Buying electronics online - refund conditions when changing my mind

Viberduo

Interesting about the toaster part, I understand for health and hygine reasons why you cannot test it but its a shame that if a toaster is a pile of junk you have to keep it since you can only tell its a piece of junk by putting bread into it.

Something like a hard drive though is more personal opinion, if I bought one and it was loud but worked perfectly but I returned it in its original condition and at most had a few hours usage to see if it was working since you cannot tell if its going to die just by powering it on.

Interestingly some old tv shops and some independant computer shops are happy for you to see a item out of its box i.e if you wanted a new mouse but were unsure on comfort they would take them out of boxes(though some also have display models)

frugal_mike

It's all going to depend on whether or not a shop can know what you have done. If its possible to remove something from its box and put it back without the shop knowing then they aren't going to be able to argue the value has been diminished. If you have to remove a seal, or do something that leaves evidence that you have used it then you've given them an opportunity to argue that.

alexto

I was interested in the extent of the law and how online retailers must observe it, in practice and in their T&Cs.

In my opinion, demanding that the customer must not open the box or else the refund is denied is rubbish, and in violation of the CCR. Having that in the T&Cs is most likely a further violation. I agree with a charge for diminished value if the wear level is noticeable, or even for a broken seal in some cases.

The toy and toaster examples from gov.co.uk posted by @unholyangel were clear and very useful. The other matters we raised require someone with legal expertise, which I hoped existed in these forums.

Right now most T&Cs are still quoting the DSR, so a customer may win a return case by simply claiming he wasn't informed of his cancellation rights when purchashing.

There are many honest retailers losing money because of absuing customers, but there are also many honest customers giving up after bad or even illegal customer service, or lack thereof. I'm not sure who is screwed over more, but this is already off-topic.

Many thanks for all your answers. I do feel I learned something here.

frugal_mike

You won't get legal advice here. Even if someone has legal training I imagine they wouldn't offer formal legal advice since that is probably regulated and they would be opening themselves up to being liable if things didn't work out (plus they would want paying).

I certainly have no legal training, and I expect that is true of most contributors on these forums. We're just intersted people that have read some of the legislation.

alexto

I wasn't looking for legal advice (that would require a specific case) but of a more accurate interpretation of the law in laymen terms. As I said, I already got some answers and useful comments, for which I'm grateful.

Fosterdog

Sticking with your example of a hard drive, are you talking an internal or external drive?

Most external drives will have packaging that can easily be resealed, most internal drives will come in a sealed static bag, and by opening you are affecting the integrity of the drive.

Either way, to test the speed and noise level you would have to used it and actually transfer something onto it, would you really want to send something back that you have put data on? Would you plan on just deleting/a basic format or would you use some sort of scrubbing software to make sure whoever buys it next has no access to your data?

alexto

@Fosterdog: tricking the retailer into thinking the box was not opened and personal data safety/privacy are not the point here. One of the issues was whether it's legal to deny refunding just because the drive's box/bag has been opened. I think it's not, but we discussed the point quite a lot already.

p.s. Off-topic: noise can be heard at idle (spin) or head movement which you can generate using benchmarking software (no need to write personal/private data on it). You can also always wipe it.