Refund refusal for wrong item received

foxyfamous

Hi all 
I am currently battling with Harvey Nichols. I bought a dress online in the sale for £54 it came via Royal Mail. When I opened the box it contained contact lenses and some moisturiser! 

I immediately contacted them they have said they have viewed the CCTV footage of my dress being packed and are satisfied that that was the item that left! 

They are refusing to give me a refund, I have got nowhere with them. I thought distance selling regulations act means I should be entitled for a refund as I got goods  not as described, they are saying no it the item left and will not refund. I am left out of pocket with someone else’s items. 

Any suggestions I am already seeking help from PayPal 

ArbitraryRandom

If you bought via PayPal (using your bank card) you have PayPal buyer protection - you would need to open a PayPal dispute for 'Item significantly not as described". 

https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/first-dispute

Paypal will (most often at least) then instruct you to return the item via a trackable method (sometimes will provide you with a returns label or you submit the tracking information). 

Once the parcel shows as returned they will issue the refund. 

The retailer may dispute the refund, but given the value - unless you have a pattern of returns that PayPal flags as suspicious - Paypal may just refund you out of pocket. 

Grumpy_chap

foxyfamous said:

Hi all 
I am currently battling with Harvey Nichols. I bought a dress online in the sale for £54 it came via Royal Mail. When I opened the box it contained contact lenses and some moisturiser! 

I immediately contacted them they have said they have viewed the CCTV footage of my dress being packed and are satisfied that that was the item that left! 

They are refusing to give me a refund, I have got nowhere with them. I thought distance selling regulations act means I should be entitled for a refund as I got goods  not as described, they are saying no it the item left and will not refund. I am left out of pocket with someone else’s items. 

Any suggestions I am already seeking help from PayPal 

Did the delivery include a proof of delivery photo?
Did the supplier share a still of the item being dispatched as packed that they claim to have?

It is just, this is a very odd incorrect contents scenario.

1. I would expect the packaging type / size for a dress to be quite different to the packaging type / size for some contact lenses & moisturiser.  (That is an odd order mix that was received in any case...)
2. The value of the mis-delivery suggests genuine mistake rather than deceitful act (by any party).  I suspect the contact lenses and moisturiser probably cost as much as, if not more than, the £54 dress.  These types of threads are more commonly purchased a £5bn piece of IT stuff, received a £5 pair of socks.

Hoenir

Had the parcel been visibly tampered wth? 

DullGreyGuy

Grumpy_chap said:

foxyfamous said:

Hi all 
I am currently battling with Harvey Nichols. I bought a dress online in the sale for £54 it came via Royal Mail. When I opened the box it contained contact lenses and some moisturiser! 

I immediately contacted them they have said they have viewed the CCTV footage of my dress being packed and are satisfied that that was the item that left! 

They are refusing to give me a refund, I have got nowhere with them. I thought distance selling regulations act means I should be entitled for a refund as I got goods  not as described, they are saying no it the item left and will not refund. I am left out of pocket with someone else’s items. 

Any suggestions I am already seeking help from PayPal 

Did the delivery include a proof of delivery photo?
Did the supplier share a still of the item being dispatched as packed that they claim to have?

It is just, this is a very odd incorrect contents scenario.

1. I would expect the packaging type / size for a dress to be quite different to the packaging type / size for some contact lenses & moisturiser.  (That is an odd order mix that was received in any case...)
2. The value of the mis-delivery suggests genuine mistake rather than deceitful act (by any party).  I suspect the contact lenses and moisturiser probably cost as much as, if not more than, the £54 dress.  These types of threads are more commonly purchased a £5bn piece of IT stuff, received a £5 pair of socks.

The other oddity is that Harvey Nicks don't sell contact lenses.

The only thing I've bought from them was an item that had to be ordered directly from a store, in principle there could be a third party doing their fulfilment for regular web orders and hence the warehouse contains more than just their stock but would be surprised that they weren't doing their own operations given their size and brand positioning. 


As to the OP ultimately if they are maintaining they sent what you ordered your options are either to look to your bank if you paid by card or PayPal else its send a letter before action and use MCOL to issue court claim. 

