Return charge for 'built' furniture

RamblingFleur

Hi everyone, I'm in need of some urgent advice please. Apologies for the long post - I felt it was better to provide all the information clearly at the outset.

I purchased an office stool (that cost £104.39) online, which was delivered on 18th May. After assembling the stool, I found it wasn't suitable for me, so contacted the seller on 27th May to initiate a return. 

The seller told me that there would be a "£24.95 handling charge" for returning the item. He quoted the terms and conditions from their website to back this up (please see below), although this is confusing because 35% of £104.39 does not equal £24.95:

"Please note that furniture items are subject to a 35% restocking fee. Furniture returns will only be accepted if the item is unused and still in the original packaging. All furniture returns must be made within 14 days of delivery."

I told the seller that, under the Consumer Contract Regulations, the trader cannot charge any fees in the event of cancellation. The response was: "If you not happy to pay for the collection charge for us to arrange this with a courier to uplift then you can send this back to our office directly arranging your own courier, please note we would not cover the cost if this is the case." 

I agreed to this, because from my reading of the CCR I thought that the customer was responsible for return delivery: 

(5) The consumer must bear the direct cost of returning goods under paragraph (2), unless—
(a)the trader has agreed to bear those costs, or
(b)the trader failed to provide the consumer with the information about the consumer bearing those costs, required by paragraph (m) of Schedule 2, in accordance with Part 2.

Also, from getting quotations online I thought I could arrange delivery, for what was at the time a smallish box, for a much cheaper price (£7-8).

However, when I tried to disassemble the stool for return, it would not come apart. I contacted the manufacturer for further guidance, but the only how-to video they had available was not applicable to the model, and the manufacturer representative was unable to provide further instructions.

I have now been sent a 'built box' to return the stool without the need to disassembly. The issue is that the size of the box means that shipping charges are now £30 minimum i.e. more than the 'handling charge' the seller quoted. 

Am I obliged to pay this return fee, or should this actually be something the seller should pay for? I feel like I may have two potential arguments against it:

• Return delivery would not be nearly so expensive if the stool had come apart as the manufacturer said it should. 
• The Consumer Contract Regs state that a consumer is not responsible for return shipping if the trader has not provided information about the right to cancel and about return shipping on a durable medium. 

What even counts as a durable medium? The dispatch note that came with the stool had no such information, while the order confirmation email simply had a link to their terms and conditions (which includes the statement about the restocking fee quoted above).

Does this clause mean the seller is still obliged to pay return shipping? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I'm starting to stress a little about this because the 28-day cancellation-and-return period will be tomorrow (although I realise that may be extended if it can be considered that the seller did not provide the required cancellation information). 

Thank you in advance!

visidigi

So to clarify its not that its not fit for purpose - you're returning the stool as its not suitable fro your specific need/purpose correct?

Sandtree

visidigi said:

So to clarify its not that its not fit for purpose - you're returning the stool as its not suitable fro your specific need/purpose correct?

Remembering that "not fit for purpose" is a more material issue than its just not the colour scheme you wanted or isnt as comfortable as you hoped it may be.

unholyangel

If the goods cannot be returned by normal post (perhaps because they are heavy or bulky) then the retailer also needs to tell you the cost to return, not just that you're liable for it. 

Durable medium has been repeatedly defined as the equivalent of paper. That it must allow it's unedited reproduction by the recipient. If the information is in an email, it's durable. However websites or links to websites (even if sent by email) are not durable, as the retailer can alter them at any time and so do not guarantee a unedited reproduction. 

mattyprice4004

It's a change of mind return, so legalities aside morally you should be paying for the courier regardless. 
It's not their fault you don't like it. 

RamblingFleur

Thank you everyone for the quick replies.

The stool isn't suitable for me because it doesn't lower far enough for my purposes (I probably should have read the small print on the website ); otherwise I would have kept it. I wouldn't have minded paying for the return delivery if it had been possible to disassemble the product, and from what the manufacturer said, it should have been possible to disassemble. So I am not sure if it is a defective chair in this sense, or if the stool is not designed to be disassembled at all and the person I spoke to just didn't have the information specific to this model. 

Does it change anything if the product can't be disassembled as it should?