Goods sent in error, my responsibilities

[Goawayangryman]

I ordered some garden stuff online, one item costing £70 plus two items costing £40 . When it arrived they had duplicated the wrong item so I was missing one thing and had two of something I only ordered one of. The extra was much more valuable so I thought I'd do the decent thing and fess up.

It took 5 days to get return instructions and they want me to pay postage ("we will reimburse you"...) I am not keen because I don't want the hassle for their mistake and frankly I don't trust them to promptly sort out a refund given their shit customer service! The item is also very delicate and I am worried it'll get damaged.

They are also refusing to send out the other missing item I did want and paid for because I'm "refusing" to send the unwanted duplicate back. I'm not! I've offered to take it to post office if they just send the postage label ffs, or be in when they collect it via courier.

I've told them to sort it out within 14 days otherwise I'll dispose of goods and request a MasterCard chargeback for the bits of the order that are missing/ can't use.

That's ok, isn't it??

You can't simply dispose of them. You'll definitely owe them the value of what you get rid of.

I suggest you simply tell them to send a courier with the missing item and you will do a swap with them. Alternatively they can send you a label and you will post it provided they confirm the return will be at their risk, not yours.

Thanks, @Collaborate . I wouldn't just dispose of them but I'm just not sure what I'm supposed to do if they simply refuse to send a postage label. They point blank said they don't 'do' courier collection or issue return labels.Even if goods are faulty you have to initially stump up to send the goods back, which cannot be right surely??

Quite why they can't simply collect the wrong item when they deliver the correct item I do not know.

You aren't obliged to pay postage to rectify their mistake. You could try to contact trading standards (I think they're called something else now) and I would definitely do the charge back on my card.
If a local company I'd name and shame on Facebook. You could raise it on their twitter account, which sometimes gets a more prompt response than customer services.

Thanks, @ImAvingOops . I've gone for the social media approach and emailed them (again) suggesting they collect at same time as they deliver the missing item. I'm not holding my breath!

I’d look to see if the company has a Twitter presence and contact them there - I’ve found we get quicker responses that way!!