Are taxes refundable on a returned item?

evx

I recently purchased a coat for my wife, from Hollands Country Clothing, that was way too big.
I returned it for a refund, but received less than the purchase price due to taxes not being refunded. I understand postage is not refundable, but are taxes?

molerat

What are "Taxes".  The only possible tax from a UK based company should be VAT and that is refundable on the return of the item from a UK consumer.  Are you UK resident ?

sarah1972

Pmd the team to move to an actual board when back online on Monday. 

evx

Yes, I am a UK resident.

GrumpyDil

Their website says:

Users who correctly withdraw from a contract will be reimbursed by the Owner for all payments made to the Owner, including, if any, those covering the costs of delivery.

So I'd go back and ask where the rest of your money is? 

evx

GrumpyDil said:

Their website says:

Users who correctly withdraw from a contract will be reimbursed by the Owner for all payments made to the Owner, including, if any, those covering the costs of delivery.

So I'd go back and ask where the rest of your money is? 

Have emailed them requesting a full refund. We'll see what happens. Thanks

Kim_13

This retailer would be on my avoid list - they have wrongfully retained more than a third of the amount originally paid to them. The coat clearly cost £19.95, even if they were entitled to retain the entire delivery cost, which they aren’t. The cost of standard outward postage to you is refundable (but not the cost you paid to return the item to them.) So if you paid say £1 extra for First Class Delivery rather than Second (for example) it would be legally correct for them to refund less that £1. The only grey area here is the Protect My Order payment, as you have received that service, in spite of now wishing to cancel the contract to buy the goods.  

It is for the retailer to ‘reclaim’ the VAT as part of their VAT return - the sales figure that they pay VAT on is going to be less the total of items returned to them. They wouldn’t be the first to try this trick, Matalan did it to me (and annoyingly got away with it because the customer behind me decided to back the sales assistant’s wrong interpretation of the amount due to me; probably more concerned with getting served quickly because it wasn’t their money that they were wrongly retaining.) I think she understood that I was due the VAT back because she then invited the other customer forward and told me to take it up with the government - as if an individual consumer is going to be listened to by HMRC, especially when the error isn’t HMRC’s. 

Regarding the delivery charge non-refund, Regatta tried this with me last year. I forwarded the refund email to their support address with the following text added and was then refunded the delivery charge.

Hello, 

I have received this refund, however it is in breach of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 as I paid £36.30. The regulations require the consumer to pay the cost of the return shipping, which I did, and the trader to return the full amount paid to them in respect of the order unless an enhanced method of delivery was selected. As the goods were delivered by standard delivery, please return the additional £3.95 in accordance with Regulation 34 (2.)

Many thanks

—

Assuming that you opted for Standard Delivery, they should have refunded you £24.90 - the £19.95 you paid them for the coat and the £4.95 delivery charge - so they owe you the £8.95 difference between that amount and the amount they have already refunded. 

Kim_13

molerat said:

What are "Taxes".  The only possible tax from a UK based company should be VAT and that is refundable on the return of the item from a UK consumer.  Are you UK resident ?

In this case there is presumably Insurance Premium Tax applied to the Protect My Order payment. 

GrumpyDil

Kim_13 said:

molerat said:

What are "Taxes".  The only possible tax from a UK based company should be VAT and that is refundable on the return of the item from a UK consumer.  Are you UK resident ?

In this case there is presumably Insurance Premium Tax applied to the Protect My Order payment. 

Except that the tax is over 4 * the protect my order payment so it can't be. 

Kim_13

GrumpyDil said:

Kim_13 said:

molerat said:

What are "Taxes".  The only possible tax from a UK based company should be VAT and that is refundable on the return of the item from a UK consumer.  Are you UK resident ?

In this case there is presumably Insurance Premium Tax applied to the Protect My Order payment. 

Except that the tax is over 4 * the protect my order payment so it can't be. 

I assumed it was the total of the VAT and IPT hence calling it taxes. VAT on the £19.95 coat would be £3.325, with another 82.5p on delivery (as only letter size is VAT exempt.) That comes to £4.15 of VAT without accounting for the Protect My Order payment (though that wouldn’t appear to meet the criteria for higher rate IPT so they must have charged VAT (16.5p) on it and rounded each item up individually.)

evx

Received a reply this morning...

The line in the Terms and Conditions you are referring to is referring to a withdraw of the contract which is cancelling your order, in the case of cancellation your order will be refunded in full.
 
Below this line on the terms and conditions it states - "However, any additional costs resulting from the choice of a particular delivery method other than the least expensive type of standard delivery offered by the Owner, will not be reimbursed." And at the bottom it also confirmed "The costs of returning the goods are borne by the User." Our returns policy confirms we will deduct £4 from the cost of your refund if our label is used to send this back to us.
 
As this is the case when returning an item to us, if you use your own method of return you will receive the full amount of your item. However if our label is used £4 will be deducted to make your total refund £15.95. 
 
I apologise if this is not the outcome you desired.