Retailer Disposed of Misdelivered Goods – What Are My Rights?

h2oh2o

Summary:
I returned items to two different retailers (Retailer A and Retailer on the same day using tracked Royal Mail returns (retailers each provided a qr return for their return). Due to a labelling error at the Post Office (I don't really know if this my fault or the person serving me), the parcels were swapped: Retailer A received Retailer B’s goods and vice versa. I only became aware of this some 3 weeks later when I started chasing the status of my refunds with both retailers.

Retailer A refunded me anyway, even though they never got their goods back. Retailer B, however, later told me they received Retailer A’s goods and I should wait 48 hours for their warehousing team to get in touch with me to return the goods to me. After waiting some 72hours and continued chasing, the warehousing team got in touch to say they have since disposed of the incorrect goods due to “internal processes.” They say they cannot refund me until they receive their own goods back. Retailer A has now said they cannot locate the Retailer B goods and that it is the customers responsibility to ensure the correct items have been sent. They also said they cannot even confirm if they received the incorrect goods (even though the royal mail tracking proves delivery).

I have proof of posting and delivery for both parcels on the same day and the at the same time. 

Questions:

• Was Retailer B allowed to dispose of goods that didn’t belong to them without giving me proper notice or making reasonable efforts to return them to me?
• Do they have a legal duty to safeguard misdelivered goods?
• What are my options for recovering my refund or compensation from Retailer B?

Any advice on next steps (e.g., Torts Act, ADR, small claims, S75) would be very much appreciated.

powerful_Rogue

A lot depends on the label. Did it have your return address on it? I've just checked through a few different returns labels i've had over the years and none of them have had a return address. The retailers usually just scan the barcode on the label to bring up the details, but as it's different retailers likely using different system, they won't be able to view this info.

A_Geordie

Was Retailer B allowed to dispose of goods that didn’t belong to them without giving me proper notice or making reasonable efforts to return them to me?

Don't think that is relevant anymore since you were refunded by Retaile A. That now comes down to retailer A pursuing Retailer B for any loss which is likely to be written off unless extremely valuable and worth pursuing. 

Do they have a legal duty to safeguard misdelivered goods?

As above, not relevant.

What are my options for recovering my refund or compensation from Retailer B?

If you have exhausted all reasonable options and Retailer B has made it clear they have no intention of refunding you then maybe legal proceedings is the only option.

If I am understanding you correctly, you used Retailer B's own delivery service rather than arranging the return of the goods yourself. In that case the the contractual relationship with Royal Mail is with Retailer B. The Post Office and RM are two separate companies but the PO acts as agent of RM when selling/performing RM services. So as far as I see it, Retailer B cannot withhold your refund for not receiving the goods back and should be pursuing RM as to the PO's negligence. 

The only way I can see you being responsible is if you either put those stickers on the parcels themselves or you provided the wrong QR code for each of the parcels. Outside of that, this seems like a straight-forward claim against Retailer B. The onus will be on Retailer B to prove that you were to blame or in some way at fault for the mix up. 

In terms of next steps, you would need to send a letter before action to Retailer B setting out the basis of your claim and what you require from them to resolve the dispute. You haven't mentioned why you're entitled to a refund so I will assume it is based under the Consumer Rights Act if the goods were faultand you rejected them or The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 for a change of mind. 

If S75 is in scope you should also send a letter before action to your credit provider as well with the same details and as Retailer B but making sure you explain that you paid for the goods either partly or in full and the value of each of the goods claimed was over £100. You don't need to sue both, and you can sue one or the other but if you want to maximise your chances of getting your money back, you would be wise to list them both as defendants in the claim. Credit providers might stall and tell you there's a process to follow but that's only an internal policy and there's no legal requirement for you to follow that policy as the law simply states they are jointly and severally liable along with Retailer B. That said, if you were going to include the credit provider as a defendant, I would instead allow a period of 30 days for the credit provider and Retailer B to respond instead of the usual 14 day window for most claims. 

If you need any guidance or assistance beyond this then you'll need to give us more information to help you formulate a letter before action.

saajan_12

Surely what you need is Retailer B's goods from Retailer A. Even if you can argue having a right to receiving those goods, pursuing that might cause Retailer A to realise you sent the wrong items back and take back their refund. Then you'd be out both and arguing about rights and whether you can expect full tracking and returns on in a large warehouse. 
Bird in the hand et al. 

h2oh2o

Thank you for the initial guidance.

To provide further detail:   

Both retailer A and B provided me with a QR code to scan at the post office which then produces the return label. I have no idea if the return label included my address or not - but presumably they would have been able to match against my order on receipt and therefore know it came from me? To be clear - each retailer would have received their label, just on the wrong parcel. The parcels were very different in appearance and size so I struggle to see how I could have made an error - however - I cannot rule it out or if it was a PO employee error. I honestly don't remember if I stuck the labels on or if they did. From recollection, it was a "self service" return but someone was helping me.

 Both returns were due to change of mind and value of each order was above £100.

 I have proof of delivery of both returns and they were returned within 14 days of delivery.

The only reason I’m still trying to pursue Retailer B for the goods belonging to Retailer A is because Retailer B is applying a strict standard to me - they refuse to refund until they receive their own goods back - yet at the same time they disposed of Retailer A’s goods without giving me any chance to recover them. It feels like a double standard: they expect me to get Retailer A to meet an obligation they themselves didn’t uphold.

