Unfair surcharge

kol25

Hi all.

Hope everyone is keeping well and safe.

I am needing some advice. I bought a custom build pc from a known website. They had taken payment and then emailed me saying the motherboard isn’t in stock anymore and if I would like an alternative. I wanted what I ordered and they agreed they will order it for next day deliver and start the build. 

I was thinking about it last night and I changed my mind on the pc and would like to cancel. I emailed them before they opened to cancel. They then responded hours later saying the system has already been built and they would charge 20% surcharge which is £600! I did find this hard to believe. I then contacted them again to exercise my consumer rights to cancel the contract and to receive a full refund. They contacted me again and reduced the surcharge to 10% or take the pc with £200 as the “boss wants it out the door”

I just want to cancel and receive a full refund. I haven’t even received the computer!  

Any advice guys?

Thanks!

kol25

I just checked on another PC bulid website and the Terms and conditions state 

Right to cancel:

You have the right to cancel an order (the contract) within 14 days without giving any reason.

The cancellation period will expire after 14 days from the day on which you acquire, or a third party other than the carrier and indicated by you acquires, physical possession of the goods.

To exercise the right to cancel, you must inform us of your decision to cancel this contract by a clear statement (e.g. a letter sent by post, fax or e-mail).

Effects of cancellation:

If you cancel an order (the contract), we will reimburse to you all payments received from you, including the costs of delivery (except for the supplementary costs arising if you chose a type of delivery other than the least expensive type of standard delivery offered by us).

—————

So surely the company I bought it from are breaking right to cancel law?

sheramber

what do the Terms and Conditions of the firm you bought from say?

Are they based in UK?

kol25

sheramber said:

what do the Terms and Conditions of the firm you bought from say?

Are they based in UK?

Yes they are UK based. I’ve copied their Terms and conditions below

Cancellation Within the COOLING OFF PERIOD
a. If you are a consumer customer, you have a right to cancel this contract as long as you do so within 7 days from the day after the day of receiveing the goods.

b. If you are a business customer, you have no right to cancel this contract.

c. If this contract, or part of this contract concerns goods consisting of,
- software that was delivered in sealed packaging, which has been unsealed by you, or,
- goods that have been personalised for you, and / or,
- equipment that we have put together to your specification, then you have no right to cancel this contract.

d. If you wish to exercise any right to cancel this contract, you must notify us within 7days of receiveing, either by writing to us at our address, or by emailing us to our support email address.

e. On receipt of a valid notice of cancellation, we will send you a notice confirming cancellation within 7days.

f. If the goods delivered are the goods you ordered and you exercise any right to cancel, upon receipt of our notice confirming cancellation, you must organise delivery of the goods back to us, as soon as is reasonably possible, and in any event within 14 days. you are advised to insure yourself against the risks of goods being damaged/lost in transit.

g. If the goods delivered are the goods you ordered and you exercise any right to cancel this contract, you will be liable to us for any costs incurred by us in delivering the goods back to us.

h. If the goods delivered are goods we have substituted for the goods you ordered, and you exercise any right to cancel, you must organise delivery of the goods back to us, as soon as is reasonably possible. You are advised to insure yourself against the risks of goods being damaged or lost in transit..

i. If you exercise any right to cancel this contract, and
- The goods are in any way damaged not by us or our employees,
- The goods have not been retained by you with reasonable care,
- you have not retained possession of the goods,
- you have failed to return the goods to us, within 14 days of you confirming your cancellation, then you will be liable to us for an amount to cover the losses flowing from the above; and further, or in the alternative, the breach of your statutory duty under regulation 17 of the distance selling regulations (duty to retain possession of goods, take reasonable care of them and return them to the seller).

j. If you exercise any right to cancel, upon receipt of the goods, we will reimburse you all monies paid to us in respect of those goods.

k. If you are not totally satisfied with your purchase or you have simply changed your mind about your purchase then in line with the distance selling regulations, you can return your item provided you inform us of this decision via letter or e-mail within 7 days of receipt. You will be responsible for the safe return of the goods. The goods can be opened but must be 'as new' when returned to us. All items must be complete with original packaging, manuals, disks, cables etc as originally supplied. Manufacturer packaging must not be defaced in any manner. Once goods are received at Palicomp Ltd, we will issue a refund for the cost of the goods to your original payment method, plus all delivery charges. Please note business customers are exempt from returning items within 7 days under the distance selling regulations.

k3lvc

Well at first glance part 3 of c) seems to cover their stance - I'm sure others will be along who can clarify as 'personalised'/'to your specification' can be open to interpretation

The_Fat_Controller

As it's a bespoke build, according to (c) you cannot cancel.

If it was off-the-shelf model then things would be different.

Sandtree

How did you order this? Was it similar to say the Apple website where you choose a 24" iMac and then can choose to increase the ram or larger SSD all from drop downs? Or did you email them a list of parts you wanted built into a machine and they returned with a price?

kol25

Sandtree said:

How did you order this? Was it similar to say the Apple website where you choose a 24" iMac and then can choose to increase the ram or larger SSD all from drop downs? Or did you email them a list of parts you wanted built into a machine and they returned with a price?

Yeah about 90% of the parts from drop down list similar to Apple. I only emailed them to change the cooler to another model from the one I had chosen from drop down list

Jenni_D

Sandtree said:

How did you order this? Was it similar to say the Apple website where you choose a 24" iMac and then can choose to increase the ram or larger SSD all from drop downs? Or did you email them a list of parts you wanted built into a machine and they returned with a price?

This is important. If you "personalised" it simply by selecting options on their website then it wasn't personalised at all and c) does not apply. Selecting options offered by the seller just means the product was made to order and you'd have full cancellation rights per the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation & Additional Charges) Regulations 2013.

PS - term a) is unlawful; the law allows 14 days.

Edit: your post arrived while I was creating this reply.

Sandtree

kol25 said:

Sandtree said:

How did you order this? Was it similar to say the Apple website where you choose a 24" iMac and then can choose to increase the ram or larger SSD all from drop downs? Or did you email them a list of parts you wanted built into a machine and they returned with a price?

Yeah about 90% of the parts from drop down list similar to Apple. I only emailed them to change the cooler to another model from the one I had chosen from drop down list

So was the switch to just to change to another option from the menu or was it to an option not presented?

Made To Order where you simply pick from standard options isnt "personalised".... getting them to combine components that they dont normally offer is personalised and that does reduce rights.

Jenni_D

Agreed.

If the personalised angle does apply though, a fixed restocking charge is unlawful - they cannot just pick an arbitrary value as a percentage. They can only charge what your cancellation has actually cost them. (It is unlikely that they'd started any work on the PC. And even them ordering the mobo would be a questionable charge as it is something that they offer anyway - regardless of stock holding).