Item sent, after long delay, cancellation email, and costs recovered by my bank - now what?

dgpur

OK - I bought something that was marked on the website as available with 2 weeks delivery. Then I got an email saying saying there would be a further two weeks delay. Then many more weeks passed, with nothing. An email got no response. Then two days later I got an email saying the order was cancelled and I would be refunded. I wasn’t. I raised a dispute with my bank, who resolved it and got my money back. I went off for a bit and when I came back, there it was in my porch, the thing I’d ordered. I told the firm the full details by the message service on their site. Weeks later, nothing.

So - is it mine now? Where do I actually stand, bearing in mind they have no money from me anymore, they don’t respond to mails, and they cancelled my order anyway! Surely I’ve done everything I can, and this is now effectively a free gift?

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Hello OP

You've become what's known as an involuntary bailee, you have a duty to take care of the goods, notify the bailor (the company) that you have their goods and they may collect them. It's recommended you do this twice by letter.

If they fail to collect you may sell the goods for market value (not mates rates), deduct any costs of selling and then account the sale to the company as the rest of the funds belong to them.

You haven't said how much the item is, if it's £50 and six months down the line they still haven't contacted you chances are they never will (it's very hard to recover a small sum like £50 any way).

If it's a £1000 item then they have 6 years but obviously as more time passes it becomes less likely. 

It's best to let them know again, stick the item in a cupboard, forget about it for a while and time will tell whether they are going to come looking. 

ThumbRemote

It's not a free gift. It remains the property of the sender, and this is the bit you need to keep in mind. 

In short, you must contact them to give them the opportunity to collect it. You've done that once. You should do so again, giving a minimum 14 day deadline after which you will sell the goods. 

Then you are free to sell the goods, for market value (ie what they sell for on ebay or other sites, not just flogged to a mate for 50p). The owner of the goods can subsequently ask for the money, and they have up to 6 years to do this. So if it's a huge sum, keep it separate somewhere. 

There's good guide to the legal situation here, it uses a bit of legal jargon and is written for landlords, but the principle is the same. 
https://www.stephens-scown.co.uk/commercial-property/whose-belongings-are-they-anyway-dealing-with-involuntary-bailment/

dgpur

Thanks! I’ve checked their given address and it’s New York! The item came to £45 including postage. It may just be easier (considering they don’t have my money, cancelled the order and didn’t respond to me) to just hold on to it for a good long while.

I will message them again.

ThumbRemote

Please remember that you do not have to arrange postage (and I would strongly advise you not to, given the chance of getting your money back from them is pretty much zero).

It's entirely down to them to arrange the courier to collect it. You may, if you wish, be helpful - eg print off labels, drop it off somewhere. But you certainly don't pay, or take time off work, or anything that causes a loss to yourself. 

tightauldgit

The advice you have received about being an involuntary bailee is legally correct so yes it's not a free gift. 

However, in practical terms, they've sent you the item and it's their responsibility to get it back. They're not communicating with you and seem to have no interest in recovering it, plus it would cost them more to pursue you than the item is worth. 

If I was in your shoes I'd give them another email, wait a bit (say a month), if no reply then i'd consider it mine with the caveat that if they do come asking in the future then I'll pay them for it. After all you were willing to buy it at that price anyway so it's no loss to pay for it. 

DullGreyGuy

How long ago did the bank "sort it"?

This would have been processed as a chargeback which normally means you get the funds returned immediately they then contact the merchant's bank, the merchant bank contacts the merchant and gives them 45 days to respond to your allegations, if a response is received its then sent back etc. 

If its decided by the banks that the merchant is in the right then the chargeback is declined and the charge reapplied to your account. This can be much later than the 45 days the merchant has to respond because of backlogs in both banks. 

If your only a few weeks after reporting it to your bank you may be premature in thinking its sorted and may find you end up getting charged for the item again when they show the courier conf of delivery.

dgpur

As you say they put the money into my account, but the necessary time passed and I got the email saying it was successful.

Manxman_in_exile

dgpur said:

As you say they put the money into my account, but the necessary time passed and I got the email saying it was successful.

Do you mean that it's now more than 45 days after your bank refunded you?  How much more?  A couple of days?  Six weeks?

dgpur

I got the email from the debit team indicating that the claim was resolved, the case closed, and that we could keep the money they gave us on starting the process. Took a month in total.

DullGreyGuy

dgpur said:

I got the email from the debit team indicating that the claim was resolved, the case closed, and that we could keep the money they gave us on starting the process. Took a month in total.

This would only be accurate if the merchant responded almost instantly to agree you should have the funds back which would be fairly unusual. I'd double check that you havent misread the email and it didnt say something like the chargeback had been successfully submitted (ie the process has now started not concluded)