30% restocking fee to return unused goods

[Thesunrising]

I recently spent just over £2.5k on wood flooring and the underlay required (about £120 of the order). Because of issues relating to the sub floor, our builders never used the underlay however the retailer is now saying they will charge a 30% restocking fee for me to return the underlay. I paid on a credit card over the phone. Can I challenge this at all or do I just have to suck it up? Thanks for any advice!

Unless it's faulty they don't have to let you return it. If, however, you bought it online, provided it's in its original packaging you can return it within 14 days.

Thanks Collaborate. I wouldn't have minded being stuck with a 10 or even 15% charge - 30% seems a bit outrageous considering the amount of business I've given them. It's not making me have very warm feelings about using them again in future!

Maybe that's their profit margin? But I agree if you feel aggrieved you're less likely to shop there in future.

Could you eBay it?

it does seem to be standard practice amoung buildery type shops, over DIY shops

I work in the construction industry & restocking charges are standard.

Yeah pretty standard, we supply a specific product range to housebuilders and charge a 25% restocking charge which could be as little as ?105 but as much as ?2500 depending on the unit supplied. We alo won't take back made to order items or large value that we will struggle to resell. It's all about trying to cover the costs we've incurred in supplying the original goods, in our case manufacturing and shipping plus the cost of then going back to uplift it on site.

When I've had people argue over the restock I have been known to work out the transports costs(normally more than the restock) and offer the customer the option of paying that instead to show that we aren't doing it just to be bastards