To think their terms & conditions don’t apply to me?

[Roastietoasty]

I bought a hairdryer and it developed a fault (well known fault) did an agreed return under warranty, company said there was no fault and sent it back.

Royal Mail delivered it to my neighbour. Neighbour is claiming to no longer have it and said they left it outside mine.

I’m being refused a refund on the basis that you have to opt out of allowing Royal Mail leaving it with a neighbour.

My point is that I didn’t select Royal Mail as it was the company returning the item and selecting the courier. Which is completely different to me purchasing an item on a website and selecting a specific delivery.

Aibu or should I be entitled to a refund? It’s £120

Definitely entitled to a refund. Can you go via bank as you haven't received it? Otherwise I'd keep pushing it.

Your argument is with the company who posted it back, not with Royal Mail (or with the dishonest neighbour? I don’t believe they would have just left it outside or what would be the point of having it delivered to a neighbour in the first place?)

Did you pay using a credit card? This is important.

This ⬇ only applies if you paid by credit card.

https://www.moneysupermarket.com/credit-cards/guide-to-credit-card-protection

Did you pay on your credit card?

Your argument is with the neighbour but I cant imagine a dishonest neighbour paying up.

There should be a legal requirement that a company has to tell you who the parcel carrier is before you pay for anything, and I think you should have to tick a box to acknowledge it.

Would improve the quality of parcel services as a result.

Not sure if you’ve misunderstood or I’ve not explained.

Neighbour claims they came round and I wasn’t in so left it outside.

Company said the part about Royal Mail and that they are allowed to leave to with a neighbour as you have to go onto their website to opt out. So they are classing as it as “delivered”

Ii didn’t pay though. Originally I paid a year ago. However they then returned it when I sent it back to them because of a fault.

Was the hairdryer Voduz?

I’m being refused a refund on the basis that you have to opt out of allowing Royal Mail leaving it with a neighbour.

Nonsense. Nobody can be required to complete a (non-obligatory) action in order to mitigate a non-anticipatable action. As you say, you had no way of knowing they'd even use RM. Give them a last opportunity to refund you, or take them to small claims court.

Can you even opt-out of RM delivering it to a neighbour? I don't think RM offer that.

The company have the contractual agreement with RM to deliver the item, not you. If RM have lost or misdelivered the item, that's the company's problem.

If you paid with credit card, look at Section 75 protections.

I also contacted RM and they sent me a link to the opt out form and said they’ve delivered it in line with their terms and conditions and I should have opted out. I think (100% could be wrong) that you’re suppose to have a sticker on your day for the post person to see it.

The company are also saying the same thing. And they took almost a month to come back to me about their “investigation”