Charging to return an item back to a customer.

[matt_br]

This is not something I want to do but higher powers see this as a good option.
If a customer makes a return that is NOT covered by the DSR's can we charge the customer the cost of returning the item/s back to them?

I can't seem to find any information on this.

 

[paulears]

If you want to, yes - but almost certainly it won't win you any repeat business. Goodwill, or not goodwill - that's the real question.

 

[kulture]

How will you charge them? I do hope you are not going to simply do a repeat transaction on their card. They will simply say it is not authorised and you will get a chargeback.

If a customer returns goods, they normally contact you first. You normally reject/accept returns in principal at this stage, before anything is posted. If it arrives and is no longer in the as new condition my practice would be to offer the customer a choice of getting the now damaged goods back, or a refund less a re-stocking fee.

 

[matt_br]

I agree it's a not good repeat business wise or even for potential new customers.
I'm looking more for reasons/laws so I don't have to implement this.
Kulture I think you have it there but If it is included in the T&C's that they accept when ordering. Would this make it authorised?
I've always found most customers return items without contacting first. This is more for the case of when customers do not follow the DSR.

 

[SillyJokes]

The main reason would be it's just wrong but also how to get the payment? You can't re-charge someone's card without running into trouble.

We have no real idea about the scale of your problem from your post so more than that I can't say.

We do get things back which are unsaleable - no packaging, stinking of smoke/perfume and not faulty. Sometimes we return these to the customer, but we don't charge to do that. It doesn't cost much.

 

[deniser]

We give refunds on everything that is returned within 2 months (after 2 months we offer an exchange). Our T&C state goods must be returned either within 14 or 28 days depending on the product. There's just no point arguing about it.

 

[kulture]

The real question you should be asking, is why do you get so many returns that you have this problem?

What do you sell?

 

[yooneeq]

I am aware some companies refund the transaction minus shipping charges in the event of a return. But it would depend on the reason the customer wanted to return their goods. If it was because they simply changed their mind then you maybe able to get away with it as long as your terms were clear. If the goods are faulty or not as described i would be furious if i had to pay to return something that was not as described or faulty.

Both ways, I don't believe retailers should charge for customers to return the goods. As mentioned above you would loose any repeat business and word of mouth is damaging. More important than sales is customer care.

 

[kulture]

Unfortunately the DSR do not permit companies to part refund where a customer has simply changed their mind and returned the goods in their original condition. A number of very large companies have been exposed by Which Magazine for illegally withholding the original postage charge.

Whilst I have every sympathy for retailers and strongly believe that we should not have to refund postage where the customer has just returned a perfectly good item, it is alas the law that we should.

 

[Vacman2000]

You can as long as in is in your T&C
Dreams did it to us, we bought a bed for my elderly mother inlaw, and she had to go into a residentual home, so we did not even get delivery of the bed but wanted to get a refund, they charged 20% for the privalage

 

[kulture]

You cannot use your terms and conditions to overrule the DSRs.

The 20% re-stocking fee is illegal unless the item was personalised in some way or a special order. You can say in your t&C that the customer pays to return the item to you BUT you are meant to refund the FULL purchase price INCLUDING your original outgoing postage.

 

[Vacman2000]

You cannot use your terms and conditions to overrule the DSRs.

The 20% re-stocking fee is illegal unless the item was personalised in some way or a special order. You can say in your t&C that the customer pays to return the item to you BUT you are meant to refund the FULL purchase price INCLUDING your original outgoing postage.

Hi
Thanks for that
What is DSRs?
Vernon

 

[scm5436]

This is not something I want to do but higher powers see this as a good option.
If a customer makes a return that is NOT covered by the DSR's can we charge the customer the cost of returning the item/s back to them?

I can't seem to find any information on this.

We also get customers who return things they're not entitled to without asking first. We just contact them to explain that they are not entitled to a refund and their goods will be made available for them to collect, or they can agree to pay an additional charge to have us ship the goods to them.

We also state the goods will be disposed of if they do not arrange collection/delivery within a set timeframe (why should we have to store their crap for them?)

I can't see any law preventing this stance. If they are not entitled to return the goods under the DSR then they are out of luck.

ps. As for repeat business - who cares? I wouldn't want repeat business from that type of customer!

