To not pay out, and let them take me to court?

[peeved123]

Not sure if I am just being stubborn, or if I should just let it go and move on.

Long story short; I used Lookiero (an online personal shopper service) who send out several items at an agreed interval and you can pay for what you want to keep and send the rest back.

I chose to keep 3 out of 8 items and paid for them. the return label provided was an Evri drop off one, and unfortunately I don't have a drop off point within 3 hours of me (yes, really). I emailed them 3 times asking what I should do and if they could provide and alternative return option. They initially ignored my emails and then I got one saying I had to return by the following day or I would be charge for the full amount (nearly £300!!). I decided I would have to just fork out on a Royal Mail tracked service and posted it the next day.

I have Royal Mail proof it was delivered, and even got an email from Lookiero to say they had received it.

Not long after, however, they said my return was invalid as I didn't use Evri, and that they hadn't receive the parcel. They have been trying to charge my account £278 every week for the last few months despite my attempts at trying to speak to someone to discuss the problem (I've only had generic AI responses). I have blocked the payments through my bank account.

Lookiero have since escalated it to a debt collector. I have gathered all my evidence, which took a long time, and sent it to them. They are continuing to say I owe Lookiero £278 and have added on a £25 fee taking it to over £300. My latest email from the debt collector has said Lookiero will now be starting formal court proceedings because I have not paid. This has been going on since the end of June.

I'm at the point now I just want it to go away, it's really stressing me out and I don't want to go through the court or have it affect my credit score. On the other hand, £300 is a huge amount to me and at this time of year will have a big impact.

What would you do?

YABU - just pay the £300 and consider it a lesson learned
YANBU - keep fighting them and don't let them get away with it

I have already contacted Citizen's advice, Resolver UK and Watchdog.

Sorry that ended up long after me saying I would keep it short.

Did you return to the same address as the Evri label or did you return to a registered office address? I ask because my Mum did this and lost out in the end, she wasn't refunded because the RM proof of delivery was the parcel and a door, not of a person taking it in. They claimed that they don't trade from that address.

Op I had issue with outfittery, who I believe is a sister company.

They bought out Stitch Fix, who I did use - and sent an email saying if I wanted to use Outfittery I would need to provide card details and sign up - which I didn't do.

2 years later (!) they auto-enrolled me and sent a box of unsolicited goods to the address on file they had from stitchfix, of which I didn't update as I didn't actually sign up for their services.

The parcel was left at the address but I did not receive it.

Email dispute happened, and then it was passed to debtist (I think) who are like talking to a brick wall. Despite it being illegal to demand payment for unsolicited goods, they keep threatening me with court action.

I sent one last email telling them to cease and desist, yet they still email me periodically.

I am waiting to see if they take it further, it's been a year!

I'd guess that this is something they do regularly and make it so difficult that most people just give up and pay the model. A business model built on customers not cancelling or not being able to jump through the hoops they make. A bit like that leggings company who sold things as a monthly subscription which you could pause monthly if you didn't want anything new that month but the business model relies on people just forgetting. Or gyms that get loads of income from people who forget to cancel or who make it hard to cancel and get out of a contract.

Fight this, get Which and Watchdog and Martin Lewis's crew on it. It's really poor practice from a consumer perspective. They might say you should've checked about Evri beforehand but legally I'd say that you found a reasonable work around and held up your side of the contract in returning the goods in good time and in a recorded way.

Did your Mum go to court or just fold to their demands though?

Yes you can. The Ts & C's are legally binding documents that you opt in to.

They are within their rights to refuse the op.

We had a similar situation (with a different company) of something being escalated to debt collector and threatened with court. Not heard anything since in over 3 years. It's annoying and stressful because it would be nice to just get these things resolved but I would just ignore it.

Consumer rights override the contract.

Yes the exact same address as the return label, which is a returns centre.

But honestly, the more I think about it the more I realise they had me between a rock and a hard place. I was always going to be charged regardless!

Have you tried emailing the CEO, Oier Urrutia? [email protected]

did you pay by Credit Card.. you can take up a complaint with them. If you paid by Debit card... I think there are lesser degrees of help. But worth checking with Chat and following up.

I completely understand about the continued fight... but I would say that:
you've already invested a lot of time in this.
ou can't afford the £300..
You have all the evidence...
also the helplines like Alice Beer and the Guardian sound promising.
So I'd keep fighting for a bit longer and imagine the day when you have won and no longer have to think about this
Good luck.

And the proof of delivery was the same as your mum's, just an open door with the parcel inside. However, how would they have known to email me that they had received it had they not, actually, received it?!

Thank you! I had no idea how to get the email address

So I have only paid for the items that I kept. you don't get charged for the ones you send back. So,they are now trying to charge me for the items I returned because they say they didn't recieve them as I used a different courier.

They could have made it clear to you about collection being possible.

By the way, if it helps, the statutory period is not 14 days to return the goods, it's 14 days to let them know you want to return the goods.

He's on LinkedIn too.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/oier-urrutia-58105918/

A 1* review with full details on Trustpilot sorts everything out instantly in my experience!

They used to be called something else and they were awful then too. They changed their name and are now operating as this. Whilst I never had this situation, I had other things that made me never wish to go back. Sorry this is happening to you.

Well I've started a Lookerio account several times and ummed and ahhed over whether to go ahead with it so having read that it's a definite no now.

@peeved123 check your credit file and keep a close eye on it, in case they register this as a default!

In these circumstances, I'd let them go to court. It's unlikely they do, but if it does get that far, their email acknowledging receipt of the returned goods is highly likely to end their case. Without it, they could have (rightly) claimed that you didn't follow prices and they lost goods as a result. With it, they've acknowledged that they in fact have the goods, so have suffered no loss.

I tried to email this address but it's been marked as undelivered!!

That’s terrible, thank you for the warning and I hope you get it sorted. Agree I’m no legal expert but it sounds grossly unfair and unreasonable of them.
I’ll definitely be put off using them.

also, maybe they won’t be around much longer anyway, there was another similar one I used which went bust, can’t even remember the name now!