Okell

foxyfamous said:

Hi all 
I am currently battling with Harvey Nichols. I bought a dress online in the sale for £54 it came via Royal Mail. When I opened the box it contained contact lenses and some moisturiser! 

I immediately contacted them they have said they have viewed the CCTV footage of my dress being packed and are satisfied that that was the item that left! 

They are refusing to give me a refund, I have got nowhere with them. I thought distance selling regulations act means I should be entitled for a refund as I got goods  not as described, they are saying no it the item left and will not refund. I am left out of pocket with someone else’s items. 

Any suggestions I am already seeking help from PayPal 

It's not distance selling regulations - it's s11 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (legislation.gov.uk) and you should be entitled to full refund.

If I were you I'd go back to Harvey Nicks and tell them that regardless of them thinking they sent you the right items, you did not receive the right items.  Point out to them that under s29(2)(a) of the same legislation I linked to above, they (Harvey Nicks) are responsible for the goods until they are delivered into your physical possession:

"29 Passing of risk

(1)  A sales contract is to be treated as including the following provisions as terms.

(2)  The goods remain at the trader’s risk until they come into the physical possession of—

(a)  the consumer, or

(b)  a person identified by the consumer to take possession of the goods"   [My bold for emphasis]

So long as you didn't choose a courier not offered by Harvey Nicks, the above applies.

If you get nowhere with them or with Paypal you'll need to decide whether you want to sue them under the above legislation.  If it got to court it would come down to whether the judge believed you had not recieved the correct item.

Okell

Grumpy_chap said:

Did the delivery include a proof of delivery photo?
Did the supplier share a still of the item being dispatched as packed that they claim to have?...

Just to satisfy my curiosity, does anyone know if traders really do film and record the packing and dispatch of every order they send out, or is it just a bluff?

Hoenir

Okell said:

Grumpy_chap said:

Did the delivery include a proof of delivery photo?
Did the supplier share a still of the item being dispatched as packed that they claim to have?...

Just to satisfy my curiosity, does anyone know if traders really do film and record the packing and dispatch of every order they send out, or is it just a bluff?

A retailer dealing in high value items is unlikely to leave anything to chance.  Easy enough to monitor an area. 

DullGreyGuy

Okell said:

Grumpy_chap said:

Did the delivery include a proof of delivery photo?
Did the supplier share a still of the item being dispatched as packed that they claim to have?...

Just to satisfy my curiosity, does anyone know if traders really do film and record the packing and dispatch of every order they send out, or is it just a bluff?

Just look how the Amazon convenience stores work... walk in, scan your QR code (or when you go out in some), pick what you want off the shelves (no scanning etc) and just walk out with your goods. Use the two near home/work regularly and never have an issue, even when taking something out of my bag and putting it back in the wrong place. 

Warehouses can apply exactly the same technologies and highlight to the picker if they pick up the wrong item/not allow them to close the order. Alternatively it can be more basic CCTV in the packing area; they'll timestamp when the label is printed and from which position so not hard to look at the CCTV for a few minutes before/after

Who does what level of checking? Probably most staff don't know either. Even being in a call centre the worst place checked everyone's bags/pockets on the way out of the office... make sure no one is taking a box of pens or something. 

screech_78

Okell said:

Grumpy_chap said:

Did the delivery include a proof of delivery photo?
Did the supplier share a still of the item being dispatched as packed that they claim to have?...

Just to satisfy my curiosity, does anyone know if traders really do film and record the packing and dispatch of every order they send out, or is it just a bluff?

We do. For all items in one specific distribution centre anyway. It doesn’t include fashion items such as clothing. 

The packing is done with machines. Orders are picked by machines and then there is a conveyor belt which involves items being placed into a box and then the box sealed. Photos are taking prior to the box being sealed. 

Whenever a customer advises they have received the wrong item, the first thing that is requested from our DC is the packing photo. As they are taped by a machine, it’s impossible to tamper with the parcel and it go un-noticed so we would check the packing photo and the delivery photo (as almost all couriers take photos at the point of delivery).