 

[Vacman2000]

Can you explaine to me what DSR is

 

[kulture]

DSR is Distance Selling Regulations. You can start looking at them here http://www.oft.gov.uk/about-the-oft/legal-powers/legal/distance-selling-regulations/

 

[Vacman2000]

WE bought the product instore so DSR does not apply then

 

[kulture]

True, and it probably does not apply to your web site either. BUT you were posting a comment in a thread relating to distance selling and your comment was incorrect with regard to distance selling.

Regarding your bed, it is one of the few times it is better NOT to buy in store!

 

[streetslocal]

We also get customers who return things they're not entitled to without asking first. We just contact them to explain that they are not entitled to a refund and their goods will be made available for them to collect, or they can agree to pay an additional charge to have us ship the goods to them.

We also state the goods will be disposed of if they do not arrange collection/delivery within a set timeframe (why should we have to store their crap for them?)

How do you find this works?
In terms of saying pay up or we will get rid of your goods what is the reaction?
How does this stand in terms of the law?
Curious on this

 

[scm5436]

Generally annoyed, but hey, what did they expect? Our site clearly tells them not to return them without a returns number, if they choose to ignore that then tough.

People need to learn that if they want to return something they should contact the supplier and ask for their returns procedure (or read it on their website), and not just chuck it in a box and send it off. I guess most of them are chancers anyway - ie. they know they have no right to return, but think if they return it we'll just give in rather than go to the hassle/cost of sending it back to them.

As far as the law goes.... if it's not covered by the DSR (ie if they haven't informed us in writing within 7 days, or it's ineligible for some other reason) then all they have done is sent 'their' belongings to us in the mail. As far as I know we are under no obligation to look after them any more than you would be under any obligation to look after some of my stuff if I just mailed it to you.

To be honest it happened very rarely anyway, and these days we simply refuse any package that doesn't have a valid returns number on it. Again, I'm sure they're pretty annoyed when their package gets returned, especially if it has cost them £10 or so to send it, but hey what can they say?

 

[streetslocal]

The reason i ask is that an example is a product we sell had to be sent special delivery at the cost of £7 odd but the customer didnt know how to use it correctly and said it was faulty and despite having an online chat and support ticket they were adamant its faulty but upon returning the item it wasnt faulty it was just the customer not knowing how to use it
So again we were faced with returning the item at £7 odd to get it back to them which hurts knowing it wasnt faulty......

Another example is a customer damaging an item purposley to get a refund and it was so damm obvious and saying it was damage in transit yet you could see the box was in perfect condition but the item had been scratched with an instrument and it was very obvious and then wanted a refund even though as a goodwill gesture we offered a replacement but in the end we had a independent report who confirmed our suspicions and we sent it back to the customer again at the cost of £7 odd.....

Get fed up of paying for things that we shouldnt have too and good will only goes too far....

 

[marko99]

We charge £25 standard delivery for our goods. It actually costs us around £40 so this is subsidised (and costed in elsewhere).

We always give the delivery charge back to customers if they let us know within 7 "working days".

Generally a customer doesn't have an account with a courier to send the goods so for them to return the goods can cost around £50. The customers think we must collect the goods (wrong).

We sell large items and DSR states we must give customer a "reasonable amount of time to check the goods" we have had many cases where 3-4 days later customers state goods are damaged and they are sending the goods back. We refuse as we state 24 hours is reasonable time - is this unfair? We have had conversations with trading standards who have actually been very helpful. They have told me that even if goods are damaged we must accept returns within 7 days and refund the customer..THEN make a claim against the customer for damaging our goods! this is the case legally (but not practically)

Our goods are heavy and can be easily damaged if not carried correctly.

 

[scm5436]

Get fed up of paying for things that we shouldnt have too and good will only goes too far....

yeah, the DSR is there to protect consumers against unscrupulous traders, but what is there to protect us against unscrupulous customers!

They have told me that even if goods are damaged we must accept returns within 7 days and refund the customer..THEN make a claim against the customer for damaging our goods! this is the case legally (but not practically)

It's a similar thing with the 30 day rule. The customer has to notify us that they want to return the goods within 7 days, but then we have to refund them within 30 days even if they don't actually return the goods. Bizarrely we must refund them and then take them to court to claim our goods back! Luckily that's not happened to us yet but shows just how crazy the DSR is... (and if that did happen they could just bugger off if they think they're getting a refund without returning the goods)