Should they refund me for this even though it hasn't been returned?

[ScarilyClose]

Two weeks ago I bought a heavy and fairly urgently needed item. I paid for next day delivery with same working day dispatch if ordered before 4pm - I ordered at 9am so was expecting it to arrive the next day. When it didn't arrive I checked out the tracking and the seller hadn't actually dispatched it until the next day anyway.

It then went in and out for delivery 4 times - the courier kept marking it as a failed delivery because I wasn't available. I work from home. I was in all day every day, able to see the lane outside the house in both directions. Our house is hard to find but not impossible. I added delivery instructions with directions and the company had my mobile number (which they kept texting with failed delivery updates but didn't think to call if they were struggling to find the house!). The seller just kept telling me to send a what3words location pin to the courier which I did, 3 times, but it made no difference. The drivers didn't appear to even look at the instructions I was providing.

It was finally left in a neighbours garden 7 days after I ordered - luckily the neighbour kindly brought it to my house for me, because the courier marked it as "handed to resident" so I'd never have known where it was otherwise. However I'd given up and bought a replacement one locally that morning because I couldn't be without it any longer!

So I told the seller I wanted to return it, and they've now booked it for collection with the same useless courier, who so far has marked the collection as "failed" 3 times. Same story. The seller won't refund me until I return it, but I literally can't return it. I can barely even pick it up!

Should they refund me anyway? This is completely outside my control and when I initially asked to return it I specifically told them to book with a different courier for this exact reason, but the seller told me they'd never had a failed collection before and that this was who they always use. I bought it on eBay so there's no obvious way past the auto "refund will be issued when item is returned" status of the return I started.

Ridiculous comments by two people on this post! You have bought and paid for a service (the goods plus extra for next day delivery) which has not been provided. They’re now being completely incompetent at picking up the return - not your fault at all. Yes, you should get the refund if they can’t get their arse in gear and arrange this properly. No advise on how to make that happen, except to keep persisting, but YANBU at all.

Exactly, but apparently I'm a "spoilt child" for thinking this

Have you spoken to ebay at all thus far?

I would contact the seller and explain that unless they are able to organise an alternative courier, collect it themselves or issue a refund regardless, you will be raising a case with eBay (who I suspect will compel them to refund you).

I raised a return with eBay and gave all the details including screenshots from live chat while I was trying to get it delivered. The seller accepted the return and accepted that it's their responsibility to collect it (as per their T&C). I don't seem to have any further options in the eBay returns portal other than to return it, which it seems impossible to do!

Hmmm - if there is not any other 'Contact Ebay' options specifically relating to this purchase can you find another more general way to contact / complain to them?

Is it Evri, perchance? 😂

Nope. Evri are actually excellent locally, because we have a driver who's been doing the route for about 10 years. I always make the effort to leave him 5 star feedback in the hope it actually filters through to the driver!

Go onto eBay’s help system and type ‘speak to a person’ or ‘call me’ and you should get a call back to discuss with a staff member. Frankly I’m completely on your side, I’m not sure what planet the idiots on this thread are on - presumably they think you should deliver back to the seller in person?

I don't think you will get a refund unless the seller gets the item back @ScarilyClose

I was the seller in a case similar to this some 3 years ago. I sold an item - worth £17.00 - and there were four attempts at delivery of the item, and the buyer wasn't in on any of those occasions (according to Royal Mail.) There were no instructions for any safe space and it was too big to get through the letterbox so it kept going back to the sorting office.

After 2 weeks it got sent back to the seller (me) but I never received it. The buyer went batshit at me and demanded a refund. She swore she was in every time Royal Mail came to her door. I rang the sorting office near her house, and they swore down that she had not been in at all, every time.

When she demanded a refund. I refused. As far as I was concerned Royal Mail had tried to deliver the item four times over 2 weeks, and I had not got the item back. She opened an appeal with ebay and they investigated, and closed the case in my favour. She gave me a negative feedback and I appealed it. ebay removed it.

I'm not saying I don't believe you were in all those times OP, but ebay did rule in my favour (so they didn't believe the buyer) and she never had a refund. Well, I never got the item back, so why should I be out of pocket?

The really annoying thing is, had I lied and said it didn't get delivered because the "proof" was a photo of the item still in the van and a signature that was obviously the driver's (as in, you could read that it was his name 😂) I'd probably have got a refund and to keep the item - because there wasn't any actual proof of delivery to the right place. But I tried to do the right thing and return it instead!

Start a dispute case with Ebay then. You have every right to do so.

You purchased the goods and paid next-day delivery carriage. It didn't turn up for days (and still not to your address but elsewhere) and you had to purchase something else instead. The courier's fuck-ups are not your problem to solve. That is for the seller to sort out.

I can't, because I opened a return and the seller accepted the return request. It's not possible to now open a dispute.

So many pp commenting don't know the law and their consumer rights!

The company is responsible for collecting the item and refunding you within 14 days of you cancelling the order, because they failed to deliver on time.
You paid for next day delivery and they didn’t uphold their side of the contract.

You’ve made the goods available for collection, but their courier has failed multiple times — this is the seller’s responsibility, not yours.

Tell them that because the delivery was not made within the agreed timeframe, they are in breach of contract under Section 28 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, and they cannot unreasonably withhold the refund just because their courier hasn’t managed to collect the parcel.

The law also requires them to refund you within 14 days of agreeing to the cancellation, under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013.

You could let eBay know as well.

Well just keep on chasing them then. There must be some way of disputing returns that don't happen when it has been agreed - the seller is not abiding by their contractual terms.

How did you pay - paypal?

This isnt actually true.

The seller was in breach of contract in the first place by not delivering on time as paid for by the op.

As I replied to the op, she is entitled to a refund within 14 days of cancelling the orer and it is up to the seller to arrange the collection.
Op has made herself available numerous times. It's not her fault the seller hasn't arranged effective collection.

And is the op going to bring legal action? No. Which makes bleating about 'breach of contract' entirely pointless and unhelpful.

The op is entitled to a refund only, which would be processed after return as per standard distance selling regs.

Debit card.

Apparently the courier is definitely coming tomorrow and has been told that any further failed collections are not acceptable. So says the seller this afternoon. Let's see what tomorrow brings...

Well she could, it’s easy to take someone to small claims court these days.

Fingers crossed!

This all sounds incredibly frustrating.

I was thinking it must be yodel. They’re fairly useless in rural areas

I hope the courier turns up tomorrow.

I've had a little success with complaining to my bank about a transaction. You could try that next.

It's not Yodel, who are terrible but not this terrible!

This is infuriating. But the seller was a day late posting and the courier company has been hopeless. Good idea to raise a dispute through eBay.

How did the neighbour get it to your house and how did you get the replacement you bought locally home?

The neighbour is stronger than me - he put it in his car and dropped it off at my house when he was passing later that day.

I ended up paying a local garage to fit a new part, hugely more expensive than my original plan of getting a mobile mechanic to fit this part (which was from a vehicle breaker, so essentially second hand). So I didn't bring the replacement part home as such, it got fitted to my car (which had to be towed to the garage, more ££) and then I drove the car home!