Refund only on return, but we can't pick up.

Hopeforananswer

We recently purchased a large fridge from a well know catalogue/online company which was delivered 01/05 ; it was damaged by the courier in transit. Within 3 hours we had contacted their customer service, explained what had happened and was advised the item would be collected within 3 days, despite numerous phone calls, one lasting 2.5 hours all we are being told is we can't  issue a refund until we have received the item back but the company are only making deliveries not collection. They have refunded the carriage cost because of the issue but not the cost of the fridge which we paid upfront for (19/04).  Can they put us in this untenable position?

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

If they can deliver, they can collect. My cynical view would be they are busier than usual with perhaps less staff and find the current situation a convenient excuse to put customers with issues on the back burner. 

You could write a letter before action to their head office to give them a nudge in the right direction but hopefully life will be moving a bit faster by the time you'd actually need to act on that intention. 
 

DoaM

How did you pay? (I'm guessing the seller was Very).

Hopeforananswer

Thanks for both replies,  DoaM, you are correct, paid via PayPal. 
I will confess after feeling like I was banging my head against a brick wall I have started using PayPal resolution centre after failing to get any sensible response from their customer service or from my written complaint on their "contact us" .
I will sent a written complaint to head office as well 

theonlywayisup

Unfortunately Paypal will require you to send it back via an online trackable means, at your expense.  

Hopeforananswer

Oh no , thanks for your reply   - theonlywayisup.  Are you saying there is nothing we can do but wait until they decide they can make a collection?

theonlywayisup

Hopeforananswer said:

Oh no , thanks for your reply   - theonlywayisup.  Are you saying there is nothing we can do but wait until they decide they can make a collection?

As far as Paypal is concerned, your only course of action is to send it back or lose the case. 

You could try the card company you used to fund the payment to PayPal although many will say the use of Paypal is a break in the chain for chargeback/S75 purposes. 

I would do as suggested above, write a LBA to Very and keep pressing them in the meantime for a collection.  Do they have Social Media  - you could pester them on there.