ETAM order

[HuntingoftheSnark]

I remember Etam from my youth as a fairly cheap but ok shop. So, I recently ordered a blue coat costing £71. It arrived, is too big, doesn't suit me. I thought no issue, I'll send it back.

I had not realised that it had been sent from France. Minor annoyance but £14 to send it back tracked, ok, did that. I had to print the address label/QR code - stuck securely to the parcel.

The parcel has arrived back at my address. The label I carefully stuck on has been removed, and a EU note says that it couldn't be delivered, so has been returned.

A coat that doesn't fit me has now cost me £85. The post office have said I can claim back the £14 for non delivery and suggested I send it back again, for another £14. I will have exceeded the 30 day returns policy by this point.

Obviously I belatedly looked on the Etam reviews site to find that they are all appalling - I'm going to try to sell the coat on eBay and reclaim the £14. This is more to ask if anyone else has had a similar experience and also to warn you that if you want to return an item, it may not be as easy as it should be!

Plus if anyone would like a mid blue, straight cut, almost knee length coat ..... 😀

We are having awful time sending stuff to eu for work. No real reason for it, just them playing c silly buggers

Surely you realised that unless you were sending it back to 1989 it would be going abroad?

@nameyouwhat thank you for the swift reply. Ohhh so I could be blaming Etam when it's an EU issue? That actually makes more sense.

I hadn't realised Etam existed any more full stop, so no, I didn't. It was late at night, I was looking for a blue coat and was overcome with nostalgia.

Not necessarily. Etam has a co.uk website. I didn't know they were still around either, but with a UK website, you can be forgiven for assuming that operations are in this country too.

Sorry, I meant to quote @cloudtree!

Why are the EU being blamed because the post office haven’t delivered the parcel?

I stuck the address label very firmly onto the parcel, along with my own address, details of contents etc. The parcel was returned with the address label removed and the following label stuck on it. I'm slightly annoyed rather than blaming the EU or anyone else - I assumed it was an Etam issue but sounds as if it might be wider.

The EU isn't at fault here, it's a combination of Etam and the post office. If you just send a commercial package with a label to the EU it won't arrive. You're required to fill out a whole lot of paperwork, print it out, attach the invoice threefold to the outside in one of those stick on see through 'envelopes', otherwise it'll just be refused at customs (or by Etam refusing custom charges on a return) and ends up returned to sender.

Etam should have made this clearer in their return instructions and the post office shouldn't have accepted a package to the EU without the required paperwork.

This is very annoying OP, I have had the same issue with shops that appear to have a UK website, but are actually sending from elsewhere in Europe.

The reason for the hassle (as I’ve discovered) is that we because we left the EU single market / customs union, a lot more paperwork is now required to clear customs. I think the Post Office are at fault and should have advised you of this (possibly also Etam).

That's annoying. I did love ETAM's underwear when I lived in France but that was a good 10 years ago. Another blast from the past over there was C&A if anyone remembers that.

This is super annoying. Just to highlight that if you use PayPal, you can reclaim return postage costs up to £12, up to 12 times a year.

@TheCategoryIs I did use PayPal and I didn't know that - thank you! Will try that.

[quote HuntingoftheSnark]@TheCategoryIs I did use PayPal and I didn't know that - thank you! Will try that.[/quote]
I hate to burst your bubble but the PayPal refund service is only available if you activate it before putting an order in, but worth activating for the future here:

www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/refunded-returns

That label suggests your shipping label had fallen off, which makes sense if it is no longer on the parcel.

Why did you use the Post Office rather than the DHL service Etam tells you to use?

You should have attached an EAD (electronic advance data) form. Nothing to do with Brexit and everything to do with the Universal Postal Union.

Anything that needs to have the EAD form attached but doesn't will be returned (or possibly destroyed)by the postal service of the relevant country, in this case France.

@nameyouwhat

We are having awful time sending stuff to eu for work. No real reason for it, just them playing c silly buggers

You are having issues sending stuff to the EU for work and it's them that are playing silly buggers???? Have you forgotten that the UK left the EU so all of the lovely free trade and free movement of stuff from parcels to people has stopped for you? Yet it's the EU who are playing silly buggers.

I have no problems sending stuff from one EU country to another.

I do however have major problems sending from an EU country to the UK and relatives who live in the UK are having an equally rotten time sending stuff from the UK to me in the EU.

The only difference is that the UK left the EU.

Deal with it but don't call us silly buggers. We're still together as a group. You guys left.

I'm not blaming the EU, by the way, or really anyone. I just wanted to express annoyance and see if anyone else had experienced the same. As for using DHL, the returns instructions were as attached and it said "tracked" so, perhaps naively, I assumed that the post office tracking service for £14.10 would suffice.

Sorry @HuntingoftheSnark, my post wasn't in reference to your issue (which has a French Post office sticker on it not a UK one by the way) it was in reference to @nameyouwhat saying that because they are having issues sending to the EU as there are 'no real reasons for it'. Well there is one reason and I get so cross when people lay the blame for the issues that they are encountering now squarely at the door of the EU is all.

@LookItsMeAgain
well we have been trying to send something to tge Netherlands that has been repeatedly returned. .The reason "internal reasons within the Netherlands " yes I know we left but come on

[quote nameyouwhat]@LookItsMeAgain
well we have been trying to send something to tge Netherlands that has been repeatedly returned. .The reason "internal reasons within the Netherlands " yes I know we left but come on[/quote]
Still not an EU problem. It's a problem that the package/parcel is originating outside of the EU now and you have to follow the same sort of rules and regulations that every other country outside of the EU has to when sending stuff to a destination inside of the EU.

Do that and you'll be golden. Honest.