Please help, in tears - clothes subscription taken money

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

I think the problem this company has is you aren’t really paying for a traditional subscription, they charge a styling fee for putting bits to your style in the box (no issue with this, it’s a service which they fulfil) but then they charge you for goods depending upon what you get/want to keep which is a lot different to paying £15 a month for say a cheese subscription, in that example although what you get will vary each month and be unknown, you will know it’s £15 a month. 

Would be interesting to know the answer to this one.

pinkshoes

shiraz99 said:

pinkshoes said:

As their T&Cs state:

6 AT-HOME TRY ON OF THE GOODS We will send you Goods in your Style Box that we have selected based on the results of your Style Quiz. Please try on the Goods as soon as possible when received. You have a free 7-day home trial of the Goods from the date the Style Box is delivered to you (the “Home Try-On Period”). It is your choice to keep some, all or none of the Goods.

I would state back to them that as you were away, the goods were not delivered to you until X date, and you are now returning the goods within 7 days of them being delivered to YOU.

Where has the OP indicated that they were away when the goods were delivered, or attempted to be delivered.

Where does it say they WERE at home? The OP said they had a family crisis, so they may or may not have been at home. If they were not, then the parcel was not delivered to them, and as per the T&Cs it says you have 7 days from when delivered to YOU. It doesn't say attempted delivery in their T&Cs.

Their T&Cs are highly ambiguous and it is whether you can conclude that this is distance selling (in which case the OP has more than 7 days to return) and therefore the T&Cs are incorrect.

jon81uk

The OP does need to answer if they have tried contacting the company.

It is very likely that asking if they can return and sending back the unworn goods will result in a refund anyway, treating the email sent as a "warning". But they need to ask ASAP.

theoretica

Is the total price of the collection they send each time fixed - or do they change it each time? If they can vary the price (if you kept it all) on whim that seems an argument against it being a subscription.

shiraz99

pinkshoes said:

shiraz99 said:

pinkshoes said:

As their T&Cs state:

6 AT-HOME TRY ON OF THE GOODS We will send you Goods in your Style Box that we have selected based on the results of your Style Quiz. Please try on the Goods as soon as possible when received. You have a free 7-day home trial of the Goods from the date the Style Box is delivered to you (the “Home Try-On Period”). It is your choice to keep some, all or none of the Goods.

I would state back to them that as you were away, the goods were not delivered to you until X date, and you are now returning the goods within 7 days of them being delivered to YOU.

Where has the OP indicated that they were away when the goods were delivered, or attempted to be delivered.

Where does it say they WERE at home? The OP said they had a family crisis, so they may or may not have been at home. If they were not, then the parcel was not delivered to them, and as per the T&Cs it says you have 7 days from when delivered to YOU. It doesn't say attempted delivery in their T&Cs.

Their T&Cs are highly ambiguous and it is whether you can conclude that this is distance selling (in which case the OP has more than 7 days to return) and therefore the T&Cs are incorrect.

They said they had a family crisis THIS week which made them go over the returns period by 5 days, so they must have had the goods early the previous week.

unholyangel

shiraz99 said:

Sandtree said:

Have you actually spoken to them? Nothing in your original posts suggests you have

alex207 said:

My question is - can a company’s return policy override the statutory 14-day returns right for unseen goods via the internet? 

In most cases you have 14 days to advise the company to cancel your order from the date of receipt of the goods and T&Cs cannot override this. For a service you have 14 days from placing the order to cancel.

The problem is going to be defining what you have with this company... on the one hand it looks a lot like a service because they are sending you a curated box of items to choose from however it involves physical goods, potentially, as well. Assuming they resist your attempts to return they presumably will argue that they have a service contract with you and as such the cooling off period has ended.  

Even if it were a sales contract rather than a service, and I'm not sure it is, as it's a regular delivery of goods over a set period, the 14 days cancellation period ends after the first item(s) are delivered.

CCRs Section 30.6 state: "If the contract is a sales contract for regular delivery of goods during a defined period of more than one day, the cancellation period ends at the end of 14 days after the day on which the first of the goods come into the physical possession of".

It may be a regular delivery of goods, but you seem to be overlooking the "sales contract" part of that provision. There's no obligation on the customer to buy and there's no obligation on them to sell. Therefore there can't even be an agreement to buy, nevermind a sales contract. 

To the OP, their T&C's are poorly worded. Take this section for example, which they seem to be relying upon: 

6 AT-HOME TRY ON OF THE GOODS We will send you Goods in your Style Box that we have selected based on the results of your Style Quiz. Please try on the Goods as soon as possible when received. You have a free 7-day home trial of the Goods from the date the Style Box is delivered to you (the “Home Try-On Period”). It is your choice to keep some, all or none of the Goods.

Where does it state they lose the right of "your choice to keep some, all or none of the goods" upon expiry of the "free" 7-day home trial (use, not just inspection) of the goods? Or that the 7 days is a cancellation period? That quite literally just states they can use the goods as much as they want within those 7 days at no charge. It doesn't set any period of limitation on cancellation. 

