Advice on consumer rights when retailer refuses to refund despite parcel tracking evidence

iv211

A month ago a return some orders to Dunelm. Most of this was rugs that were wrongly advertised in terms of size or damaged. It just so happened that 4 parcels were collected by Evri at the same time, and another, large rug, by Yodel, also on the same day.

After 2 weeks passed, and delivery tracking showed delivered within 2 working days back to the retailer for 4 out 5 parcels, I contacted Dunelm. They immediately locked the refund option and passed it on to the returns team. I used their useless chat system for the first few days, where I was perennially told that they are "investigating", after waiting for hours (sometimes over 100 people in queue ahead of me). I then, after 5 days of this, requested a phone number. I have been calling this number daily for more than 10 days. For the first few days I have been told the same as above. Every time that someone would get back in touch within 72 hrs. Nobody ever did. I rang yesterday again, and the CSR was quite arrogant and told me that the items I "claim to have collected" (2 small rugs by Evri, one large rug by Yodel, who provided photographic proof of delivery, 1 box of items and one bag of rugs) could not possibly have been collected by Evri. He then proceeded to tell me that the items were received but all "invalidated" (all within return period, all packaged as arrived, all bnib). He then said there could be a myriad of reasons, and yes, you guessed it, someone will be in touch. I am at a loss to unscramble the word salad he produced.

Now, in the meantime I opened 4 cases with Paypal, who have escalated all to claims. I gave D ample of time to resolve this (10 days) and have provided tons of evidence - including screenshots of reviews of many customers recently treated just like me. I know someone who works there and they just halved the staff hours in their warehouses in the run up to Christmas. I assume they did the same with their chat system. So little surprise that everything is going pare shaped.

I have the following questions:

1) Under CRA subsection 15 it is their responsibility to investigate and refund within reasonable time of me returning the items. It has now been 4 weeks since the items entered the courier networks that Dunelm arranged. I have to do all the legwork, but sadly Evri only has AI (terrible at that) for private customers. Dunelm's insistence that the returns are "invalidated" is infuriating - what proof do they need to provide to not refund me? I have all tracking info for all 5 parcels and obviously some pictures of damaged rugs. I cannot provide any more proof, as they have the items. My courier remembers the transaction, since she had to collect 2 rugs, a big box and a big bag. Can they just refuse to refund me? It also a bit of a coincidence given the above that parcels from Yodel AND Evri are claimed to not have arrived.

2) I paid with PayPal Credit. What do I have to do to essentially request chargeback for fraudulent withholding of money? The 4 orders amount to c. £500.

I am extremely distressed at this point and would welcome advice as to how to effectively get my money back. Thank you.

Ergates

Do you have a receipt of collection from Evri/Yodel ?

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Hello OP

Search Google for CEO email, search that site for Dunelm and send a very brief email outlining the problem.

You should get a call back from a higher level of customer service, when I had to speak to them they were incredibly helpful.  

iv211

Ergates said:

Do you have a receipt of collection from Evri/Yodel ?

Ergates said:

Do you have a receipt of collection from Evri/Yodel ?

Receipt, collection and delivery confirmation, the whole lot.

iv211

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Hello OP

Search Google for CEO email, search that site for Dunelm and send a very brief email outlining the problem.

You should get a call back from a higher level of customer service, when I had to speak to them they were incredibly helpful.  

Thank you, that's really good to know.

Ectophile

If you've opened a case with PayPal credit, stick to that.

They only care about the facts of the case.  Don't spam them with irrelevant stuff like other people's customer reviews.  Don't bandy about words like "fraudulent".

You received some items.  They were faulty.  You returned them.  You want your money back.  That's it.

Ergates

iv211 said:

Ergates said:

Do you have a receipt of collection from Evri/Yodel ?

Ergates said:

Do you have a receipt of collection from Evri/Yodel ?

Receipt, collection and delivery confirmation, the whole lot.

Good.   Assuming (from what you're written) that the couriers were arranged by the retailer, then from the point at which you handed the goods over to Evri & Yodel they became the retailer's problem.

Never turn up at the returns warehouse?   Not your problem
Goods arrive back but get 'lost in the system'?  Not your problem.
Goods accidentally fired into the sun?   Not your problem.

They shouldn't be waiting for the items to be arrive back with them before refunding (the law gives them at most 14 days to refund).

Possible courses of action:
1) Best and easiest to start with:  do as Lunatic suggests and contact the CEO email for better customer services.

2)  Contact paypal to see if you can do some kind of chargeback.  I don't know what would be involved in that or what would be the chances of success

3)  Send a letter before action to Dunelm - essentially saying that if they don't refund, you will sue them in the small claims court.   There are templates for this on the web (including on this website).

iv211

Ergates said:

iv211 said:

Ergates said:

Do you have a receipt of collection from Evri/Yodel ?

Ergates said:

Do you have a receipt of collection from Evri/Yodel ?

Receipt, collection and delivery confirmation, the whole lot.

