Return to sender

triade

Hi,

I ordered an item off amazon and discovered to my dismay that the item was shipping from China. It would take 3 weeks to arrive and I needed this within the next day or two. Am I just a silly girl or did amazon need to be clearer?  Never mind, I promptly went to amazon and attempted to cancel the order. It had been marked already shipped though. So I emailed and asked to cancel it.  I sais I would return the item at the soonest juncture. I phoned royal mail and spent half an hour on their "on hold"  music, losing the will to live,  eventually got to a person and asked them to refuse the item at the earliest opportunity and return to sender.  They assured me that is what would happen.

Cut to today, I received a mystery parcel. Did not appear to come from overseas, so I was really perplexed and started to think somebody had sent me a gift, you know a friend or family member. Opened it, to find the item I specifically and repeatedly asked them to return as soon as they could. Completely ignored my request. I'm feeling incredibly sour. Very very bitter right now. I've taped it closed immediately and I really just want to write on it in big letters RETURN TO SENDER and deposit it through their window attached to a brick, but I have to temper my anger and find a solution that will result in my refund from amazon. Can I write return to sender on this now and drop it in the postbox or is this going to end up costing me money? If it costs me money can I make a claim against Royal mail for completely ignoring my clear explicit instructions?

molerat

RM will not / cannot stop an item from being delivered.   Quite often items from China come with RM postage labels on, they are bulk shipped from China then introduced into the system.  You have no claim from RM, they have done what they are legally required to do and that is deliver the item to the address shown on the label.  You need to go through Amazon and request a return, as the item is from China - and that would likely have been obvious from the delivery timescale - you will probably have to return it at your cost.

triade

Any idea why Royal mail is different from yodel in that regard?  I actually had two items in this order and one of them was going via yodel. I contacted yodel and they said "no problem we've marked it as return" and that was that, it has appeared on the tracker as already delivered and being returned.

And yes the length of time for the shipping is what clued me in that it was coming from overseas. I only started amazon prime with free shipping recently and I'm still getting to grips with it, I'm not sure how you check item location prior to shipping, I presumed everything was shipped free through amazon warehouses.

Spoonie_Turtle

triade said:

And yes the length of time for the shipping is what clued me in that it was coming from overseas. I only started amazon prime with free shipping recently and I'm still getting to grips with it, I'm not sure how you check item location prior to shipping, I presumed everything was shipped free through amazon warehouses.

Every item has a delivery estimate even before you add it to your basket, regardless of whether it's free with Prime or not.  When you go to checkout it tells you again the delivery estimate before you pay.  So while you can't determine the item's exact location, they are upfront with delivery timescales for you to make an informed decision to buy or not.

molerat

triade said:

Any idea why Royal mail is different from yodel in that regard?  I actually had two items in this order and one of them was going via yodel. I contacted yodel and they said "no problem we've marked it as return" and that was that, it has appeared on the tracker as already delivered and being returned.

And yes the length of time for the shipping is what clued me in that it was coming from overseas. I only started amazon prime with free shipping recently and I'm still getting to grips with it, I'm not sure how you check item location prior to shipping, I presumed everything was shipped free through amazon warehouses.

RM is governed by acts of parliament and a service obligation, other couriers are not.  I believe you can refuse to accept a delivery but if it is a through the letterbox item that is not possible.  Amazon is also a marketplace for other sellers, very similar to Ebay.

soolin

molerat said:

RM will not / cannot stop an item from being delivered.   Quite often items from China come with RM postage labels on, they are bulk shipped from China then introduced into the system.  You have no claim from RM, they have done what they are legally required to do and that is deliver the item to the address shown on the label.  You need to go through Amazon and request a return, as the item is from China - and that would likely have been obvious from the delivery timescale - you will probably have to return it at your cost.

Until recently I would have agreed that delivery times on Amazon were accurate- but I mainly stopped buying from Amazon third party sellers about 2 or 3  years back when I bought a widget with a timescale of 4 days delivery - and then it changed after purchase to 4 weeks . This happened several times and One item in particular was showing as coming from the UK- the delivery was changed to about 4 weeks and Amazon would not let me cancel at that point as they said that the seller had obviously run out of UK stock and was having to source from overseas- which was acceptable. They noted that the item was now going to be two and a bit weeks later than originally estimated and told me they would remind the seller of their responsibility to ensure that delivery estimates should be achieved in the majority of cases. They also apologised that the item would arrive too late and suggested I returned it, at my own cost, once I got it. I was also reminded that the delivery timescale was an estimate and that seller had obviously gone out of their way to source my product and that I should allow them the extra time to get it to me.

I also questioned another one where delivery was changed from days to weeks- and they 'kindly' marked my account to show that delivery was running late- but said as seller has provided full shipping details to prove item had been sent that I couldn't cancel - but if the new delivery timescale was breached I could then ask seller for a refund. That one did go to a dispute as seller refused a refund, I eventually got an A-Z opened and was refunded after about 7 weeks - item did turn up about 3 weeks later- but seller refused to pay for the return and eventually Amazon told me to keep the item. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Spoonie_Turtle said:

triade said:

And yes the length of time for the shipping is what clued me in that it was coming from overseas. I only started amazon prime with free shipping recently and I'm still getting to grips with it, I'm not sure how you check item location prior to shipping, I presumed everything was shipped free through amazon warehouses.

