Refusal to refund within 14 day cooling off period

ltlbkofjim

Hi All,

Bit of advice required
So I purchased (Well my son actually, but thats another story) a game online from the sony playstation store, the purchase has been made however the content has not yet been downloaded.
For reasons I will not bore you all with, I essentially changed my mind regarding this purchase and informed sony within 24 hours of this and my request for a refund.
Customer service at Playstation was very unhelpful and rude, saying that it was there policy to not allow refunds under any circumstances and an outright refusal to let me speak to a manager or supervisor to discus what i considered to be a breach of the EU consumer rights directive, and then hung up the phone on me.
I have emailed the company and had 3 very different responses (clearly not having read my email) from three different people, however all of them seeming to ignore my original complaint. I have tried calling up again and have spent over 4 hours on hold this week for customer service operators to just spout the same "It is sonys policy not to issue refunds under any circumstances" and a refusal to talk to anyone else.

Now it is my understanding that since June of this year the EU consumer rights directive came into force in the UK which allows a 14 day cooling off period, and allows a refund to be requested for any reason (even a change of mind), this even applies for digital goods so long as the digital goods have not been delivered within this time. This is something that can not simply be overridden by a couple of lines in their terms and conditions, something which sony are claiming they have done.

In my case a game was purchased, the product has not yet been delivered (i.e. it has not been downloaded) and I notified the company within 24 hours and therefore I should be entitled to a refund?

However with the company ignoring my emails and the customer service operators refusing to let me speak to someone who can think for themselves, I am a little stuck on what to do next as they only seem to publish one phone number, one email address and no physical address?

What would be the next step to escalate this issue?

bris

Fight it hard enough and they will bar your account then the ps4 is a paper weight. They do not allow discrepancies on the account, which they will see this as.


Further to this which countries laws do the digital downloads come from, I don't know but if it's the USA then their law applies.

unholyangel

Did you by any chance tick a box saying "i have read and agree to the terms and conditions" or something similar?

Also, should have received an email confirming in a durable medium what the T&C's state?

37. (1) Under a contract for the supply of digital content not on a tangible medium, the trader must not begin supply of the digital content before the end of the cancellation period provided for in regulation 30(1), unless—

(a)the consumer has given express consent, and
(b)the consumer has acknowledged that the right to cancel the contract under regulation 29(1) will be lost.

(2) The consumer ceases to have the right to cancel such a contract under regulation 29(1) if, before the end of the cancellation period, supply of the digital content has begun after the consumer has given the consent and acknowledgement required by paragraph (1).

Poppy9

I bought a CD from Amazon but put wrong delivery address. DD downloaded the album online.

I rang CS and explained issue and was told it was in the process of being dispatched so they couldn't change address etc. and told me just to return it when I received it.

On line however I could cancel order which I did but then got billed for download. Rang and spoke to someone else and he was really helpful and refunded for the download and told me to reorder online to correct delivery address.

PenguinJim

Amazon sometimes have fantastically good customer service, going above and beyond what is required of them by law. Pointing out that another company with a different product offered a goodwill refund under a different set of circumstances is interesting, but not too helpful to the OP.

ltlbkofjim, please remember in your dealings that you have purchased a software license. This is not the same as buying, for example, a scarf. In fact, the finer points of consumer protection for software purchases are still being argued - don't expect a resolution within the next few years.

In principle, I agree completely with your argument and am disappointed that Sony have, yet again, refused to issue a refund. In practice, as bris says, if you force your refund (e.g. credit card Section 75) you will have your money, but be banned from PSN. Sony will take their ball and go home.

There is one alternative that has had some success with others in the past. If you contact gaming "journalism" (ha!) websites about your problem, they may reach out to Sony for comment on your particular case, in which event Sony may quickly refund you to save face. You can contact Eurogamer, Kotaku, etc - try at least ten, to improve the chances of someone there actually doing some work. (It may help if you push any sympathy buttons you can access, e.g. wheelchair, cancer, victim of 9/11; I know it's sick, but these websites target the lowest common denominator.)

bris wrote: »

Further to this which countries laws do the digital downloads come from, I don't know but if it's the USA then their law applies.

The point still stands if the downloads are accessed through a 56K analogue modem - no need to have the incorrect "digital" there (although it's still 0s and 1s being transmitted, so it can be argued that all downloads are digital, in which case there's no need to have the redundant "digital" there ).

frugal_mike

PenguinJim wrote: »

ltlbkofjim, please remember in your dealings that you have purchased a software license. This is not the same as buying, for example, a scarf. In fact, the finer points of consumer protection for software purchases are still being argued - don't expect a resolution within the next few years.

That link is talking about the resale of software licenses, but the OP's situation is not nearly so uncertain. The Consumer Contract Regulations quite clearly give consumers the right to a refund in certain situations, so no need for anything to be tested in court. Unholyangel has pointed out what those situations are (and how the right to a refund can be wavered).

PenguinJim

Except that we have seen countless arguments over what it means by "supply of the digital content has begun" - does it begin when the account is updated to be able to access the software (i.e. the supplier has delivered the access to the account), or the first bit of the download is started, or the entire download is completed, or the entire download is completed and executed - as well as a myriad of interpretations in between.

Hence different companies still have different refund policies in practice despite adhering to the same laws in principle.

unholyangel

PenguinJim wrote: »

Except that we have seen countless arguments over what it means by "supply of the digital content has begun" - does it begin when the account is updated to be able to access the software (i.e. the supplier has delivered the access to the account), or the first bit of the download is started, or the entire download is completed, or the entire download is completed and executed - as well as a myriad of interpretations in between.

Hence different companies still have different refund policies in practice despite adhering to the same laws in principle.

Perhaps this guidance from the government would help clear that up:

4. Consumers will not have a right to cancel once a download has started
PROVIDED you have told them this and obtained their explicit
acknowledgement to this.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/310044/bis-13-1368-consumer-contracts-information-cancellation-and-additional-payments-regulations-guidance.pdf

agrinnall

How old is your son? As the purchaser, the contract is with him not you, and Sony may be refusing to speak to you simply because of that. However, I'm guessing that there is an age below which you can assume responsibility for his actions, perhaps you need to make it clear to Sony that he is below that age (whatever it is) and that you are contacting them on his behalf - or just get him to contact them himself if he's old enough to do so.