Good.   Assuming (from what you're written) that the couriers were arranged by the retailer, then from the point at which you handed the goods over to Evri & Yodel they became the retailer's problem.

Never turn up at the returns warehouse?   Not your problem
Goods arrive back but get 'lost in the system'?  Not your problem.
Goods accidentally fired into the sun?   Not your problem.

They shouldn't be waiting for the items to be arrive back with them before refunding (the law gives them at most 14 days to refund).

Possible courses of action:
1) Best and easiest to start with:  do as Lunatic suggests and contact the CEO email for better customer services.

2)  Contact paypal to see if you can do some kind of chargeback.  I don't know what would be involved in that or what would be the chances of success

3)  Send a letter before action to Dunelm - essentially saying that if they don't refund, you will sue them in the small claims court.   There are templates for this on the web (including on this website).

Thanks, this is all sound advice.

iv211

Ergates said:

iv211 said:

Ergates said:

Do you have a receipt of collection from Evri/Yodel ?

Ergates said:

Do you have a receipt of collection from Evri/Yodel ?

Receipt, collection and delivery confirmation, the whole lot.

Good.   Assuming (from what you're written) that the couriers were arranged by the retailer, then from the point at which you handed the goods over to Evri & Yodel they became the retailer's problem.

Never turn up at the returns warehouse?   Not your problem
Goods arrive back but get 'lost in the system'?  Not your problem.
Goods accidentally fired into the sun?   Not your problem.

They shouldn't be waiting for the items to be arrive back with them before refunding (the law gives them at most 14 days to refund).

Possible courses of action:
1) Best and easiest to start with:  do as Lunatic suggests and contact the CEO email for better customer services.

2)  Contact paypal to see if you can do some kind of chargeback.  I don't know what would be involved in that or what would be the chances of success

3)  Send a letter before action to Dunelm - essentially saying that if they don't refund, you will sue them in the small claims court.   There are templates for this on the web (including on this website).

Thanks for this. D apparently commented on one of the 4 cases. Of course, I am unable to see what they said. What do I do if they say the return is "invalid"? What proof do they have to provide? Like any normal person, I obviously trusted the process and only have the word of my DH and the Evri driver, who had to drag the items into their car. As far as I cans ee, if I have proof of collection, it is their responsibility, but they are determined to make it mine. TIA.

Ergates

iv211 said:

Ergates said:

iv211 said:

Ergates said:

Do you have a receipt of collection from Evri/Yodel ?

Ergates said:

Do you have a receipt of collection from Evri/Yodel ?

Receipt, collection and delivery confirmation, the whole lot.

Good.   Assuming (from what you're written) that the couriers were arranged by the retailer, then from the point at which you handed the goods over to Evri & Yodel they became the retailer's problem.

Never turn up at the returns warehouse?   Not your problem
Goods arrive back but get 'lost in the system'?  Not your problem.
Goods accidentally fired into the sun?   Not your problem.

They shouldn't be waiting for the items to be arrive back with them before refunding (the law gives them at most 14 days to refund).

Possible courses of action:
1) Best and easiest to start with:  do as Lunatic suggests and contact the CEO email for better customer services.

2)  Contact paypal to see if you can do some kind of chargeback.  I don't know what would be involved in that or what would be the chances of success

3)  Send a letter before action to Dunelm - essentially saying that if they don't refund, you will sue them in the small claims court.   There are templates for this on the web (including on this website).

Thanks for this. D apparently commented on one of the 4 cases. Of course, I am unable to see what they said. What do I do if they say the return is "invalid"? What proof do they have to provide? Like any normal person, I obviously trusted the process and only have the word of my DH and the Evri driver, who had to drag the items into their car. As far as I cans ee, if I have proof of collection, it is their responsibility, but they are determined to make it mine. TIA.

In terms of "proof" - bear in mind that in civil cases the threshold is "balance of probabilities" rather than "beyond all reasonable doubt".

But... if there is "some issue" with 1 of the things you've returned, then there is absolutely no reason for them to delay refunding the others. 

What might happen next would depend on what they mean by the return being "invalid" - on it's own it's a pretty meaningless phrase.

If they are claiming the item is missing:  Not your problem, you have proof of collection - after that the item becomes their responsibility.  They should refund you and claim for the missing item from the courier - which is entirely their responsibility and entirely their problem to deal with.
If they have inspected the item and believe you have damaged it - then they should give an appropriately reduced refund for the "damaged" item (up to a 100% reduction depending on what they believe has happened to it).  You can then argue with them over whether it was damaged or not and/or whether the reduction they offered was appropriate or not.
If they are claiming you've returned the wrong item, then they should return the "wrong" thing back to you.

Importantly though - if they're only disputing 1 out of 4 parcels, there is no reason for them to retain *all* your cash.

iv211

Thanks, that's my view too. I have tried to be transparent, and I said to paypal that in that 1 particular case the parcel seems to be lost. But they still would rather provide information to Paypal than settle the case.