Lastly - I've already told Retailer A what has happened so they are aware they haven't had their goods back despite refunding me...

So in summary - as the current position stands, both Retailers have misplaced eachothers goods and won't be returning them to me. Retailer A has refunded my anyway, Retailer B hasn't.

Any advice on next steps much appreciated. 

MyRealNameToo

You used the merchants return service so the 14 days for a refund starts when the goods were handed over to the courier. However you haven't actually handed the goods over to their courier yet, you handed over some random other stuff and sent it to the merchant and so you are now outside the 14 days normally allowed for returning goods after cancellation. 

I dont know why you focus your questions on the goods sent to retailer B, given you have already been reimbursed for them? 

Ultimately the person in the PO isnt going to know what's in the packages or which belonged to which merchant so would be totally dependent on you saying which one is which. They may have stuck the stickers on but it was really for you to check it was the right way round. 

Okell

Ignoring retailer B for the moment, are you saying that retailer A was quite happy to refund you >£100 even though you hadn't returned retailer A's goods?

Has retailer A made the refund conditional on you being able to retrieve their goods from B, and then return them to A?

I find it difficult to believe that a retailer would willingly refund >£100 for goods that hadn't been returned to them and now never will...

h2oh2o

Okell said:
Ignoring retailer B for the moment, are you saying that retailer A was quite happy to refund you >£100 even though you hadn't returned retailer A's goods?

Has retailer A made the refund conditional on you being able to retrieve their goods from B, and then return them to A?

As soon as I realised the error (informed by Retailer , I told Retailer A about the mix up and that I needed the goods back. They just responded "sorry your return hasn't been made yet, I can see your return has been delivered. i've initiated your refund". I would describe them as totally incompetent rather than "happy". They have since said along the lines of "please let us know when you get the goods back from retailer B and we will organise a return label for you". 

MyRealNameToo said:

I dont know why you focus your questions on the goods sent to retailer B, given you have already been reimbursed for them? 

As I said - I am just applying the same standard to retailer B as they expect from retailer A. They should both make reasonable efforts to return goods that don't belong to them back to their owner. Given I have been constantly liaising with both retailers on this (even before the error was discovered) I think it would be reasonable to expect them to return the goods to me. The fact that retailer A has reimbursed me is sort of irrelevant in terms of putting things right for everyone one (i.e. each retailer getting their items back and me getting my money).  

MyRealNameToo

Okell said:

Ignoring retailer B for the moment, are you saying that retailer A was quite happy to refund you >£100 even though you hadn't returned retailer A's goods?

Has retailer A made the refund conditional on you being able to retrieve their goods from B, and then return them to A?

I find it difficult to believe that a retailer would willingly refund >£100 for goods that hadn't been returned to them and now never will...

Depends on what their processes are, given the clock starts ticking from when the goods are handed over to their courier some may start processing the refund as soon as their courier notifies them they have the goods. Certainly Amazon does this for £150 orders that arent electronics but for some goods they dont until they have inspected the goods. No idea what happens with them if the goods do then turn up and there is something wrong and they've already given the refund. 

Some merchants will, depending on what's happened and what the tracking says. Had a refund on a return when sending £300 of clothes back to a retailer in France. The tracking was an absolute mess with it flip-flopping between it being at the UK airport and then out for delivery then back at being at the UK airport. Ultimately tracking stopped after 3 reports of "delivery attempted, recipient refused receipt". The merchant refunded me within 24 hours of sending an email.  2 months later a very dirty/tatty parcel was returned to me with the goods in them... no idea where they had been. Spoke to the retailer who thanked me for my honesty but to keep them/donate them to charity (they didnt fit so wasnt much point in keeping them even if free)

Okell

h2oh2o said:

Okell said:
Ignoring retailer B for the moment, are you saying that retailer A was quite happy to refund you >£100 even though you hadn't returned retailer A's goods?

Has retailer A made the refund conditional on you being able to retrieve their goods from B, and then return them to A?

... They should both make reasonable efforts to return goods that don't belong to them back to their owner. Given I have been constantly liaising with both retailers on this (even before the error was discovered) I think it would be reasonable to expect them to return the goods to me... 

Is either of them obliged to send back stuff that's been sent to them by mistake?

Yes, they shouldn't destroy it or lose it, but are they obliged to send it back?

h2oh2o said:

Okell said:
Ignoring retailer B for the moment, are you saying that retailer A was quite happy to refund you >£100 even though you hadn't returned retailer A's goods?

Has retailer A made the refund conditional on you being able to retrieve their goods from B, and then return them to A?

... The fact that retailer A has reimbursed me is sort of irrelevant in terms of putting things right for everyone one (i.e. each retailer getting their items back and me getting my money).  

It is relevant isn't it, if A will want the refund back if you can't recover their goods from B?

You may have a refund in your pocket at the moment, but you may not for much longer

h2oh2o

Okell said:

You may have a refund in your pocket at the moment, but you may not for much longer

Agreed - this is what I am trying to manage. What if both retailers have misplaced eachothers goods with no ability to retrieve them, and, refuse to refund until they get their respective goods back? think this is the crux of my question