Sports Direct - £1.00 Auto added to bill

hillcats

Please can I have your opinions on this...

Having recently ordered online from sportsdirect.com I then proceeded to pay for my order, what I didn't notice was that the website had AUTO ADDED a sports direct magazine and mug and charged me a £1.00 for the privilege...

I have just attempted a dummy order and sure enough the website is still doing it, this time I only had two items so it was easily noticed, but last time I had ordered loads more... I have sent an email asking them to explain and requesting a refund.

I feel this is somewhat underhanded and wrong, anyone else ?

shaun_from_Africa

hillcats wrote: »

I feel this is somewhat underhanded and wrong, anyone else ?

It's not just underhanded, it's now totally illegal.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/3134/regulation/40/made

Additional payments under a contract

40. (1) Under a contract between a trader and a consumer, no payment is payable in addition to the remuneration agreed for the trader’s main obligation unless, before the consumer became bound by the contract, the trader obtained the consumer’s express consent.
(2) There is no express consent (if there would otherwise be) for the purposes of this paragraph if consent is inferred from the consumer not changing a default option (such as a pre-ticked box on a website).

By taking payment that you did not consent to, Sportsdirect are breaking the law (The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013).

esuhl

Wasn't the law recently changed to make it illegal for firms to automatically add-on optional extras...?

http://www.morphsites.com/blog/consumer-contracts-regulations-2014/24

More stuff here: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=optional+extras+law+consumer

Report them to Trading Standards and demand a refund for the extra charge.

JReacher1

It doesn't matter that it's illegal.

Sports direct will have worked out that they make more money out of these £1 mugs than they lose in the fines they may be liable for by violating the regulation.

As far as I am aware they've as yet received no fines for this practice and I imagine they've sold thousands of these mugs.

fairy_lights

I'm convinced they've got a warehouse full of those mugs that they can't shift so have to sneak them in any way they can.