Boots refusing to let me cancel online order within 7 day cooling off period

annafx

Here is the story. My dad ordered a £300 dyson hairdryer from boots online as a gift, this came with £60 worth of advantage card points. My dad didn’t have an advantage card at the time of purchase so didn’t get the points. I then told him I have one and you should have used it to get the points.

So I called boots and asked them if I could get the points now added to my advantage card (only less than an hour after purchasing). They said sorry there’s no way, annoyed (£60 is A LOT of money) I then said okay could we cancel the order and then re order using the advantage card. They said yes you can re order but you can’t cancel the current order.

My dad then also called them to see if he could cancel as has just recently made the purchase however while on hold to them he received the confirmation email for the order which said no cancellations (had he not received this before they had answered I think they would have allowed him to cancel). On the phone they said he will have to wait for it to be delivered next Saturday instore and pick it up and then return it. This is not cancelling the order. According to the law there is a 7 day cooling off period under which you can cancel an online order for any reason.

“The Office of Fair Trading's (OFT) Distance Selling Regulations entitle all buyers of goods and services online to a cooling-off period of seven working days, calculated from the date the transaction is completed. During this period you can cancel and get a full refund, without having to give any reason at all.”
My dad read this out to them and was just told that by buying the hairdryer he had agreed to boots terms and conditions which means you can’t cancel. So he had to spend another £300 on another order of the hairdryer to get the points and wait for this one to be delivered next week before he can get the refund for it. I’m just wondering if it’s in the law why are boots allowed to not let you cancel an order? Is there exclusions to the law which I am not aware of?

elsien

The Distance Selling Regulations haven't been in force for several years. You now want the Consumer Contracts Regulations. Always best to quote the correct legislation.

https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-contracts-regulations

BoGoF

I believe it's now 14 days. However the transaction is not complete until delivery.

annafx

Thank you! I had just googled cooling off period for online purchases and that quote was the first thing which came up so I assumed it was up to date information. Will have a look at that instead.

annafx

“Your right to cancel an order for goods starts the moment you place your order and ends 14 days from the day you receive your goods.” This is what which says in regards to your rights in cancelling an order. The main annoyance is that they have a promo on where you buy a dyson hairdryer you get £60 worth of advantage points, surely half an hour after purchase they should still have a way of honouring these points! The woman on the phone was barely even apologetic or cared that we had missed out on the points

George_Michael

BoGoF wrote: »

I believe it's now 14 days. However the transaction is not complete until delivery.

The cancellation period begins when the contract is entered into so when the contract ends is irrelevant in this instance.

annafx

It seems to be a boots policy that they just don’t let you cancel any online order as it is in their terms and conditions. I’m so confused as to how this is allowed! I don’t know if I’m missing something which allows them to do this. But it’s a ridiculous money wasting and time wasting process we are going through to get these advantage card points

warby68

Its frustrating but it isn't really that much hassle unless dad or you can't temporarily afford to pay twice. Collect both orders at the same time and return/reject one. As it was dad's error rather than Boots, its probably worth sucking up for £60.

I think its quite common not to be able to cancel an online order ( I think some systems have a short window) but to have to return/refuse/fail to collect instead and certainly manually adding points retrospectively to someone else's card would be a bridge too far in admin terms.

I'd make sure if you order again that the order and advantage card are in the same names. Companies don't tend to want any incentives to be transferable to third parties so the order is likely to glitch.

annafx

warby68 wrote: »

Its frustrating but it isn't really that much hassle unless dad or you can't temporarily afford to pay twice. Collect both orders at the same time and return/reject one. As it was dad's error rather than Boots, its probably worth sucking up for £60.

I think its quite common not to be able to cancel an online order ( I think some systems have a short window) but to have to return/refuse/fail to collect instead and certainly manually adding points retrospectively to someone else's card would be a bridge too far in admin terms.

I'd make sure if you order again that the order and advantage card are in the same names. Companies don't tend to want any incentives to be transferable to third parties so the order is likely to glitch.

Thank you for your response we are just going with the process of waiting for it to be delivered and then cancelling it. The main reason I posted is I didn’t understand how if it says in the law you can cancel how a big company such as boots wouldn’t have to agree to that but I guess that’s how it is!

takman

annafx wrote: »

“Your right to cancel an order for goods starts the moment you place your order and ends 14 days from the day you receive your goods.” This is what which says in regards to your rights in cancelling an order. The main annoyance is that they have a promo on where you buy a dyson hairdryer you get £60 worth of advantage points, surely half an hour after purchase they should still have a way of honouring these points! The woman on the phone was barely even apologetic or cared that we had missed out on the points

Offering the points is an offer they have to encourage people to buy the product. Why would they want to give points to people who have already ordered. Also why do you expect them to be apologetic considering that your dad refused the offer of the points in the first place.

annafx

takman wrote: »

Offering the points is an offer they have to encourage people to buy the product. Why would they want to give points to people who have already ordered. Also why do you expect them to be apologetic considering that your dad refused the offer of the points in the first place.

No I do agree he should have made an effort to get the points at time of purchase, however he had tried to make an account for the card but the captcha thing wasn’t working so he gave up. Again I was just not understanding why they don’t allow you to cancel an order when it’s written in the law is all, I just wondered if there was something I wasn’t aware of