No response when attempting to return goods bought online

100jma

G'Day Folks
Your expert opinions appreciated:

I bought a bag online with a credit card via Paypal. On receipt it proved to be unsuitable as one of the measurements was wrong. Being aware that I had 14 days to return it, I immediately emailed to company to arrange  - No response to this email or the other 4 subsequent emails I sent. No one answered the phone on the 10 attempts I made to get through. Their website specifically says that returns must be authorised & arranged before posting back.

Citizens Advice recommended an "Official"  recorded delivery letter, giving them 14 days to respond. This I sent and it was duly signed for. They have 2 days left and I'm not holding my breath! 


Any ideas please? 

John

m0bov

I'd be sending a LBA and cc in your credit card if over £50.

Ath_Wat

Where is the company based?  Not much point trying to sue someone in China.

cx6

you paid by paypal (not CC) - what kind of protection do they offer ?

MarvinDay

cx6 said:

you paid by paypal (not CC) - what kind of protection do they offer ?

Even though Paypal was used, it may still be possible to pursue a chargeback through the card issuer if the goods were incorrectly described. It's only S75 that is invalidated when using a CC to pay via Paypal.

Manxman_in_exile

100jma said:

...Being aware that I had 14 days to return it, I immediately emailed to company to arrange  - No response to this email or the other 4 subsequent emails I sent. No one answered the phone on the 10 attempts I made to get through. Their website specifically says that returns must be authorised & arranged before posting back....

Assuming you are "changing your mind" and exercising your right to cancel under The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, and you are not just using the seller's own returns policy, then there is NO requirement for you to have the return authorised and arranged.

All you need to do to exercise your statutory right to cancel under the above legislation, is to contact the seller and make a clear statement that you are cancelling the contract.  You need to tell the seller this within the 14 days.  I don't think you need to have returned the goods within 14 days, but you may want to check that.

This is covered by s32 of the above legislation:  The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 (legislation.gov.uk).

As you have already contacted them 5(?) times by email, I would think you have already cancelled the contract, and now you only need to find out how to return it to them for a refund.  You'll see from the legislation I quote that they should have acknowledged your cancellation.  That they haven't might be a bit worrying.  I'd contact them again and tell them that you have already cancelled the contract under the legislation I quote, and you want to return the item for a full refund.

Their T&Cs should have told you who pays return postage etc in event of a "change of mind" cancellation.  What do those T&Cs say?

If that gets you nowhere, consider (1) s75 claim if credit card >£100, or (2) chargeback, or (3) sue and Letter before Action.

NB1 - I suspect you will need to have returned the item anyway before any of the above will work.  You won't win a claim if you haven't returned it...

NB2 - as per @Ath_Wat you won't get anywhere suing a chinese company

100jma

Thanks all for your comments. In answer to some of your questions:

This is a British company and appears still to be solvent.

T&Cs say I must pay the return P&P which I accept.

I made the purchase with Paypal  which immediately charged the purchase to my Credit Card.

One further potential clue : The bag arrived in a massive, very tatty, very battered box. It literally rattled around inside. The Post Office delivery man actually recorded it as damaged. (Astoundingly the bag escaped any actual damage!)

So no one answers the phone or replies to emails and the dispatch team don't give a monkey's. My suspicion is that the firm are teetering on the brink and if I return the item "blind"  it will just disappear anyway.

Would naming the company here help?

DCFC79

100jma said:

Thanks all for your comments. In answer to some of your questions:

This is a British company and appears still to be solvent.

T&Cs say I must pay the return P&P which I accept.

I made the purchase with Paypal  which immediately charged the purchase to my Credit Card.

One further potential clue : The bag arrived in a massive, very tatty, very battered box. It literally rattled around inside. The Post Office delivery man actually recorded it as damaged. (Astoundingly the bag escaped any actual damage!)

So no one answers the phone or replies to emails and the dispatch team don't give a monkey's. My suspicion is that the firm are teetering on the brink and if I return the item "blind"  it will just disappear anyway.

Would naming the company here help?

If you want, send it in a PM.

100jma

So, as above........nothing worked.
I decided to return the bag "blind" (signed for of course) and pursue a claim by chargeback.

Imagine then my surprise then when I got an email saying: "Sorry! office staff all work from home, didn't get your emails, warehouse staff didn't send the letter, here's a full refund."

To round it off, I am now applying to Paypal for a Return Shipping Charge Refund. If this works I'll be just £2 out of pocket 

I only I could claim for all the wasted hours spent phoning, emailing and writing.......!

Thanks all for your interest.

Cheers!

anotheruser

I don't know why people made this so complicated.

You paid via PayPal (the funding card - your CC in this example - is irrelevant at this stage).
You could have simply gone through PayPal and raise a claim.
PayPal contact the company and if there is no response, the result would have been closed in your favour, nothing to send back.
If PayPal found favour with the seller, then raise a claim through your CC provider.  So long as you can show what they ask (IE, the selling page with measurements and a photo of the actual item not being correct), they will do the rest.

No need to send letters before action or waste huge amounts of time...

theonlywayisup

anotheruser said:

I don't know why people made this so complicated.

You paid via PayPal (the funding card - your CC in this example - is irrelevant at this stage).
You could have simply gone through PayPal and raise a claim.
PayPal contact the company and if there is no response, the result would have been closed in your favour, nothing to send back.
If PayPal found favour with the seller, then raise a claim through your CC provider.  So long as you can show what they ask (IE, the selling page with measurements and a photo of the actual item not being correct), they will do the rest.

No need to send letters before action or waste huge amounts of time...

This, sort of.  Although I see you now have a refund, it seems you went about it in a convoluted way when there was no need. 

You say the bag 'measurements was wrong'.  If it was advertised as X measurement and when it arrived it was Y measurement, then it is a simple case of SNAD.  Significantly Not As Described.

You have 180 days from purchase to open the case on Paypal.  Escalate it when you can and wait for Paypal to advice you to return it.  You have to return it with proof of delivery, at your expense for a refund.  The 'returns on us' programme that Paypal offer would have covered up to £15 reimbursement for the returns postage.