Am I obliged to return damaged goods twice if retailer at fault all round?

booboo240906

Hi, just had some damaged goods from a large online fashion retailer.  Poor customer service aside, they eventually agreed to send me a prepaid label to return the goods as damaged.  I promptly returned them along with the original packing and put a note inside detailing the reason for the return - eg the damage.  I then received an email from them saying they rejected the return as, you guessed it, they item was damaged!!  I contacted them to say they'd agreed it and they said there was nothing I could do and that I should contact them when I received the goods again going round in circles on their time consuming and awful WhatsApp contact system.  They closed down the chat. They sent them back out to me and I'm back to square one with damaged goods and no refund!  So my question is, I work full-time and don't have time to go to a post office and queue all over again to risk them doing the same thing.  Am I obliged to return them again for a second time or should they arrange collection via Royal Mail at a mutually convenient time?  Thanks

Ectophile

You haven't said how you paid.  If it's a debit or credit card, or PayPal, you may have a chargeback mechanism.

Having invoked that, tell the retailer they can have the goods back at their expense if they want them.

Alderbank

Confusion arises because online buyers have the option of four different methods of returning goods. They are quite separate.

In consumer law (so these are statutory rights) you can:
(1) cancel the contract. This is under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. The return is for any reason and you pay for and organise the return of the goods yourself. You must state clearly within 14 days that you are cancelling the contract.

(2) return faulty goods. This is under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. The goods must have been faulty in some way when they were bought. The seller must pay for the return and give a full refund (there are some restrictions).

In addition to the above, many online retailers have their own policies:
(1) a free 'change of mind' policy. Time limit is set by the seller, who might pay all or most of the return cost. They decide what goods will and will not be accepted, such as they won't accept opened, used or damaged goods back.

(2) their own return faulty goods policy. This might be better than your CRA rights (eg. it could be 'no questions asked' about the cause of the failure or it might promise a new replacement rather than a repair).

It sounds like you and the retailer have different ideas about which method you are trying to use?

Okell

Assuming you have returned them under the second (ie faulty goods) of the four options listed by Alderbank - and that you have made that clear to the retailer - then, unless their T&Cs require you to return the faulty goods, all you are obliged to do is to make them available for collection by the seller.  See s20(7)(b) and s20(8) of the Consumer Rights Act 2015

So what do their T&Cs say about returning faulty goods?

Having said that, they sound like such a shambles that you may have difficulty convincing them of the legal position and your rights.

How did you pay and how much did you pay?