Returning goods. Ordered in UK, delivered from USA, return to China.

stanlob

I made 2 orders with an online UK supplier by mistake and cancelled them the following day.  The company concerned initially ignored my request and set about processing the orders.  The second order was a mistaken duplicate of the first order, hence the desire to canel both orders.   After the goods arrived they subsequently agreed to provide a full refund.  Tracking showed that both orders came from different USA addresses.  The refund requires me to return the goods to China at my cost which is prohibitive relative to the orignal costs. 
What are my rights regarding this situation?

born_again

Which website? Or retailer?

!!!!!! .co.uk does not mean they are a UK company.

Okell

stanlob said:

I made 2 orders with an online UK supplier by mistake and cancelled them the following day.  The company concerned initially ignored my request and set about processing the orders.  The second order was a mistaken duplicate of the first order, hence the desire to canel both orders.   After the goods arrived they subsequently agreed to provide a full refund.  Tracking showed that both orders came from different USA addresses.  The refund requires me to return the goods to China at my cost which is prohibitive relative to the orignal costs. 
What are my rights regarding this situation?

It's always worth checking an online trader's returns address before ordering.  If they don't give a UK address (or don't give an address at all... ) I personally would think twice before ordering.

Also worth checking the rest of a trader's T&Cs before ordering.  In particular, who is the trader and where are they located, and what country's laws the contract is subject to.

If you paid by debit card or credit card you could try a chargeback or s75 claim.

Apart from that you may not have any other rights to get your money back other than returning the goods to China.  And even then they'll probably claim they never received the return...

discat11

I've returned things to China previously and never received a refund, so personally I wouldn't recommend doing that. I would sell the surplus item on TBH.

Undervalued

stanlob said:

I made 2 orders with an online UK supplier by mistake and cancelled them the following day.  The company concerned initially ignored my request and set about processing the orders.  The second order was a mistaken duplicate of the first order, hence the desire to canel both orders.   After the goods arrived they subsequently agreed to provide a full refund.  Tracking showed that both orders came from different USA addresses.  The refund requires me to return the goods to China at my cost which is prohibitive relative to the orignal costs. 
What are my rights regarding this situation?

Unless you can be certain that your contract is with a UK firm that you can, if necessary, sue in a British court you have to accept that you are taking a risk when buying from overseas.

You might have a right to sue through their courts but realistically that is going to be difficult (at best) and probably not viable for small to medium sums.

With that in mind you need to decide whether to risk parting with the goods and paying out for return postage in the hope of them honouring their offer of a refund.

Depending on the goods, as has been suggested, I would consider cutting your losses by trying to sell them on eBay or Gumtree.

Using PayPal (or similar) may give you some protection if you follow their rules carefully. Generally though, that only helps in the case on non delivery, which is not the problem here.

sheramber

The goods are shipped in bulk to various distribution warehouse in several countries.

These distribution warehouse are contracted  to send orders out. They probably do so for several companies.

There is no provision for them to accept returns or process them.  

stanlob

Thanks for all the replies.  I have been away from my Laptop heance my delay in replying.
The retailer is called Ideormer and contact details are Manner Tradingco..Limited, Ground Floor, 2 Woodberry Grove, London, N12 0DR. 
The total cost of goods and P&P is under £40 so going to court or using the Credit Card s75 claim are out of the question.  As a point of principle one expects a company to honour its own terms but I think they are just putting obsticles in the way.  They have offered 2 lots of compensation, currently £8 which if I accept will close the complaint.
Their Cancellation Policy is "We accept order cancellation before the product is shipped or produced. If the order is cancelled you will get full refund. We cannot cancel the order if the product is already shipped out."  I cancelled the moring after placing the order.

user1977

stanlob said:

Thanks for all the replies.  I have been away from my Laptop heance my delay in replying.
The retailer is called Ideormer and contact details are Manner Tradingco..Limited, Ground Floor, 2 Woodberry Grove, London, N12 0DR. 

That is at least a UK registered company. But given the sole director/shareholder is a Chinese resident (and the registered office is merely a service address) I suspect they have little in the way of a UK presence.

MANNER TRADING CO., LIMITED overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK (company-information.service.gov.uk)

DullGreyGuy

stanlob said:

I made 2 orders with an online UK supplier by mistake and cancelled them the following day.  The company concerned initially ignored my request and set about processing the orders.  The second order was a mistaken duplicate of the first order, hence the desire to canel both orders.   After the goods arrived they subsequently agreed to provide a full refund.  Tracking showed that both orders came from different USA addresses.  The refund requires me to return the goods to China at my cost which is prohibitive relative to the orignal costs. 
What are my rights regarding this situation?

https://www.ideormer.co.uk/ ?

If so, not a UK site and there are a number of key give aways:

Shipping - 14-30 days... would never take this long as standard for clothing from a UK company to a UK customer
Jurisdiction - states "UK Law" for which there is no such thing
Contact - nothing but an email address
Terms - dont correctly identify the legal entity

Now some one man band websites that are genuinely UK based do make some of these mistakes too but the shipping timescales clearly points to someone outside the UK

stanlob

Just an update.  After debating the pros and cons and taking issue with Ideormer (Quick communicator) I settled for compensation of £8 and retention of the goods.  I will endeavour to sell these through FB and eBay.
Thanks for your comments and help.  Consider the matter closed.