cancelling purchase before it is shipped

[lovingthehoney]

Last night at 11pm I bought a dress online at theoutnet.com for my brother in laws funeral.This morning I woke up and thought, it is a funeral not a fashion show so I contacted the outnet to say please cancel the order ( status was 'processing'). No we can't was the reply. My problem is this: the dress will be transported from the warehouse in Italy to the airport, flown to the UK, collected by DHL and delivered to my house. Whereupon I will refuse the delivery, DHL will drive it back to the airport, fly it back to Italy and return it to the warehouse. IT HASN'T LEFT THE WAREHOUSE YET!
Is it me? AIBU?

No, yanbu. Rediculous

The dress has most likely been packed but not yet dispatched and the hassle of finding it is going to be more labour intensive than just going ahead with the order and having it returned.

Yes, it seems ridiculous but if you consider how many hundreds, if not thousands of orders (depending on the size of the company) will be being processed, you can see why this is system would be considered more straightforward.

But I get your frustration. It is a real bore for you.

What is their refund policy?

Sorry for your loss op yanbu

Thanks sandytune😔 Refund policy not a problem, it's just the whole sustainability issue that's got me worked up.
(And the fact that customer services hung up on me when I tried to escalate it ...)

It does seem crazy, but as soon as you get a tracking number, contact DHL and tell them you no longer want it and they'll stop it earlier in the supply chain. (I work for DHL).