not receiving our refund! A rather expensive lesson learned unfortunately.

Frustrated that companies can get away with this!!

wealdroam

As Agrinnall says, they do have up to 30 days to refund you.

After that 30 days, perhaps you should report them to ActionFraud:

http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/

Exile_geordie

Oddly enough the website address is owned by vistaprint.

hollydays

No contact details on their website, that's a mailing box address so don't expect an answer..no company number.
Bank account they give is the nat west in leyton buzzard-

Some of the prices on that website are too good to be true.
Fraud.

Have you spoken to anyone on the phone?

transient

Exile_geordie wrote: »

Oddly enough the website address is owned by vistaprint.

It is not odd, vistaprint provide hosting under their name.

Allthingsshabbychicscam

Exactly the same thing happened to me. Action Fraud are investigating as are trading standards/police/fraud teams at both banks. I spoke with the nasty little man yesterday on his mobile-still stalling-I paid on 19/12/13 and was pressured into paying by bacs-yes thank you smart !!!!!! I know, I'm sure you've never made a mistake at a stressful time-and the bank and police are working to put him in prison. Still, a mobile number is useful in triangulating someone's position.....

Patrickmonsave

Does anyone have any updates on the case? Same things happens to me as well. The company even wrote an email in January saying they're a family business blabla and promised to refund the money - not surprisingly though nothing happened after that.