Refusing Delivery for Unwanted Exchange

swarden13510

Hi all!

I ordered straighteners from a company called Cloud Nine back in November. They arrived and worked once, then the next time I tried to turn them on no joy. They really weren't as great as they were hyped up to be so rather than request an exchange, I opted just to send them back for a refund. That's where the rollercoaster begins. 

I filled in the online form and someone replied to me to tell me that I would have to pay the shipping costs - which I luckily knew was wrong. After a dispute over this, they finally sent me a returns label and I sent the straighteners back. They acknowledged receipt of the parcel, then radio silence. I had luckily paid with Klarna so froze any future payments but I still haven't received my refund. Cut to today when I receive an notification from DPD that my Cloud Nine delivery is on the way. I called the company and they said that since it was returned as a fault, they "automatically" send a replacement. I've never heard this before in my life.

I asked them to cancel delivery and they said they'll try but it's already with the driver according to this notification so I suspect it's too late. I genuinely don't have the time so close to Christmas to be running back and forth to the post office to return items I never asked for. The lady also tried to tell me that the engineers had examined the straighteners and that there was no fault (there was - they wouldn't turn on) so I also suspect they may try to sneakily charge me the return postage fees. 

Sorry for the long backstory - my question is... is it advisable to just reject the parcel when it arrives at the door? I'm wary of this option because this company has been an absolute nightmare to deal with and I feel they'll try to get money out of me any way they can. I just want to get my refund and close off all contact with them rather than drawing this unnecessary saga out any longer. What are my options? 

k3lvc

A bit more information needed for others to help

When (exactly) did you advise them of the issue/return them vs the delivery date ?

Did you tell them you were returning them with 14 days as are your rights under distance selling or did you tell them they were faulty (in which case they've probably followed repair/replace/refund which is their choice)

Assuming they're complying with the latter and if you can't prove otherwise through correspondence you sent them they it's unlikely that cancelling your Klarna payment is going to do anything but cause you future issues 

swarden13510

The delivery date was November 24 and I advised of return before November 26. The initial correspondence was through an online form on their website so I can't see exactly what I wrote but I remember I laid out the issue and asked how to return the items for refund. I don't believe I specifically referenced distance selling but I didn't think this was necessary as I assumed as a retailer they'd be familiar with these regulations. In hindsight, given that they were trying to charge me for the postage I suppose their customer service team is probably not as well trained as I had thought.

The issue is that I literally have no time to print off more labels and take them to the post office as I leave this evening for a Christmas break and I'm already so far behind with my to-do list due to having dealt with this all morning. The note says that delivery is due late this afternoon so my post office will likely be closed already at this point, meaning the whole second return process would have to wait until I'm back in 3 weeks' time.

Note: I wouldn't cancel my Klarna payment but they offer a returns service whereby you can report a return and they freeze payment of future instalments until the vendor reports receipt of the product. 

Aylesbury_Duck

Can't it wait until you're back? I'd have thought it better to deal with it properly when you have time, rather than rushing about trying to sort it in the next few hours.

swarden13510

Update to this:

The customer service rep just called and advised me it was too late to cancel delivery as I'd suspected but I should reject the delivery. I asked if the courier would provide me with proof of the rejected parcel and she said no but the tracking information should be updated to reflect it's being returned to sender. Now back to my original question... how safe is this option?

I'm really upset about this experience, especially since the rep on the phone just now informed me what they could deduct up to 20% of my refund as they have a note on their system that I didn't return the straightener in the original packaging. I absolutely did but obviously don't have any evidence of this so it's my word against theirs. I really thought this was a reputable company and I thought I had researched it thoroughly before buying. It just seems now like they're trying to claw whatever money they can out of me at every juncture.  

swarden13510

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Can't it wait until you're back? I'd have thought it better to deal with it properly when you have time, rather than rushing about trying to sort it in the next few hours.

Well ideally but based on my experience with the company, I can almost guarantee they'd try to refuse the return if I don't get it back to them within the 14 day period - that unfortunately exceeds the time I'll be away.

Manxman_in_exile

I always get confused by this, but would the OP have been better exercising their short term right to reject rather than cancelling as a distance sale?  The seller can't argue about a refund if the buyer rejects, can they?

swarden13510

Manxman_in_exile said:

I always get confused by this, but would the OP have been better exercising their short term right to reject rather than cancelling as a distance sale?  The seller can't argue about a refund if the buyer rejects, can they?

Yeah that's what I was wondering but I've read some things about rejecting parcels and see it's a bit risky as they can often go missing and I don't want this company to be able to invent another excuse to charge me.

Update: It just arrived and I just did as they said and rejected it. Checked the tracking and luckily it's showing as "refused" so I took a screengrab. Phew! Now lets see what else they can concoct to avoid refunding me 

Manxman_in_exile

Sorry - I didn't make myself clear!  (Very embarrassing as I'm often criticising other posters on these boards for not being clear!      )

I didn't mean reject the parcel when they were returned to you.  I meant that originally - because you were within 30 days of purchase - you might have been better off making clear to the seller that you were rejecting the goods outright and demanding a refund straight away.

Consumer Rights Act 2015 (legislation.gov.uk)

and

Consumer Rights Act 2015 (legislation.gov.uk)