Returning faulty goods to China

Irritated49

Hello Everyone.
I bought an item of clothing online. At the time of purchase I didn't read the returns policy properly; my fault, I know. The company has accepted that the cardigan has the buttons on the wrong side so could not be worn by a woman, my reason for returning it. I asked for a full refund of £39.99; they say I must return it to their warehouse in China which will cost about 20 euros. Emails have ping-ponged to and fro. They have offered (a)store card credit for the full amount, (b)keep the cardi and accept cashback of 35% of the price paid or (c)20% cash back and the full value paid as store credit. I don't want the cardi, I don't want store credit -  if I spend it and need to return the item it will cost me 20 euros minimum - I just want them to refund the original £39.99. Can you suggest where I might go from here, please?

kimwp

Are the buttons on the inside or on the same side as the holes or do you mean the holes and buttons are located as they would be on a man's cardigan?

Ergates

Irritated49 said:

Hello Everyone.
I bought an item of clothing online. At the time of purchase I didn't read the returns policy properly; my fault, I know. The company has accepted that the cardigan has the buttons on the wrong side so could not be worn by a woman, my reason for returning it. I asked for a full refund of £39.99; they say I must return it to their warehouse in China which will cost about 20 euros. Emails have ping-ponged to and fro. They have offered (a)store card credit for the full amount, (b)keep the cardi and accept cashback of 35% of the price paid or (c)20% cash back and the full value paid as store credit. I don't want the cardi, I don't want store credit -  if I spend it and need to return the item it will cost me 20 euros minimum - I just want them to refund the original £39.99. Can you suggest where I might go from here, please?

Take the 35% cashback, it's the best you're going to get.

It's a company operating from China - enforcing any consumer rights against them will be next to impossible.

Exodi

What's the website/company?

If it's one of those fly-by-night companies then I'd encourage you to take them up on one of their offers (likely the 35% refund one), as you're unlikely to convince them to offer you a full refund without receiving the item back, or collecting the item at their expense from the UK to China.

At £39.99, it's too trivial to consider court action (my subjective opinion, but of course others have more free time or stronger principles than myself) and even if you did and were successful, you'd be trying to enforce a judgement on a company on a different continent - never going to happen. You'd just be throwing good money after bad.

Personally, I'd take the £14 refund and chalk this up as a relatively cheap lesson in online shopping. If I'm buying something from a non-reputable retailer, the first thing I'd be doing is checking the refund policy, as this stance is common among China based retailers. To play devils advocate, unlike UK clothing retailers who have consumers intoxicated on free returns, the model falls apart if the product is being shipped from a different country or continent. On the rare occasion, if a Chinese company wants to flirt with the idea of conforming to UK statute, they'll suggest you ship it back at your cost, and they'll refund you the shipping and price of the item once received (though inevitably they'll refuse delivery).

A second option that people may suggest is a chargeback with your card issuer, though personally I expect there will be issues here as you currently hold the goods (and it wouldn't be reasonable to expect a full refund and get to keep the goods).

If the buttons are on the wrong side, (instead of the cardigan being totally the wrong size or a totally different item), I'd actually say the outcome is much better than it could have been (you would have effectively paid £26 for a cardigan you wanted, just with the buttons on the wrong size). Maybe I'm downplaying how big the button issue is, I'm a guy, in my mind it's a minor inconvenience.

born_again

As others. Take the 35%.
If you try to return it odds on it will not get through Chinese customs, as company will not pay. If you want then just put it on ebay or such.

But no reason you can not wear it with buttons on the wrong side. No one will notice.

sheramber

the cardigan has the buttons on the wrong side so could not be worn by a woman, 

Why not?  No law aboout it.

Do you think any body will care?

Undervalued

Irritated49 said:

Hello Everyone.
I bought an item of clothing online. At the time of purchase I didn't read the returns policy properly; my fault, I know. The company has accepted that the cardigan has the buttons on the wrong side so could not be worn by a woman, my reason for returning it. I asked for a full refund of £39.99; they say I must return it to their warehouse in China which will cost about 20 euros. Emails have ping-ponged to and fro. They have offered (a)store card credit for the full amount, (b)keep the cardi and accept cashback of 35% of the price paid or (c)20% cash back and the full value paid as store credit. I don't want the cardi, I don't want store credit -  if I spend it and need to return the item it will cost me 20 euros minimum - I just want them to refund the original £39.99. Can you suggest where I might go from here, please?

I have lost count of the number of fathers, husbands and boy friends who joke about their daughters, wives and girl friends "borrowing" their knitwear and getting it back with "elbows in the wrong places"!

Joking apart, sadly there is nothing practical you can do apart from accept the credit offered. Far too much risk of losing both the item and the money if you send it back to China.

DullGreyGuy

sheramber said:

the cardigan has the buttons on the wrong side so could not be worn by a woman, 

Why not?  No law aboout it.

Do you think any body will care?

In this day and age more things are being sold as uni-sex... seems like just the OP

CliveOfIndia

Irritated49 said:

the cardigan has the buttons on the wrong side so could not be worn by a woman

As others have said, I'm struggling to understand how the buttons being on the wrong side mean you can't wear it.  If it really bothers you, it's not exactly difficult to remove the buttons and sew them back on to the "right" side yourself.  Or even, find a local person who does clothing alterations, it would be a trivial job for them.

In terms of returns/refunds, take what you've been offered.  It really would be a hugely disproportionate amount of effort to try and argue the toss with them, especially for such a low-value item.

TELLIT01

I would have thought 'buttons on the wrong side..... for a woman' is actually pretty obvious to all but those who want to be difficult!  On menswear the buttons are traditionally on the right hand side and on womenswear on the left.  The OP ordered an item for a female and arrived with buttons on the traditional side for men.

Answering the OPs question.  It's going to be all but impossible (in reality impossible) to get a refund.  The pragmatic response would be to accept the 35% refund and sell the cardigan on Vinted or a similar platform.

eskbanker

TELLIT01 said:

I would have thought 'buttons on the wrong side..... for a woman' is actually pretty obvious to all but those who want to be difficult!  On menswear the buttons are traditionally on the right hand side and on womenswear on the left.  The OP ordered an item for a female and arrived with buttons on the traditional side for men.

Seems to me that everyone understood that concept but were querying OP's assertion that this translates into "so could not be worn by a woman"!