Every item has a delivery estimate even before you add it to your basket, regardless of whether it's free with Prime or not.  When you go to checkout it tells you again the delivery estimate before you pay.  So while you can't determine the item's exact location, they are upfront with delivery timescales for you to make an informed decision to buy or not.

They are indeed up front about the timescale but I don't agree they allow you to make an informed decision. 

There is no reason the biggest retailer on the planet can't make it obvious where the seller ships their goods from, other than to benefit from an omission. 

I know you can find out where the seller in located but it's in a place very few people look at.

custardy

triade said:

Hi,

I ordered an item off amazon and discovered to my dismay that the item was shipping from China. It would take 3 weeks to arrive and I needed this within the next day or two. Am I just a silly girl or did amazon need to be clearer?  Never mind, I promptly went to amazon and attempted to cancel the order. It had been marked already shipped though. So I emailed and asked to cancel it.  I sais I would return the item at the soonest juncture. I phoned royal mail and spent half an hour on their "on hold"  music, losing the will to live,  eventually got to a person and asked them to refuse the item at the earliest opportunity and return to sender.  They assured me that is what would happen.

Cut to today, I received a mystery parcel. Did not appear to come from overseas, so I was really perplexed and started to think somebody had sent me a gift, you know a friend or family member. Opened it, to find the item I specifically and repeatedly asked them to return as soon as they could. Completely ignored my request. I'm feeling incredibly sour. Very very bitter right now. I've taped it closed immediately and I really just want to write on it in big letters RETURN TO SENDER and deposit it through their window attached to a brick, but I have to temper my anger and find a solution that will result in my refund from amazon. Can I write return to sender on this now and drop it in the postbox or is this going to end up costing me money? If it costs me money can I make a claim against Royal mail for completely ignoring my clear explicit instructions?

Lets be clear here.
An item coming from somewhere (even you seem to have no knowledge where) is to be refused at some point in its journey?
You spoke to someone in customer service who gave poor information or simply didn't understand what you were asking.
Its simply not feasible to action a request with that information in a massive operation.
RM has multiple feeds and this sounds like a cross border tracked item. meaning it could be delivered by various RM delivery offices depending on local set up.
Standard advice is refuse at the doorstep and what you should have been told.
Your 'anger' is your problem

custardy

triade said:

Any idea why Royal mail is different from yodel in that regard?  I actually had two items in this order and one of them was going via yodel. I contacted yodel and they said "no problem we've marked it as return" and that was that, it has appeared on the tracker as already delivered and being returned.

And yes the length of time for the shipping is what clued me in that it was coming from overseas. I only started amazon prime with free shipping recently and I'm still getting to grips with it, I'm not sure how you check item location prior to shipping, I presumed everything was shipped free through amazon warehouses.

Yodel. A courier with control of the items entering their network and full tracking.
RM are regulated mail service with mail/packets entering the network from multiple locations/feeds and countries

Spoonie_Turtle

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

triade said:

And yes the length of time for the shipping is what clued me in that it was coming from overseas. I only started amazon prime with free shipping recently and I'm still getting to grips with it, I'm not sure how you check item location prior to shipping, I presumed everything was shipped free through amazon warehouses.

Every item has a delivery estimate even before you add it to your basket, regardless of whether it's free with Prime or not.  When you go to checkout it tells you again the delivery estimate before you pay.  So while you can't determine the item's exact location, they are upfront with delivery timescales for you to make an informed decision to buy or not.

They are indeed up front about the timescale but I don't agree they allow you to make an informed decision. 

There is no reason the biggest retailer on the planet can't make it obvious where the seller ships their goods from, other than to benefit from an omission. 

I know you can find out where the seller in located but it's in a place very few people look at.

Really?  What more do you need to know than the timescale?  Does the country of origin make any difference?  Maybe people might have ethical concerns (can't think of any other legitimate reason for *needing* to know) but those people don't generally use Amazon anyway for its own ethical problems.  Even in terms of the environmental impact of the journey, you still only need to know how long it will take to know if it's an international or national journey.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Spoonie_Turtle said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

triade said:

And yes the length of time for the shipping is what clued me in that it was coming from overseas. I only started amazon prime with free shipping recently and I'm still getting to grips with it, I'm not sure how you check item location prior to shipping, I presumed everything was shipped free through amazon warehouses.

Every item has a delivery estimate even before you add it to your basket, regardless of whether it's free with Prime or not.  When you go to checkout it tells you again the delivery estimate before you pay.  So while you can't determine the item's exact location, they are upfront with delivery timescales for you to make an informed decision to buy or not.

They are indeed up front about the timescale but I don't agree they allow you to make an informed decision. 

There is no reason the biggest retailer on the planet can't make it obvious where the seller ships their goods from, other than to benefit from an omission. 

I know you can find out where the seller in located but it's in a place very few people look at.

Really?  What more do you need to know than the timescale?  Does the country of origin make any difference?  Maybe people might have ethical concerns (can't think of any other legitimate reason for *needing* to know) but those people don't generally use Amazon anyway for its own ethical problems.  Even in terms of the environmental impact of the journey, you still only need to know how long it will take to know if it's an international or national journey.

Personally I think it does. 

For one thing if the goods are over a certain value (£135 IIRC) and aren't coming from within the UK you'll get hit with VAT upon import. 

Everything like this is considered from the perspective of the average consumer and, simply my opinion, but I think the location of the goods is something that would affect the average person's buying decision, doesn't really matter why.