Do we still have to refund?

aeuerby

We are a small business registered on Ebay. We abide by the distance selling regulations etc and offer refunds where necessary.

Anyway a guy bought one of our items and the day he did he had an accident on his bike.
He emailed the day he received his item saying that he'd had an accident and was waiting for the insurance company to assess his bike. If the bike was written off could he return the display for a refund. He said it was unopened and unused. We said OK. That was the 10 July.

We heard nothing from him until 14th August and got another email saying he still didn't know if the bike was being written off and if it is he'd be grateful for a refund. Heard nothing since either.

The chances are we will refund but I was wondering where we stand on it. Do we legally have to refund?
All help appreciated!

frivolous_fay

Could you explain the connection between the bike and the display? It's not making any sense to me at the moment

aeuerby

Sorry Fay - I know it's a bit garbled.

The guy bought a gear display to put on his motorbike. He has sinced had an accident on his bike and is waiting for the insurance company to assess the damage.
He has never used the display as he had the accident hours after buying it.
This was all about 5 or 6 weeks ago.

frivolous_fay

Well... as he explained things early, I'd still honour the refund if it was me, but he'd need to return the item first! He doesn't appear to be doing anything about that.

deanos

Hes had long enough IMO way beyond the the 7 days you legally have you give.

I would say tough and not refund.

Hintza

frivolous_fay wrote: »

Could you explain the connection between the bike and the display? It's not making any sense to me at the moment

Probably not that relevant...Fay.

Do you have to refund:

No not legally but good customer relations say you might want to. You just have to hope he is telling the truth and not just stringing you along. Why not say that he has had over a month already and you will be willing to extend it by XX days but if/when he returns the item it must be unused etc.

jggtilleys

Hi fay , as you know you certainly cant refund without having the item sent back to you intact and in the condition it was sent out. as a power seller myself i like to refund in all cercumstances but fairs fair you cant refund without having the item returned. quite simply just say when you receive the item he will get his money back. as you know we all need to protect our feedback but dont let anyone hold you to ransome over it!!! julia

hjb123

If i were in your situation then I would offer a refund on return and checking of the goods - though I wouldnt refund the return postage, only the original item cost plus outward postage

aeuerby

Thanks for all of your comments. I really appreciate them.:beer:

As i said we will refund as we aim to have excellent customer service. I was just wondering what the "law" was regards it.

Alfie_E

The buyer explained his situation and you agreed to wait for the outcome of the insurance assessment. You haven’t said that this offer was conditional. You haven’t said you told the buyer you would only be prepared to wait, say, one month. If you hadn’t agreed to wait, the buyer may have acted differently. He may have used his rights under the Distance Selling Regulations. Because of the agreement, he may have chosen not to make use of those statutory rights.

The length of time involved isn’t unreasonable. Insurance claims can drag on and on. I guess you could insist on waiting for the outcome of the insurance assessment, as that was what was agreed. But, the buyer is reasonably asking that the matter be brought to a close sooner rather than later.

As others have said, this assumes the buyer is telling the truth and that you only refund once you get the display back. As Hintza says, if you do reply to the email and agree to refund, you need to put a sensible time limit on it. Unfortunately, I would say that would have to be longer than you’d like. I’d say another thirty days. It’s the time of the year when he could be on holiday for a fortnight. Thirty days would give him another fortnight on top of that.

dollydoodah

To be honest, it surprises me that it has taken that long for an insurance assessor to decide the fate of the bike....ours was done within a week (the payout did take quite a bit longer though).