Gravel Master refund

[WildFlowerBees]

I am really unhappy, Gravel master have refunded me, less £100 claiming it's a pallet return fee. Except. Our gravel was not delivered, no sign of it but apparently it left their warehouse and now I am £100 out of pocket.

I have been going backwards and forwards with this completely inept company since July, I got my bank involved but suddenly I got an email with very sorry we'll refund you in full only to discover actually it's not in full and they are refusing to budge on the pallet return.

Where do I go from here?

Chargeback through bank/credit card on the grounds that, if they’ve refunded the rest of the cost, they accept you never received the delivery so how can you be liable for returning the pallet!

What do the TS&Cs say? If you ticked a box or went ahead with the order but a return fee was disclosed, they are within their rights I think.

The pallet fee may be to cover the cost of loading the goods onto a pallet ready for delivery, or to cover other costs. But they are entitled to charge whatever they like as long as it's in their terms.

"5.0: Cancellation/Returns Policy

5.1. The customer has the right to cancel their order, however if it has already been dispatched or if you are wanting to return this due to access conditions being unsuitable for pallet deliveries then there will be a £50 per pallet charge + any zonal charges that falls on the customer"

We've had lots of aggregate deliveries - I understand the pallets can be loaded up several days before dispatch. They also have a term that says:

"Dispatch may be up to three working days prior to delivery"

Except it's not a return because we never received anything!

ThreeLittleDots - the OP is not returning a delivery, she never had the delivery. It's a complete failure of the contract, she is entitled to a full refund.

Have they 'upped' this OP since they quoted £50 the first time? Did they give a reason why this has now doubled?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4303253-to-think-i-shouldn-t-have-to-pay-a-return-fee

They are using two different terms. Dispatch and delivery. Your load was dispatched but you cancelled it before delivery.

Under their terms they are within their rights to not offer a full refund, as they had loaded it onto the lorry - this involved costs to them of preparing the order, putting it into pallets, loading it up, fuel spent carrying it around the country (weight of the load) and the cost of removing it from the lorry when back at the depot. The costs are transparent.

I assume the £100 is a couple of pallets or the extra zone fees? If not and it should be £50 instead this should be queried.

[quote BrownCurlsAmberEyes]Have they 'upped' this OP since they quoted £50 the first time? Did they give a reason why this has now doubled?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4303253-to-think-i-shouldn-t-have-to-pay-a-return-fee[/quote]

I couldn't find my old thread to update, Thank you! The delivery was cancelled after they failed to deliver. Surely they are in breach of contract and I have no idea why it's £100 as it was 1 bag therefore 1 pallet.

They are absolutely fucking useless, it's easier to contact Santa than to get hold of these twats.

Sounds frustrating! I just had a delivery from them that was a bit chaotic (but nowhere near as bad as yours) - hence why I was searching on here for them and saw both your threads.

The delivery was cancelled after they failed to deliver. Surely they are in breach of contract

Unfortunately their terms also state that they can't be held liable for delays in delivery!

I'm afraid there was a few due as you cancelled after dispatch from the depot, but seems if should be just £50 for 1 bag.

*fee due

@ThreeLittleDots

The delivery was cancelled after they failed to deliver. Surely they are in breach of contract

Unfortunately their terms also state that they can't be held liable for delays in delivery!

I'm afraid there was a few due as you cancelled after dispatch from the depot, but seems if should be just £50 for 1 bag.

Except whilst, technically, OP said she canceled what actually happened was they simply didn't deliver the goods as promised so she told them not to bother offering another date.

Their error. They don't get paid for that!

And even if it is quibbleable point, and gravel rides around on the back of lorries for days on end prior to being delivered, customer service does require that they are consistent, £50 and then £100 deduction suggests someone is making a mistake!

Makes me feel sick that I've lost £100 to a company that never answer the phone take a week to reply to an email and have been absolutely awful to deal with. I might as well have just thrown £100 in the bin.

And I still don't have any gravel!

they simply didn't deliver the goods as promised

Their terms state no liability for delays unfortunately - they didn't promise anything

So she told them not to bother offering another date

She cancelled after dispatch, incurring the pallet fee which looks like it should be £50.

The bank don't just automatically do chargebacks. They will ask for a copy of the order and terms and OP may get £50 back if it was one pallet with no extra zone fees. Worth a try though.

If you have a local council quarry OP they often take orders - much cheaper than these big national companies

Thank you, what's so annoying is on day of delivery I called many times no answer, I emailed them no reply. So after 2 days of trying to contact them and receiving no response I said they'd missed the delivery date with absolutely no contact from them please refund.

It took them a week to reply to my initial email telling me that they would cancel my order and I would pay a fee. It's daylight robbery.

Yeah they're shit and I've never found their prices to be that competitive anyway.

Their terms unfortunately are clear though, even if they disadvantage the customer.

Use a local builders yard. We have two, both excellent and cheap. We had 4 tonne bags of golden flint gravel delivered for £285 recently.

@ThreeLittleDots

they simply didn't deliver the goods as promised

Their terms state no liability for delays unfortunately - they didn't promise anything

So she told them not to bother offering another date

She cancelled after dispatch, incurring the pallet fee which looks like it should be £50.

The bank don't just automatically do chargebacks. They will ask for a copy of the order and terms and OP may get £50 back if it was one pallet with no extra zone fees. Worth a try though.

And the rest of my post?

She hasn't got gravel. She got no contact from them. Days later she told them to sod off.

THAT deserves better customer service than silence and 2 completely different sets of charges.

Their cock up and, unless they are the flyest of fly boys, they need to do better - or be revealed across SM as beng utterly crap!

Yes it did indeed deserve better customer service but it was OP's choice to decline delivery. It would have been delivered at some (unknown) point at the (shit) company's convenience, in full accordance with the terms OP signed up to by placing the order.

Lesson learned - go local is nearly ways better.

"4:1: Gravel master will make every effort to deliver products on the agreed date, but if for any reason the company is unable to deliver then no liability whether in damages or otherwise for delay of whole or any part of the goods ordered arising from any cause whatsoever. The date chosen is a desired delivery date not a guaranteed one orders cannot be cancelled because of any failed deliveries"

That's one hell of a caveat!

Yes! I think when you look into lots of companies terms they will have similar though.

Be grateful they didn't deliver and spill it all over your road OP! From Trustpilot:-

"This company is using sub grade weak wood pallets for heavy weight gravel delivery. The wood breaks and causes an accident spillage all over our road. They delivered kerb side and blocked the road on a bin collection day meaning the bin Lorrie could not pass. The delivery driver didn’t give a toss and drove off. We are waiting for compensation still 3 weeks on.."