Refund Deduction

5into13

I am after some advice.
I purchased some items from a well known hardware/building store. I bought online and had them delivered.

Firstly, the delivery did not come the day they said it would, and they didn't bother to let us know. Secondly, due to hubby measuring wrong, two pieces of timber were not long enough, so he returned them to store for a refund (Website says free returns to store). The lady at the till couldn't do the refund as only a manager can and he was in a meeting. I waited a week and after no refund hubby went back into the store and they then did the refund.

As if this wasn't bad enough, I then got the refund, but not what I expected. They had deducted £7 for delivery. I contacted customer service but they were no help at all. It took several emails for them to state that if I had returned all of the order, the £7 would not have been deducted, but as only part was, they were now charging a delivery fee. This makes no sense to me, and had I known, I would have returned the whole order.

But this is the part I need help with. Nowhere in the returns section on the website says they will charge a delivery fee and deduct it from the refund, nor that they won't if you return it all. I have searched the T&Cs on the website and other areas but cannot find this information anywhere.
So, can they deduct money, when they have no mention of this on their website? Surely they need to inform customers?

cymruchris

Did you get free delivery in return for spending £X? If so - what was the £X - and did your refund take you under that limit?

5into13

cymruchris said:

Did you get free delivery in return for spending £X? If so - what was the £X - and did your refund take you under that limit?

Yes it did, and I get that. But nowhere on the website does it tell you that. And why not deduct the delivery charge if the whole order is returned?

cymruchris

Hard to know or guess without knowing the retailer. I've ordered items in the past where they qualified for free delivery (just) and when I had to return one item it was then under the threshold, so only got a refund minus the delivery fee. I would expect it to be honest. The fact they gave you the runaround and took ages to refund is a separate customer service issue.

Okell

5into13 said:

... Firstly, the delivery did not come the day they said it would, and they didn't bother to let us know. Secondly, due to hubby measuring wrong, two pieces of timber were not long enough, so he returned them to store for a refund (Website says free returns to store)...

Does this store definitely accept returns and pay out refunds for online purchases of timber cut to the wrong size when it was the customer who provided the wrong size in the first place?

If the timber was cut to a size that you provided, you won't have any statutory right to cancel unless the store T&Cs specifically allow that.

eg B&Q say  "Please note that we are unable to offer refunds or to exchange products that have been cut to size..."
Returns & Refunds | Customer Support | B&Q (diy.com)

user1977

5into13 said:

a well known hardware/building store

Easier if you just tell us who it is!

5into13

It was Wickes. The timber was not cut to size. 

Alderbank

Thanks for identifying the trader.

Wickes' T&Cs include:

Right to cancel online orders

Under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 you have the right to cancel your order, when you buy online, through the app or via the phone, at any time up to 14 calendar days after the day on which you receive your delivery. If, for example, you receive your order on a Monday, you’ll have 14 days from the Tuesday to contact our Customer Service team.

If you plan to return your product to a store and you’ve paid for delivery as part of your online, app or telephone order you’ll be refunded the full amount, including the delivery charge.

That seems to say that you must inform their Customer Services Team within 14 days of your intention to cancel under CCR and that you plan to return the product to a store, presumably so they can sort out the paperwork. The CCR regs do say you must make your your intentions clear.

Did you do that?
If your husband just turned up at a local store the local manager might have not realised it was an online purchase and unlike the Head Office CS team might not be familiar with their process for dealing. You might need to go back to their CS team again.

Grumpy_chap

Alderbank said:

Thanks for identifying the trader.

Wickes' T&Cs include:

Right to cancel online orders

Under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 you have the right to cancel your order, when you buy online, through the app or via the phone, at any time up to 14 calendar days after the day on which you receive your delivery. If, for example, you receive your order on a Monday, you’ll have 14 days from the Tuesday to contact our Customer Service team.

If you plan to return your product to a store and you’ve paid for delivery as part of your online, app or telephone order you’ll be refunded the full amount, including the delivery charge.

That seems to say that you must inform their Customer Services Team within 14 days of your intention to cancel under CCR and that you plan to return the product to a store, presumably so they can sort out the paperwork. The CCR regs do say you must make your your intentions clear.

Did you do that?
If your husband just turned up at a local store the local manager might have not realised it was an online purchase and unlike the Head Office CS team might not be familiar with their process for dealing. You might need to go back to their CS team again.

The difficulty with that is that the OP purchased X number of items and only returned 2 out of X.  The remaining Y number of items were kept by the OP so presumably the OP still needs to pay the delivery charge as the Y number of items were still delivered.

5into13

Alderbank said:

Thanks for identifying the trader.

Wickes' T&Cs include:

Right to cancel online orders

Under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 you have the right to cancel your order, when you buy online, through the app or via the phone, at any time up to 14 calendar days after the day on which you receive your delivery. If, for example, you receive your order on a Monday, you’ll have 14 days from the Tuesday to contact our Customer Service team.

If you plan to return your product to a store and you’ve paid for delivery as part of your online, app or telephone order you’ll be refunded the full amount, including the delivery charge.

That seems to say that you must inform their Customer Services Team within 14 days of your intention to cancel under CCR and that you plan to return the product to a store, presumably so they can sort out the paperwork. The CCR regs do say you must make your your intentions clear.

Did you do that?
If your husband just turned up at a local store the local manager might have not realised it was an online purchase and unlike the Head Office CS team might not be familiar with their process for dealing. You might need to go back to their CS team again.

I'll be honest, I never saw that. I only saw the part under Returns that says they returns to store are free, which is what we did.
There's nothing saying about delivery being deducted (I do get this, but it should be mentioned) nor that the delivery charge is not deducted if you return the whole order. That part doesn't even make sense.
But surely if they do not advise a customer of something, they cannot enforce it.

Alderbank

Grumpy_chap said:

Alderbank said:

Thanks for identifying the trader.

Wickes' T&Cs include:

Right to cancel online orders

Under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 you have the right to cancel your order, when you buy online, through the app or via the phone, at any time up to 14 calendar days after the day on which you receive your delivery. If, for example, you receive your order on a Monday, you’ll have 14 days from the Tuesday to contact our Customer Service team.

If you plan to return your product to a store and you’ve paid for delivery as part of your online, app or telephone order you’ll be refunded the full amount, including the delivery charge.

That seems to say that you must inform their Customer Services Team within 14 days of your intention to cancel under CCR and that you plan to return the product to a store, presumably so they can sort out the paperwork. The CCR regs do say you must make your your intentions clear.

Did you do that?
If your husband just turned up at a local store the local manager might have not realised it was an online purchase and unlike the Head Office CS team might not be familiar with their process for dealing. You might need to go back to their CS team again.

The difficulty with that is that the OP purchased X number of items and only returned 2 out of X.  The remaining Y number of items were kept by the OP so presumably the OP still needs to pay the delivery charge as the Y number of items were still delivered.

You might presume that, and if you were running the company you might well include that in your T&Cs, but Wickes don't say that. 

They can't take away from your statutory rights but they can add to them and I think they have done so, probably unintentionally because of poor drafting of their T&Cs.

If the wording of a term or condition is not clear it must be interpreted in the favour of the consumer. If you have to presume I don't think it is very clear.