Nightmare with Zara, can I go to court?

Aylesbury_Duck

Follow through on your letter.  It's the only way you have a chance of getting the refund.

RefluentBeans

The issue with Letter Before Actions is that it is a nuclear option - they either cave or they batten down the hatches. There’s no undo button and there’s little chance of negotiation. If you want to sue them, you now have to follow through with it, or you can drop it. 

If you keep going between negotiations and LBA’s it gives the impression you’re all bark and no bite and nothing will be given to you. So you now need to follow through. 

I don’t think Zara have got a good legal defence and an internal legal ‘advisor’ likely will not handle the case for them, and it’s more than likely it’ll get settled outside of court as it’ll probably be cheaper for the company. But they may actually fight it - but you seem to have a good case, so shouldn’t be too hard for you. 

I’d imagine the argument that they will use will be that the package was left for you and so in their mind risk of damages had transferred from the retailer to the consumer (there’s a lot of debate on here of when risk transfers - the law says when it’s handed to you, but doesn’t account for safe spaces), so they can’t be held liable for your ‘poor care’; and they’ll likely argue that they never received the parcel back and the ‘proof of postage’ proves a parcel was sent, not what was in the contents so how can they validate the claim. Both points are fairly defensible from you so I wouldn’t stress too much. 

tightauldgit

Put my tuppence behind following through on your letter - Zara seem to have a history of this kind of nonsense. 

My view is the law on this is fairly straightforward - if you are returning an item using the retailers return label then their agent (the courier) is acting on their behalf and risk transfers when they have the item in their possession. I think the fact that Zara are blustering about sharing your return history or whatever just shows they don't really have a sound legal defence. 

They will try to claim they didn't receive it - but their agent did on their behalf. If they lost it subsequently that's an issue between Zara and their courier. 

They will try to claim that they can't validate what was in the parcel - but their process doesn't allow for that and it's not reasonable (or even possible) to ask a consumer to prove what was in a parcel after the fact. 

I don't see that there is anything in law that allows them to refuse the refund. File the court action and they'll probably settle. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Alderbank said:

OP, under section 43(5)(b) of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, Zara must reimburse you without undue delay and not later than 14 days after the day on which you supply evidence of having sent the goods back. 

It's important to note that OP wasn't cancelling their contract under the CCRs, they were instead seeking a remedy/rejecting the goods under the CRA.  

@formerzarashopper

Hello OP

Do you have photos of the soggy package and the damaged goods? Did you request a refund or a replacement? I assume you returned the entire order?

If you sought a refund you would have been exercising the short term right to reject and the trader should refund within 14 days of agreeing the goods did not conform (had a problem). 

The guidance notes on the legislation note where it is obvious by looking at the goods that they have a problem that 14 days would be when they have seen the goods, most likely including having seen them by looking at photos (that compares to say a fridge that won't stay cool where it's reasonable for the trader to inspect a technical aspect before agreeing). 

If you opted for a replacement you would now need to exercising the final right to reject and that also comes with the same 14 day requirement as the short term right. 

For a claim of up to £300 it will cost £35 to file, there is usually mediation and then if no agreement a hearing for which there is a fee (£55 has been mentioned here before).  If you win you should be awarded these costs if you apply for them and any other small costs such as travel. 

If you lose you obviously won't get the court fees and the other party could claim their loses but these are very limited, Zara can't bill you £100 an hour for their representative as an example, a figure of around £90 has been mentioned here before as a max for additional costs. 

Whilst it's a bit to digest I would suggest reading the guidance notes on the CRA about what your rights are:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/notes/division/3/1/3/4

so if you file you can state your position correctly. 

There is one issue, it is assumed on here that the party that paid for the return is responsible for the parcel in transit, whilst logical, I've not seen anything that backs this up from a legal stance. 

One last thought, does the label Zara gave you have RM 24/48 at the top of the label or or does it say RM Tracked 24/48?

If Tracked that service should come with compensation, I don't know if the usual Royal Mail policy of the both sender and recipient being able to claim applies for Tracked, if it does you can claim to get back some of your money (possibly £150 but may vary for account customers or return labels), if it doesn't you should argue Zara are not mitigating (lessening) their loses by at least claiming some of the money back. 

If it was just a standard RM 24/48 I doubt the service will have any compensation attached so it's a moot point  

formerzarashopper

I don’t think Zara offer exchanges. I ordered 4 items and repurchased 3 of them, I didn’t like the fabric on 1 piece so no point in buying it again. I did photograph the box outside and then closer pictures of the clothes I sent these to their customer service before returning. I was a bit aphrenrsive about returning clothes in that condition to begin with but they didn’t seem too concerned and told me to go ahead and return them. The cardboard boxes Zara use to send their clothing in are barely thicker than a cereal box so I don’t think that helped.

The service used is Royal Mail Tracked Returns 48. Zara emailed me the label as a pdf and I still have the email. There’s two updates on the tracking, the parcel goes from being at a mail centre and then to a hub. When I spoke to Royal Mail they said the third and final update should have been the delivery scan, it was going to their national distribution centre. 

Royal Mail don’t dispute the parcel has been lost and they confirmed the proof of postage is valid. They also seemed quite adamant that Zara has to be the one who contacts them further about it. They sent me a letter stating the above and after I sent to Zara (with Royal Mail’s) permission Zara started to claim they don’t have to refund items they don’t receive. 

Thank you for all the responses. I’ll go ahead and with the MCOL.

Zara were featured on BBC’s Watchdog a few weeks ago for not issuing refunds and told the BBC they were the two isolated incidents when it’s obviously a lot more. It riled me up into sending the LBA but then I thought I’d better seek a second opinion before actually going to court. I’ll keep you updated with the outcome. 

formerzarashopper

To provide an update I filed the MCOL. Originally the same legal advisor responded but then on Friday I got an email from law firm /Freeths saying they will be acting on Zara’s behalf. 

bileo83

formerzarashopper said:

To provide an update I filed the MCOL. Originally the same legal advisor responded but then on Friday I got an email from law firm /Freeths saying they will be acting on Zara’s behalf. 

Hello - I have the same issue with a refund that is being withheld despite proof of postage (Evri who seem to have lost it). I also want to take legal action now (value is £250) and I am shocked how systematic this refusal to refund tactic from Zara seems to be. Can I ask if you have had success with your MCOL? Thank you  

LightFlare

Sadly the OP hasnt returned since their Oct 8th post