Posted wrong item. Rights to getting it back?

misssarahleigh

So, I had a bit of a moron moment. I was posting an item to an ebayer, and sending something back to a retail shop online.

Sent them the wrong way. Ebayer has very kindly sent this back. I contacted the shop to explain what I had done and ask if there was any way of getting the item back (Had a returns address on)

The answer is, Incorrect items are sent to customer care once in a blue moon who may be able to return it to me, but they are unable to give any timescale or guarantee.

Now, I know I made a mistake, and don't get me wrong, the item isn't of any great value, but this seems a little unfair.

societys_child

Incorrect items are sent to customer care once in a blue moon who may be able to return it to me

What great "customer care" that is.
What company? Name and shame.

PasturesNew

Looking at it in reverse, isn't this then their "unsolicited gift"? And don't they have an obligation in law to hold/make available for return any unsolicited gift for a period of 6 months?

Not sure if it works like that for Consumer:Business, but it works like that the other way round.

In any case, it should be their "Lost Property" department.

Somebody must be responsible for holding/managing random items that turn up.

marliepanda

Unsolicited goods have no right to be returned.

However, I am not saying this is an unsolicited item as it was sent by mistake.

HOWEVER, I doubt they have a designated person to deal with random things customers send to the company. If they do manage to locate it possibly in a HUGE amount of customer returns, and remove it and send it back, the OP is responsible for the costs in finding, locating and resending the item back. As the item has little value, it may not be worth it?

The company may well do this for free, but I don't think they should have to guarantee to return it, or indeed guarantee to return it in a set amount of weeks. If its a big company, finding it could take X amount of time within their stock, if a small company they may not have the manpower to do it in a small amount of time.

It was the OP's mistake, and yes the company 'should' return it, but placing demands of timescales is silly.

misssarahleigh

It's Topshop.

The exact answer I got was:

We can advise that incorrect items are sent in batches from the warehouse to customer care and once we receive these we send them back to you. However, this does not happen very often so we'd be unable to advise of the timescale it would take for the item to be received back or confirm if the item has arrive.

Just seems a little wrong that they don't have some sort of duty of care towards the item.

marliepanda

I assume they say when they have lets say 10 for sake of argument, 10 random items, they send them back and then they are returned. I think that is fair enough. They say once they have 10, they go through them in one go and return, not that they won't return it. Theyre just saying that it doesnt happen often that people return random items so it may be a while before it gets to ten.

How much effort do you think they should put into returning your mis posted item? Imagine they sent you a random item, and then demanded you find it, repackage it and send it back asap. You have work, children, family life, social life etc, but they say 'no you have to go post our item back now.'

naedanger

marliepanda wrote: »

How much effort do you think they should put into returning your mis posted item? Imagine they sent you a random item, and then demanded you find it, repackage it and send it back asap. You have work, children, family life, social life etc, but they say 'no you have to go post our item back now.'

So if you were a retailer would you be happy if, when a customer was sent an item by mistake, they responded by saying "I don't know when I will have time to return the item - I have work, children, family life, social life etc, but I will return it at some point, but I cannot give any indication of when that might be"?

I think it is not unreasonable to expect some indication of when the item will be returned. (Though I agree that Topshop can charge for their direct costs of returning it.)

However if the retailer does not help, I doubt there is anything much the op can do in practice to force them.

marliepanda

naedanger wrote: »

So if you were a retailer would you be happy if, when a customer was sent an item by mistake, they responded by saying "I don't know when I will have time to return the item - I have work, children, family life, social life etc, but I will return it at some point, but I cannot give any indication of when that might be"?

I think it is not unreasonable to expect some indication of when the item will be returned. (Though I agree that Topshop can charge for their direct costs of returning it.)

However if the retailer does not help, I doubt there is anything much the op can do in practice to force them.

Well, considering it would be on the retailer to possibly arrange their own courier to collect at a time convenient to the customer, I think the OP is potentially doing pretty well.

Technically she could be charged the costs of returning the item as you say. Its different as a parcel to a customers house is most likely in a house, this item will be in a massive warehouse of Topshop returns, and they have a lot of other things to do other than correct customer mistakes.

naedanger

marliepanda wrote: »

Well, considering it would be on the retailer to possibly arrange their own courier to collect at a time convenient to the customer, I think the OP is potentially doing pretty well.

I notice you didn't answer the question.

Do you think a retailer is obliged to arrange a courier, at a time convenient to the customer (after 9pm, for example) if the retailer sends an item by mistake? So could the customer refuse to send the item back if the retailer simply told them the return address and paid the postage?

marliepanda

naedanger wrote: »

I notice you didn't answer the question.

Do you think a retailer is obliged to arrange a courier, at a time convenient to the customer (after 9pm, for example) if the retailer sends an item by mistake? So could the customer refuse to send the item back if the retailer simply told them the return address and paid the postage?

People on here have been told many times they can refuse to go 'out of their way' or be 'inconvenienced' when returning items sent by mistake, so yes.

misssarahleigh

I do fully appreciate that it's myself who made the mistake.

I also understand that it is myself that incurrs the cost of having it sent back to me, and I cannot insist that Topshop go out of their way to find my specific parcel.

My annoyance is that in theory it could be next week or next year before they decide to go through the 'wrong parcels pile'.

Would it not be easier to, having seen the contents to be incorrect, tape the envolope back up and write "RETURN TO SENDER" rather then sending it to the black hole of wrong items.