Bought a TV and Soundbar from Costco Online but they wont accept a return for the TV

km1500

This has always been true - if you buy things as a 'bundle' (ie this plus this plus this and you then get a discount) then you have to return the whole bundle, not just a part of it

peddlewoods

km1500 said:

This has always been true - if you buy things as a 'bundle' (ie this plus this plus this and you then get a discount) then you have to return the whole bundle, not just a part of it

It wasn’t bought as a bundle. It was two separate items. There was a discount for buying both together, but they are individually priced on the order/invoice, not priced together as a single bundle. I have returned items of a similar nature before but the company have removed any discounts which no longer applied so i get less refund (which is fair).

born_again

peddlewoods said:

km1500 said:

This has always been true - if you buy things as a 'bundle' (ie this plus this plus this and you then get a discount) then you have to return the whole bundle, not just a part of it

It wasn’t bought as a bundle. It was two separate items. There was a discount for buying both together, but they are individually priced on the order/invoice, not priced together as a single bundle. I have returned items of a similar nature before but the company have removed any discounts which no longer applied so i get less refund (which is fair).

You would not have got a £200 discount if you had not bundled them together.

Offer to pay the £200 discount & they may let you keep the soundbar.

Wanting to keep the discounted item, that you would not have got discounted on it's own is never going to wash with the retailer.

Do you think that if you had kept the TV, but returned the soundbar they would refund the full price of the soundbar?

peddlewoods

born_again said:

peddlewoods said:

km1500 said:

This has always been true - if you buy things as a 'bundle' (ie this plus this plus this and you then get a discount) then you have to return the whole bundle, not just a part of it

It wasn’t bought as a bundle. It was two separate items. There was a discount for buying both together, but they are individually priced on the order/invoice, not priced together as a single bundle. I have returned items of a similar nature before but the company have removed any discounts which no longer applied so i get less refund (which is fair).

You would not have got a £200 discount if you had not bundled them together.

Offer to pay the £200 discount & they may let you keep the soundbar.

Wanting to keep the discounted item, that you would not have got discounted on it's own is never going to wash with the retailer.

Do you think that if you had kept the TV, but returned the soundbar they would refund the full price of the soundbar?

See original post - I have already offered for Costco to remove the £200 discount off the refund of the TV but they also said no to that. I totally agree with you that it wouldn’t be fair for me to return the TV but keep the soundbar only with the discount. 

Okell

Alderbank said:

'It is possible that some Membership classes will make this a business purchase.'

'It may also depend on what type of membership the OP has. If it’s an individual membership, then of course consumer rights apply. However, if the OP has a trade membership, I doubt it.' 

I don't agree.
Whether the buyer is a consumer or not is a question of fact. If the OP is acting wholly or mainly outside their business then the contract of sale is covered by CRA. Costco's membership T&Cs can't change or override the OP's consumer rights.

We don't know the OP's occupation, but if he is a HGV driver for instance then buying the TV for his domestic use is a consumer purchase regardless of what membership he has at Costco.
Equally, if he runs a training business for example and the IT equipment is for use in one of his training rooms or he is a hotelier and it is for a guest bedroom then consumer rights would not apply even if he has an individual membership.

I would say this ^^^ is the correct view.

What determines whether a particular purchase is or is not a consumer purchase is the purpose of the purchase and not whatever membership status the purchaser has

Okell

peddlewoods said:

... What are my return rights in this situation? I just want to return the TV, and am happy for the discount to be removed from the refund but Costco say no altogether. I can't return the Soundbar as it's already set up and box has long gone. What can I do?

Thanks in advance...

Assuming you are talking about your legal rights under The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 then on a strict reading of the wording of the Regulations I think you can only cancel the whole contract, and not a part of it.

What decides it for me is that  Regulation 30 that deals with the cancellation period talks about contracts consisting of multiple items, but the Regulation dealing with cancellation itself does not.

To me that means that you either cancel all of a contract or none of it.

As far as the terms of costco's own returns policy I have no idea

km1500

It was a bundle. It was a 'buy a TV and soundbar and get £200 off'

I agree they were also priced individually

Exactly the same as a 'buy a playstation and get £29 off a game of your choice' bundle

Penguin_

peddlewoods said:

km1500 said:

This has always been true - if you buy things as a 'bundle' (ie this plus this plus this and you then get a discount) then you have to return the whole bundle, not just a part of it

It wasn’t bought as a bundle. It was two separate items. There was a discount for buying both together, but they are individually priced on the order/invoice, not priced together as a single bundle. I have returned items of a similar nature before but the company have removed any discounts which no longer applied so i get less refund (which is fair).

