Company is failing to supply a return address for refund after online order

dave898 · 19 May 2020 at 12:33PM

I ordered an item online (approx £200) by credit card to be delivered on 2nd May and paid extra for the express delivery for that date. The item arrived late on 4th which was unfortunately too late for me to make use of it so I immediately requesting a return and refund with the item unopened late evening on 5th May.

Despite asking multiple times since then on email for the return details (RMA / return address), the last I've heard was on 12th May:
"With the current work from home restrictions in place we are unable to take the returns into us and so the return has been raised for you so that this goes directly back to our supplier. I know that the returns request has been raised and that we should have these details back shortly.". They've not yet responded to the mail I sent on 18th May politely requesting when the expect to provide me with the return details.

Despite being initially responsive this responsiveness has now stopped and I'm concerned my rights under Consumer Contracts Regulations rely on me returning it within 14 days (which would be today from 5th May). They don't appear to be able to provide me with what should be simple return address details in a timely manner which is making me suspicious (perhaps unfairly).

I'm wondering what to do next if they never give me the return details/claim I'm no longer entitled to one in order to get a refund? How do you make use of the Consumer Contracts Regulations law? Can my credit card company help in this situation?

Dave

born_again · 19 May 2020 at 7:53PM

Tough one as it is really a change of mind. So no chargeback right and S75 is due to your change of mind.
You have to remember that with the lock down deliveries have been on the slow side, so even next day can take longer.
So you ordered it on Saturday & received it on Monday....
Not many companies will deliver on a Sunday... Even Amazon Prime...

DoaM · 19 May 2020 at 8:05PM

If 2nd May was the contractual delivery date then delivery on the 4th may be a breach of contract, in which case S75 protection may apply. (Delivery was due for the 2nd ... the order was placed earlier although the OP doesn't say when). What evidence do you have for the 2nd being the confirmed delivery date?

dave898 · 19 May 2020 at 9:53PM

Thanks for comments both.

The item was ordered on Friday, specifically paying for Saturday delivery, the "order acknowledgement (not confirmation)" email states "Select Shipping Method - Saturday Delivery (Order must be placed before 5PM)", it was placed before 5PM as shown by the email timestamp.

To add a little confusion to the plot, not that I think it's relevant, the order confirmation email with tracking details wasn't actually sent until after the item had been delivered on Monday morning so I wasn't actually sure over the weekend whether it had even been sent (all demonstrable from email timestamps and delivery tracking timestamps).

It's not due to change of mind that it's not needed; it is something that would have been used as part of my home office renovation work I did over that weekend. As the item wasn't available on the date expected and the work needed to be completed ready for start of day Monday, unfortunately it won't now be used so I'd like to return it unopened.

The website stated at the time in a big banner at the top "Shipping currently operating on a normal schedule". It is demonstrable that this was the case on the date I ordered from a snapshot of the website visible on the wayback machine archive site if it were necessary.

DoaM · 20 May 2020 at 10:08AM

IMHO what you have is a breach of contract. Specifying (and paying for) a named-day delivery indicates that Time Is Of The Essence ... they failed to comply with that contractual requirement therefore they are in breach of contract. As such S75 should apply. It also means the change of mind time limits per consumer legislation don't apply, so there's no 14 day returns clock ticking.