Sellers rights!! Help

[QueenL]

I am reviewing my T&C this week and its such a gray area when it comes to returns of faulty goods (after a period of time). Have tried looking up the usual consumer advice groups but its just not clear cut enough. Ive tried looking at other online sellers T&C to see if I can get some tips but some 'business' sellers dont have a Terms and Conditions page! In particular I'm looking for correct advice on:

1. who pays return postage (after 14 days)
2. complaint of a fault after 2 months - the sellers rights. (e.g. can I refer them to the manufacturer?)
Can anyone point me in the right direction to get the advice? Thanks in advance.

[profitxchange]

I suggest you contact trading standards they are there to give advice as well

[KateCB]

1. If the goods are faulty, then you shoudl apy or refund the the customers return costs. (see BERR - Distance selling regulations)
2. Your tmers shoudl state that the goods are fit for purpose- if they develop a fault after 8 weeks, then yes you can refer themt the manufacturer, however we would ask them to return the goods at teir cost and we will investigatethe fault - if we feel that the fault is a manufacturer problem, thenwe will send the goods to th manufacturer - if we feel that the fault is custome abuse/misuse etc, then we return the goods to the customer with a copy of our findings. If the manufacturer decides that the problem is a manufacturing error, then the will replace the goods to us and refnd our shipping charges, and we then replace the goods for the customer, refunding their carriage charges incurred to returnthe faulty goods to us. All incomplianc with Distance Selling.

have a look at our t&c's - might help and you can use them if they help!

[ColinR]

3.68 If goods develop a fault within the first six months of being sold,
the law presumes that the fault was there when you sold the goods –
unless you can show otherwise. You should not charge return costs
for goods that have been rejected because they are faulty.

[KateCB]

Isn't there a caveat to 3.68 thoug? - if you state in your terms and conditions of sale that faults must be notified within a certain time (and include these TC's with your goods when you ship them) then the customer must check for damage when receiving the package and notify you within a given timescale - we have this as selling fabric gods which are worn for hard physical training it is entirely feasible for someone to damage through standard training (i.e. twice a week) a suit within 3 - 6 months - particularly when a lot of our goods are washed and starched each time they are worn, which damages the integrity of the fabric anyway - can't then be considered a fault- I'm sure its there somewhere!

The Olympic Judo suits that we supplied for Beijing last year are now ready for replacement as they have been punished through use, but this cant be considered a fault of the actual garment, they are simply 'worn out'.

[gibby]

For the sake of keeping customers happy we sort the problem & postage fees ourselves & take it up with the makers if we have too.

With some larger goods such as electrical we do have agreements that customers can return direct but we help as much as we can.

If you do a web search on complaints & Comet, you will see that Comet have strict T&C's about returns which almost break the statutory rights a consumer has. They are displayed in store and upset many customers.

They refuse to refund faulty products - even when new & always offer a replacement. The staff can be really unpleasant to customers and I have experienced them tell a few fibs & even stating that Trading Standards are wrong.
They put my elderly parents through hell over a faulty cooker and it wasnt until TS got involved and I promised to take them to court that they backed down.

As a result this sort of poor customer service has given them a very bad name & I know it has stopped many customers from buying form them again.

Faults & returns are a pain but most customers are genuine and its good business to look after customers in most cases.
We just followed the DSR notes & it works well for us.

Hope that helps

G

[quikshop]

Faults & returns are a pain but most customers are genuine and its good business to look after customers in most cases.
We just followed the DSR notes & it works well for us.

I think thats a very good point, sometimes it pays to go that extra mile for your customers for the sake of the reputation of your business and to give a boost to word-of-mouth marketing.

However there are limits. Some customers are just rude, ignorant or use the anonymity of distance purchasing as an excuse to be foul and abusive to whoever they are talking to.

Having been involved in distance trading for about ten years I've experienced a good selection of angry and abusive punters.

If you take a lot of calls I strongly recommend using a VOIP recording service or similar to capture your customer service conversations - in my book as soon as anyone becomes unduly abusive or offensive they loose all of their statutory rights.

[gibby]

thats a good point too - customers who ask nicely we really look after
we dont really get nasty ones but often if you treat em with respect they calm down and usually ok

the ones that area pain we dont want to keep anyway - but they can do alot of damage on the net

G