Should I accept or fight this restocking fee?

Bobla

Hello everyone, I am UK (England) resident who purchased a MacBook from a US company on their website on January 9th using Visa Debit. The product I purchased was a pre-ordered item and was customised via options on the website. More RAM, and TB for storage space. They are an authentic company, but not an authorised reseller of Apple products according to Apple.

Early on in the process they said there were issues regarding UK import taxes, so were unable to deliver my item successfully. After much sloppy deliberation and untimely correspondence on their part, over six months had passed and I had still not received my item. I formally asked for a refund on July 25th.

They have said that because the item was in their possession for so long, and because it was customised (RAM/TB) that I would need to pay a restocking fee. I am wondering if this is something they can legally do. I never received the product in question. It never touched my hands, or arrived at my door. I waited over 6 months for its delivery only for nothing to happen. And now I need to pay a restocking fee to add insult to injury?

Please let me know what my options are. The last message sent from them indicated that they would have the money returned to them on their side by yesterday. I have sent a message to them today asking for follow up as they haven't gotten back to me about when I myself should expect the refund. I am considering sending a final notice soon, or even threatening legal action. But I would like to know if I have a case at all or how I should proceed before any escalation on my part cannot be taken back. What I'm looking is to get my full refund with no extra charges.

user1977

UK consumer rights are unlikely to be relevant here - your rights are going to be those of whichever US state you were importing from. Who is the retailer?

Okell

As above - if you purchased online from a US company the purchase is almost certainly governed by the consumer protection laws (if any) of the state where the company is resident.

Look at the T&Cs of the company.  They should tell you what national and state laws are applicable to the contract.  Might also say that re-stocking fees can be applied in your situation.

UK consumer protection law (where restocking fees are not permitted) is irrelevant here.

This is risk in buying from abroad.

(If you paid by credit card you might possibly have a s75 claim.  But if the retailer has not breached their home state's laws then you probably don't)

Bobla

The company is Stock4Less and they are based in California.

born_again

Early on in the process they said there were issues regarding UK import taxes, so were unable to deliver my item successfully. 

Seems odd given they ship internationally all the time from their site.
Import duties would be for you to pay. All they need to do is list the value of the item on the customs forms.

To facilitate shipping cost for our buyers in Europe, we have a warehouse in Portugal and France that can dispatch the products from Europe; for items ordered through the US website. 

Which would still attract duty.

A 15% processing/restocking fee is charged for items returned by the customer that does not have any issues whatsoever.

Given you never received the item & it is still with them, seems a bit odd. But I guess as you have now cancelled a custom build.
Which rules out a S75 claim.

user1977

Bobla said:

Early on in the process they said there were issues regarding UK import taxes, so were unable to deliver my item successfully.

I never received the product in question. It never touched my hands, or arrived at my door. 

So where was it? I note you don't actually say they didn't despatch it...if the "issues" were to do with UK duties required to be paid at your end, I don't think that ought to be their problem.

SiliconChip

If you want to establish what your consumer rights are then you can ask the California Better Business Bureau https://www.bbb.org/us/ca

I suspect you'll be disappointed in their response, and threatening legal action against the supplier seems pretty pointless when they'll know there's zero chance of you following through in it.

Arunmor

Did you receive instructions to pay Duty and VAT from the shipping company?

Okell

user1977 said:

Bobla said:

Early on in the process they said there were issues regarding UK import taxes, so were unable to deliver my item successfully.

I never received the product in question. It never touched my hands, or arrived at my door. 

So where was it? I note you don't actually say they didn't despatch it...if the "issues" were to do with UK duties required to be paid at your end, I don't think that ought to be their problem.

This  ^^^

At first I didn't notice the "... so were unable to deliver my item successfully" in the OP.

The way that is phrased sounds like the problem was with delivery to the OP and not that it was never sent from the US in the first place.

It would help if the OP could be clearer in giving as much info as he can.

Arunmor said:

Did you receive instructions to pay Duty and VAT from the shipping company?

And this ^^^

Bobla

born_again said:

Early on in the process they said there were issues regarding UK import taxes, so were unable to deliver my item successfully. 

Seems odd given they ship internationally all the time from their site.
Import duties would be for you to pay. All they need to do is list the value of the item on the customs forms.

To facilitate shipping cost for our buyers in Europe, we have a warehouse in Portugal and France that can dispatch the products from Europe; for items ordered through the US website. 

Which would still attract duty.

A 15% processing/restocking fee is charged for items returned by the customer that does not have any issues whatsoever.

Given you never received the item & it is still with them, seems a bit odd. But I guess as you have now cancelled a custom build.
Which rules out a S75 claim.

I actually told them to work out all the additional costs on their side, calculate everything, and give me some solid numbers. I was willing to pay. But whoever I was communicating with kept saying they would talk to their supervisor, and try to get me a better discount on this tax. Which wasn't in my original invoice, or mentioned to me until weeks after I had made the purchase. But the conversing was taking too long, I had to wait 3 weeks at one point even though I had sent numerous messages to get back to me. And he was just repeating the same stuff in his messages as he had weeks before. This sort of thing continued until 6 months had passed and we had gotten nowhere.

Bobla

user1977 said:

Bobla said:

Early on in the process they said there were issues regarding UK import taxes, so were unable to deliver my item successfully.

I never received the product in question. It never touched my hands, or arrived at my door. 

So where was it? I note you don't actually say they didn't despatch it...if the "issues" were to do with UK duties required to be paid at your end, I don't think that ought to be their problem.

It was with them. The whole time. Never dispatched.