Would you have been charged the same price if you had bought the 2 items in separate transactions? 

peddlewoods

km1500 said:

It was a bundle. It was a 'buy a TV and soundbar and get £200 off'

I agree they were also priced individually

Exactly the same as a 'buy a playstation and get £29 off a game of your choice' bundle

Penguin_ said:

peddlewoods said:

km1500 said:

This has always been true - if you buy things as a 'bundle' (ie this plus this plus this and you then get a discount) then you have to return the whole bundle, not just a part of it

It wasn’t bought as a bundle. It was two separate items. There was a discount for buying both together, but they are individually priced on the order/invoice, not priced together as a single bundle. I have returned items of a similar nature before but the company have removed any discounts which no longer applied so i get less refund (which is fair).

Would you have been charged the same price if you had bought the 2 items in separate transactions? 

If i bought a PS4 for £400 and a game for £50 and the retailer said you can get a £20 discount for buying both together, and i then decide to return the game, i would expect to be able to return just the game, but acknowledge i should only get £30 back for the game as the discount should be removed at point of return.

In my situation I am happy for the £200 discount to be removed - the fact i bought both together shouldn't matter whether i can return one without the other. I'm not trying to benefit, just want to return the TV.

Grumpy_chap

Okell said:

Alderbank said:

'It is possible that some Membership classes will make this a business purchase.'

'It may also depend on what type of membership the OP has. If it’s an individual membership, then of course consumer rights apply. However, if the OP has a trade membership, I doubt it.' 

I don't agree.
Whether the buyer is a consumer or not is a question of fact. If the OP is acting wholly or mainly outside their business then the contract of sale is covered by CRA. Costco's membership T&Cs can't change or override the OP's consumer rights.

We don't know the OP's occupation, but if he is a HGV driver for instance then buying the TV for his domestic use is a consumer purchase regardless of what membership he has at Costco.
Equally, if he runs a training business for example and the IT equipment is for use in one of his training rooms or he is a hotelier and it is for a guest bedroom then consumer rights would not apply even if he has an individual membership.

I would say this ^^^ is the correct view.

What determines whether a particular purchase is or is not a consumer purchase is the purpose of the purchase and not whatever membership status the purchaser has

I am not sure that I agree.
I am a Costco Trade Member.
The Trade Membership is intended to "let you purchase products for your business or for resale"
To obtain Trade Membership, you need to provide evidence of being a business.
The Trade Membership is in the name of the business (company name) and the card holder is secondary.  A bit like a business credit card is in the name of the business but still references the individual.
Every receipt is in the name of the business.

Let's consider, for example, Howden's is trade only.  OP owns a business that holds a Howden's account. 
OP visits and buys a set of kitchen units on Tuesday and fits those in the house of a customer.  Clearly trade.  The invoice /receipt from Howden's is correctly made out to the business.
OP visits on Saturday and buys another set of kitchen units and installs in own home.  Invoice / receipt is still made out to the business.  What has happened, in effect is Howdens sold to OP's Business and then OP's Business sold to OP.  OP has consumer rights against OP's Business.
If the purchase has been accepted with the invoice / receipt made out to the business, then it has to be a business purchase.

I would consider a Costco Trade Membership to be similar to a Howden's Account - trade only and all invoices / receipts made out to the business.

Notwithstanding the above, Costco's own policy on returns (for Trade and Individual Membership) is in excess of consumer rights.  The OP should pursue a return under that policy.
What appears to be the case is the OP purchased a bundle and, for some reason, unable to return the whole bundle.  This seems to be the crux of the matter.

Is this like the "buy 4 for the price of 3" you get in supermarkets?  I notice a recent purchase I made did not show three items at £1 each and then one item for free, but the receipt showed four items at £0.75 each.  Is it similar with the bundle the OP has purchased?  Purchased a TV, say £1,400 plus a soundbar, say £300 but then got a discount  £200 off the bundle.  Does the receipt now show TV ( £1,400 - £160 = £1,240 ) plus soundbar ( £300 - £40 = £260 ) so to return just the TV would result in the "incorrect" refund?

It would really help to understand why the OP cannot return the complete bundle and buy the soundbar at full price.