The problem with their terms is they seem to suggest the sending of the goods is  not legally binding. Meaning there's no offer & acceptance when the goods are dispatched. It may even fall foul of inertia selling since they seem to decide the goods and the price while making it binding on the consumer. 

alex207

Hi all, thanks so much for responding. I called Citizens Advice today and sadly they are within their rights to charge after seven days. 

What upsets me the most is back in March I agreed a later return with them for that month’s box as I was away, and received an email 14 days after the original return date from someone who didn’t know about the agreed delay to the original return, saying if I didn’t send the returns back ‘soon’ they’d take it further. 

Yet this time I’d logged the return within their 7 day period, and just 5 days later bam they charged the whole £319 and sent a narky email spouting their t’s and c’s. Tellingly they said they’d seen I’d unsubscribed from the service (which I had as there was never anything I wanted in the boxes) and ‘we would've suggested you might like to do anyway, as this service may not be right for you.’ The difference in their customer service and protocol this time therefore seems like a metaphorical poke in the eye for unsubscribing.

Which may also explain the most upsetting part of this - despite my having explained the awful circumstances surrounding why I had prepared the return but not yet been able to send it, I was met with hostile attitude and cold intransigence. 

This circumstance was beyond my control involving my young child and something I wouldn’t wish on any child or parent. I called three other stores this morning to explain that my return to each of them would be late and why, and each one said ‘don’t worry, send it when you can and we’ll refund you’. Not Circle of Style. Their attitude appears to be ‘tough, we don’t care about your reasons, we’re happy to profit from your circumstances.’ 

I fully appreciate their t’s and c’s are there for a reason but in the face of my genuine and distressing explanation you would think some compassion and flexibility would have been shown, particularly only five days since I had logged the return online. When I said I would send it the very next morning I was told it was my property now and if I sent it to them and didn’t retrieve it they would just give it to charity. 

Anyway, as I say I am desperately upset. I really appreciate your having taken the time to respond, thank you. 

MalMonroe

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I am so sorry this has happened. Not only a traumatic time but to also lose money. Well I know you have the clothes instead but you don't want them. I'm also sorry Citizens Advice couldn't give you better news.

As you seem to have nothing to lose, do you think it's worth writing a letter to the Head of Company (or Manager, or Director, I'm not sure who's in charge there) at Circle of Style? If you google, it says their address is : 85 Great Portland Street, London WIW 7LT. It's worth a try anyway. 

If you write to the person in charge, explaining everything (without all the personal details, of course) as you have done here and giving the reason for the delay, they may be able to over-ride what the nasty email says. You could also stress the fact that you have been a loyal customer in the past. That really is no way to run a business and surely somebody somewhere must have some empathy?

If you get nowhere with that you could try phoning your card issuer - bank or credit card company - to explain the situation and ask if they could do a chargeback. That's quite a long shot, I know but if you never ask for things, you never get them. Your circumstances at that time were unusual and it's really awful that you have lost out through no fault of your own. 

I do hope you can get something back and wish you all the very best at this horrible time.    

jon81uk

alex207 said:

Hi all, thanks so much for responding. I called Citizens Advice today and sadly they are within their rights to charge after seven days. 

What upsets me the most is back in March I agreed a later return with them for that month’s box as I was away, and received an email 14 days after the original return date from someone who didn’t know about the agreed delay to the original return, saying if I didn’t send the returns back ‘soon’ they’d take it further. 

Yet this time I’d logged the return within their 7 day period, and just 5 days later bam they charged the whole £319 and sent a narky email spouting their t’s and c’s. Tellingly they said they’d seen I’d unsubscribed from the service (which I had as there was never anything I wanted in the boxes) and ‘we would've suggested you might like to do anyway, as this service may not be right for you.’ The difference in their customer service and protocol this time therefore seems like a metaphorical poke in the eye for unsubscribing.

Which may also explain the most upsetting part of this - despite my having explained the awful circumstances surrounding why I had prepared the return but not yet been able to send it, I was met with hostile attitude and cold intransigence. 

This circumstance was beyond my control involving my young child and something I wouldn’t wish on any child or parent. I called three other stores this morning to explain that my return to each of them would be late and why, and each one said ‘don’t worry, send it when you can and we’ll refund you’. Not Circle of Style. Their attitude appears to be ‘tough, we don’t care about your reasons, we’re happy to profit from your circumstances.’ 

I fully appreciate their t’s and c’s are there for a reason but in the face of my genuine and distressing explanation you would think some compassion and flexibility would have been shown, particularly only five days since I had logged the return online. When I said I would send it the very next morning I was told it was my property now and if I sent it to them and didn’t retrieve it they would just give it to charity. 

Anyway, as I say I am desperately upset. I really appreciate your having taken the time to respond, thank you. 

Have you actaully spoken to them this time to see if you can return them late for a refund?

alex207

Thank you all, and yes I have asked, several times, but was met with complete cold intransigence. In fact the last email when I said I would return the items the very next day was the one saying don’t bother, if you do that we still wouldn’t refund you and just give them to charity.

A wholly unpleasant experience with Circle of Style completely devoid of customer service or humanity. I have items I also need to return to three other high street stores, I contacted them on the back of this experience with Circle of Style and each one said ‘don’t worry, send them when you can and we’ll refund you.’ Not one chose to profit from this circumstance.