Distance selling regulations question (don’t shop with Big Shoe Direct)

frugal_mike

Well I would start by reporting the website as wealdroam suggested. The published terms and conditions are not legal.

I would then direct the seller to the regulation I posted (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/3134/regulation/34/made). Unfortunately, paragraph 1 is misleading if taken in isolation. It needs to be read in conjunction with paragraph 2 as well.

ThumbRemote

It also may be worth talking to your card issuer, and reporting the £5.50 as an unauthorised transaction.

peachyprice

hollydays wrote: »

:DSmall onlline retailer.
If they have specified return costs.. 5.50 does NOT Seem excessive..
You can't expect them to return for free!! It's totally irrelevant to try to get sympathy , oh has big sized feet - so what!
Why the hell do,you,expect to return them for free !
! How about you travel and find.. Blah. Blah..

Do shop with this company. .. Damn customers who expect a freebie!!!

!!!!!!?????

hollydays wrote: »

Are we saying the retailer, should return for free because the op,chose the wrong size?

No, we're saying the retailer must refund the OP for the full price, including postage of the original size 14 shoes. OP paid herself to return them.

peachyprice

OP, have you been refunded the original £55.50 for the 14's yet?

spud098

It was complicated... when I received the size 14's the box had a copy of the terms enclosed (same as the website, although to be honest I didn’t of course read these before I needed to return the shoes) saying the buyer had to pay all postage if I wanted to exchange for a new size. I thought though if I cancelled the initial order outright and started again, he'd have to play fair by the regulations and refund me my initial postage. That's why I ordered the size 13's as a separate order. This was the wording of my cancellation email:

---

Hello, these are really nice shoes but when he tried them on they are a little too big! (I think we need a size 13)

Can I please return these size 14's for a full refund (I will send with MyHermes), I have already ordered the size 13 as a separate order.

Many thanks indeed,

---

What he actually did though is wait till he received the size 14's, and only then did he send out the size 13's. Then charged me an additional £5.50 without notifying me (so I paid in total £55.50 for the 14s made up of £50 for the shoes and £5.50 postage, no refunds, then an additional £5.50). I know it feels a bit unfair to be asking for it back (even to me) but I thought that the regulations are made that way to make online shopping work better, and sellers should amortise their costs into the purchase price to make up for the cost returns, to place less of the burden on the buyer? I was expecting him to be aware of the regulations and just charge me one lot of postage. I know it’s a small amount of money but I’m just a bit cross that he’s pretending to be unaware of the rules to keep my cash. Plus I thought his email to me was pretty rude : (

Could you guys just give me your thoughts on -

1. Am I definitely entitled to get the £5.50 back?

2. If he refuses to refund me even after I've pointed him to the regulations (which I have already, see his response above) - what's the best next step for me to take?

3. If it was you in this position would you take the hassle or just let it go?

Thanks guys for all your advice.

cheers, nicola

wealdroam

Yes, you most definitely are entitled to a refund of all the monies you paid for the first order.

It's not clear, but if you have a separate £5.50 entry on your card statement, then simply phone your card company and dispute that transaction... as ThumbRemote said earlier.

spud098

OK I will, thank you all very much for your help!

spud098

Just to let you guys know I eventually did receive a reluctant refund from Big Shoe Direct for the £5.50, however with no admission of fault. I fully expect though that any future customers of this store will experience the same foot dragging on refunds, so anyone searching google for a big size shoe shop, please take this thread and my experience shopping with them as a review of Big Shoe Direct bigsize.co.uk - my advice is to just shop elsewhere until they update their unfair practices

Thanks guys for all your help!
nicola