Trying to get a refund from a company I thought was in this country but it's in China!

Sec500

I bought a set of lights from a company called Lightzey (should have read the reviews before I bought them but for some stupid reason I didn't) I paid £183 (on my credit card) for the lights from a company that I thought were based in Manchester, but on checking the shipping the company is based in China. The lights were delivered and they are not what they look like on their website. So I contacted them to start the return process. They have now come back to me to say, that I have to pay for them to be returned to China and they would charge a restocking fee of 10%. They have offered me 20% back on the price I paid and to keep the lights. What worries me is that I can try and sell them on but looking at some of the reviews, they say they are not UK tested so may be dangerous! I am at a loss to know what to do and how to take this further - would welcome some advice. On their returns page it does say they accept returns and exchanges but no where does it say they have to go back to China.

km1500

I suppose the problem is what do you mean when you say they do not look like what they look like on there website

this is important because if you think they are not as described then the retailer is at fault but if you have just changed your mind then you are subject to whatever returns policy the retailer has

this is all a mood point anyway because the retailer is in China and therefore your subject to Chinese consumer protections

if you think they are not as described then you can go to your card company as you did not receive what you ordered and ask for a chargeback or even a section 75 if a credit card

DullGreyGuy

km1500 said:

this is all a mood point anyway because the retailer is in China and therefore your subject to Chinese consumer protections

if you think they are not as described then you can go to your card company as you did not receive what you ordered and ask for a chargeback or even a section 75 if a credit card

The website reports to be run by a UK based company but its sole director is in China - the company is in the process of winding up being £23k in debt after 1 years trading. The site itself says its terms are governed by "UK" law, which in itself is a redflag because there is no such thing and it should have been England & Wales.

To be able to process a claim the OP will have had to return the items and the problem is that postage to China is expensive and often you'll find the receipient claiming they never received them. 

OP - you say it was a set of lights... was that one box with multiple lights in it for £183 or was that you buying 3 lamps at £61 each? This may preclude a S75 claim depending on which it is. 

Sec500

DullGreyGuy said:

km1500 said:

this is all a mood point anyway because the retailer is in China and therefore your subject to Chinese consumer protections

if you think they are not as described then you can go to your card company as you did not receive what you ordered and ask for a chargeback or even a section 75 if a credit card

The website reports to be run by a UK based company but its sole director is in China - the company is in the process of winding up being £23k in debt after 1 years trading. The site itself says its terms are governed by "UK" law, which in itself is a redflag because there is no such thing and it should have been England & Wales.

To be able to process a claim the OP will have had to return the items and the problem is that postage to China is expensive and often you'll find the receipient claiming they never received them. 

OP - you say it was a set of lights... was that one box with multiple lights in it for £183 or was that you buying 3 lamps at £61 each? This may preclude a S75 claim depending on which it is. 

Thank you so much for all the info and very interesting information. I'll see what I can do through the credit card company. The colours of the lamps look nothing like the ones on their website. I paid £47 for one light and then £136 for a chandelier. So I might be able to get the money back for the chandelier then.

cymruchris

In terms of the return - I'd give up now - it's not right, but that's the risk of buying from China (and I understand the website wasn't clear about it - but that's one of the drawbacks of the modern internet age - there's nobody regulating these things to the degree that needs to happen - there are multiple sites like this all over the internet catching people out left, right and centre). 

If you did post them, it would take months for them to get back - and even then they'd probably claim they hadn't arrived. 

I'd definitely explore the chargeback route. 

Alderbank

I don't see any dates in the original post.

@Sec500, when did all this happen? Did you buy them for Christmas? You have limited time to claim chargeback.

tightauldgit

cymruchris said:

In terms of the return - I'd give up now - it's not right, but that's the risk of buying from China (and I understand the website wasn't clear about it - but that's one of the drawbacks of the modern internet age - there's nobody regulating these things to the degree that needs to happen - there are multiple sites like this all over the internet catching people out left, right and centre). 

If you did post them, it would take months for them to get back - and even then they'd probably claim they hadn't arrived. 

I'd definitely explore the chargeback route. 

Isn't the received wisdom that if you try a chargeback or s75 then you probably need to return the item to the seller though?

Pretty much impossible to regulate these things - just a case of having to exercise caution when buying.  

Sec500

Alderbank said:

I don't see any dates in the original post.

@Sec500, when did all this happen? Did you buy them for Christmas? You have limited time to claim chargeback.

No bought them middle of June. I'll go down the credit card route and see what I can do - I've learnt my lesson though  

DullGreyGuy

Sec500 said:

Alderbank said:

I don't see any dates in the original post.

@Sec500, when did all this happen? Did you buy them for Christmas? You have limited time to claim chargeback.

No bought them middle of June. I'll go down the credit card route and see what I can do - I've learnt my lesson though  

There are tell tale signs that something is either an offshore company or a tiny bedroom business that doesn't know what they are doing. Often the signs are in the legal bits like T&Cs, Privacy policy, Returns Policy etc.

We/Us/Our should be defined as a legal entity, these sites just put their site name
Legal Jurisdiction of UK doesn't exist
Sales items are non-returnable
Excessive delivery times - this site says up to 14 days from dispatch.. is the courier on a bicycle or it is coming from overseas?
Americanisms - the site uses 'z's rather than 's' plus on the shipping page says all transactions will be processed in dollars
Timezones - contact hours for calls will state they are in "GMT" which a UK company wouldnt do given half the year we are on "BST"

You can go further if you want like checking the company it claims to be, looking when the website was created etc but the above 

Nothing wrong with buying from overseas, china makes some great products, just good to make sure you know before you buy