Can I refuse delivery?

sharons1971

I bought an item from a company, paid for it and the delivery charge, when it turned up the white van man demanded £33.11 for import charges in cash with no paperwork, we refused twice, I’ve been in touch and told them that I was not told about the extra charge and don’t want to do business with them any more, can I refuse a delivery and get a refund?

davidmcn

Depends who you bought from - if sent directly to you from outside the EU then I guess it's a foreign supplier, so it's down to their terms and whatever their local laws are.

Sandtree

You can always refuse delivery... what will happen if you do is a separate matter.

The basic approach to import charges is always that its the buyers responsibility to pay them. A seller in Botswana isn't going to know the rules and regulations in every country in the world to know if it'd be £33.11 for you or ¥4210 for someone in Japan.

You would need to check the T&Cs of the company you bought the item from and where the legal jurisdiction that governs the agreement (which will be in the T&Cs or the country the item was sent from if not) and then you can also check that countries consumer rights. You may well find its your responsibility to ensure the item gets back safely to the sender and even then it may not get you a full refund.

If you did accept the goods, pay the charge, and then return them then in theory you can reclaim the taxes/duties for re-exporting the items (though not any service charge the courier has added on top) but without the proper paperwork that probably won't happen.

visidigi

What did you buy. Where did you buy it from. How much was it, which courier carried it in.

Question questions questions...

sharons1971

I bought a fogger from Topdealhunter, they are waving the import fees now but I really don’t trust them and don’t want to do business with them.  The courie, they are saying is UPS

Sandtree

Dont' know TopDealHunter but their name suggests they are a middleman... they have no right to "wave" the import charges, that's HMRC's remit but they can say they will pay them for you.

Plenty of big name couriers use local subcontractors for endpoint delivery/collection so in principle wouldn't personally have an issue with a non-branded van but they should still have the right paperwork

davidmcn

In an effort to find which country Topdealhunter think they're in, I found this wonderfully vague jurisdiction clause:

"SECTION 18 - GOVERNING LAW 

These Terms of Service...shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the law. "

Sandtree

In fairness, that is one of their better written clauses.

Their Shipping Policy states that goods may be delivered from one of their "many" domestic and international warehouses and that orders for multiple items may be delivered in different packaging... reinforces the idea that this is at best a drop shipper who isn't actually doing the fulfilment themselves. 

Looking at the reviews for the "fogger" it is clear that despite all the reviews being written in English that it isn't the native language for at least 90% of them and so really challenges if these are genuine reviews.