Amazon not refunding me for phone not received

Maureen43

Morning All

At the beginning of June I bought an iphone from Amazon. This was coming from a seller in China.

The first time the phone was dispatched it was sent back to the seller as apparently they made a false customs declaration. At this point (second week in June) I asked Amazon for a refund as I had lost faith in the seller. They said I had to give the seller a chance to send it again.

The second time the phone was dispatched DHL said I had to pay £17 duty before they would deliver it. Amazon said I should not pay this duty. So now (and for quite a few weeks) the phone is sitting in DHL, with both me and the seller refusing to pay the duty. I must have exchanged 20 emails with the seller trying to resolve the situation.

I made a A-Z marketplace claim through Amazon three weeks ago and I still don't have my money as they are "still investigating".

My question is, can Amazon withhold a refund like this? Do my legal rights override their terms and conditions? Well over a month since I bought the phone I am still without a refund. I have actually bought the phone elsewhere now!

I hope you can advise
Thank you.

Fosterdog

As you are the one importing the goods it is your responsibility to pay duty and any customs clearance fees, DHL will usually add an admin fee on top of this as they have done the work of sorting out the importation documents and paid any fees and duty due.

If you want to know your legal rights you need to investigate Chinese consumer law as that is where you have purchased the phone from so are not governed by U.K. consumer laws.

Maureen43

Amazon say I should only pay the price quoted on their site.

Nowhere in the product description did it say there would be more money to pay on delivery!

marliepanda

Maureen43 wrote: »

Amazon say I should only pay the price quoted on their site.

Nowhere in the product description did it say there would be more money to pay on delivery!

Where does Amazon say that? I don't believe they would say that, it makes no sense.

Products coming from China attract customs. It's a thing. You knew you were buying from China.

Fosterdog

Amazon are wrong, anything imported from outside the EU (for obvious reasons even the EU may be excluded soon) over the £15 threshold is subject to VAT and customs duty.

https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty

That is why it is not always cheaper to buy abroad, although the base price may be cheaper the UK has its own taxing and importation system. If it was as simple as you seem to think nobody would ever buy anything in the UK where VAT is already added on and would import everything. Our country doesn't work like that.

lovinituk

This is actually an Amazon policy. If you sell on Amazon.co.uk but ship the goods from outside of the EU, then as the seller you are expected to pay for any additional import fees.

There is a recent discussion here about it - https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=115983

Maureen43

But I was quoted a price on Amazon and that was what I paid.

Nowhere did it state there would be duty to pay.

Amazon told me not to pay the duty!

So can I take them to court over the fact that they are dragging their feet over a refund?

lovinituk

Maureen43 wrote: »

But I was quoted a price on Amazon and that was what I paid.

Nowhere did it state there would be duty to pay.

Amazon told me not to pay the duty!

So can I take them to court over the fact that they are dragging their feet over a refund?

No you can't take Amazon to court because you didn't buy anything from Amazon. They are facilitators between you and the 3rd party seller. Perhaps you should remind them of their policy which is mentioned in the link I posted above. Other than that you just need to wait for them to resolve it.

Also don't rely on no mention of custom charges when ordering from outside of the EU. This is a policy unique to Amazon - normally you as the buyer would be responsible to pay the charges.

Fosterdog

I've never ordered anything over the threshold from Amazon so never had to pay anything extra anyway and I didn't realise that their sellers agree to cover importation costs.

I'll have to let a friend know who uses Amazon regularly and has had to pay import costs many times.

I've only ever had to pay when importing higher value items from USA, usually for things that can't be bought over here.

Just to check OP was it Amazon.co.uk you bought from or Amazon.com?

lovinituk

Fosterdog wrote: »

I've never ordered anything over the threshold from Amazon so never had to pay anything extra anyway and I didn't realise that their sellers agree to cover importation costs.

I'll have to let a friend know who uses Amazon regularly and has had to pay import costs many times.

I've only ever had to pay when importing higher value items from USA, usually for things that can't be bought over here.

Just to check OP was it Amazon.co.uk you bought from or Amazon.com?

Good point on checking the site. If it was the .com site then they as the buyer would be liable for the charges.

Most sellers don't realise they agreed to this policy when they signed up!

prowla

This is perfectly normal: anything over I think the threshold is £15 (including P&P !) that is liable to duty and the shipper may add their admin fee to cover it.

https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty