Customised sunglasses- no refund allowed?

Lwood90

Jenni_D said:

A seller's policy does not overrule the law!

Revert to them with a link to the exact section of the legislation that applies ... I looked yesterday at their website and the glasses were not personalised or customised in any way, merely a chosen configuration from options offered by the seller.

Thanks, I'll do just that! Really dodgy that they try to catch people out like this.

Manxman_in_exile

What you want to quote to them is the Consumer Contract Regulations 2013.

s.29 gives a consumer the right to cancel an off-premises or distance purchase   The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 (legislation.gov.uk)

s.28(1)(b) says that a consumer loses that right to cancel in the case of goods "that are made to the consumer's specifications or are clearly personalised."   The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 (legislation.gov.uk)

The point that you need to make to them is that because you exercised a choice from a range of options that they made available on their website (it might be a drop-down box or just a list) then by definition they have not made the sunglasses to your specifications.  You could not just specify anything you liked - you were limited by the range of options they made available to you.  They may have had the glasses made in accordance with the options you chose, but that does not prevent you from cancelling because it is not your specification.  Do you see what I mean?

Contact them again referencing the above.  Tell them you are exercising your statutory right to cancel under s.29 of the Consumer Contract Regulations, and that that overrides any policy they may have.  If they won't give you a full refund tell them you will complain to Trading Standards that they are preventing you from exercising your statutory rights as a consumer.  (TS won't do anything but they may not know that... )

You will have to return the glasses of course.  If they refuse to pay return postage come back here.  (They might be in more trouble if they didn't fully explain all this stuff to you before you entered into the contract).

Lwood90

Manxman_in_exile said:

What you want to quote to them is the Consumer Contract Regulations 2013.

s.29 gives a consumer the right to cancel an off-premises or distance purchase   The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 (legislation.gov.uk)

s.28(1)(b) says that a consumer loses that right to cancel in the case of goods "that are made to the consumer's specifications or are clearly personalised."   The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 (legislation.gov.uk)

The point that you need to make to them is that because you exercised a choice from a range of options that they made available on their website (it might be a drop-down box or just a list) then by definition they have not made the sunglasses to your specifications.  You could not just specify anything you liked - you were limited by the range of options they made available to you.  They may have had the glasses made in accordance with the options you chose, but that does not prevent you from cancelling because it is not your specification.  Do you see what I mean?

Contact them again referencing the above.  Tell them you are exercising your statutory right to cancel under s.29 of the Consumer Contract Regulations, and that that overrides any policy they may have.  If they won't give you a full refund tell them you will complain to Trading Standards that they are preventing you from exercising your statutory rights as a consumer.  (TS won't do anything but they may not know that... )

You will have to return the glasses of course.  If they refuse to pay return postage come back here.  (They might be in more trouble if they didn't fully explain all this stuff to you before you entered into the contract).

Thanks for this really clear advice, I have emailed them again using the information you provided, hopefully they'll take it more seriously this time.

I feel like I could very well be back here again tomorrow asking for further advice once I receive their response!

Lwood90

They said they would take them back, thanks for the advice all!

Manxman_in_exile

thanks for updating