returning goods ordered on internet?

[Sporky McGuffin]

Take another scenario.

You go to town to buy something when you get home and try it out you find it doesn't do the job or it breaks. So you take it back to the shop.

Do you expect them to refund your fare or petrol costs?

No, but the role of the Distance Selling Regulations (and the new thingy that superseded the DSR) was to afford consumers the same opportunity to inspect goods as they would have in the shop so this isn't that accurate an analogy.

 

[RogerP]

Take another scenario.

You go to town to buy something when you get home and try it out you find it doesn't do the job or it breaks. So you take it back to the shop.

Do you expect them to refund your fare or petrol costs?

No, but the role of the Distance Selling Regulations (and the new thingy that superseded the DSR) was to afford consumers the same opportunity to inspect goods as they would have in the shop so this isn't that accurate an analogy.

I purposely chose two aspects of a tool which couldn't be ascertained just by visual inspection

you find it doesn't do the job or it breaks. So you take it back to the shop.

It's a perfectly "accurate analogy".

 

[Sporky McGuffin]

But in this case it's not something that's faulty or not fit for purpose. It's something that's no longer required - effectively bought in error. That's a key difference.

If I'd bought something and it turned out to not be fit for the advertised purpose then yes, I'd have a darned good go at getting them to pay my costs. If I'd bought something and on getting home it wasn't needed then I wouldn't expect them to pay my costs, and I'd be pleased and slightly surprised if they'd let me return it at all.

That said I did misread your post - the bit about it breaking, so my "no" answer should have been "yes".

 

[RogerP]

As a sometime seller I expect buyers to pay to send goods back to me if it's a case of buyer remorse.

BUT, if whatever I've sold them is faulty I'll expect to pay for carriage both ways so they're not out of pocket at all.

Strangely eBay don't seem to expect sellers to refund postage both ways on faulty goods or at least I've not noticed the option but then I've not needed to check for years - maybe it's changed now.

 

[Sporky McGuffin]

I agree - I don't think it's unreasonable for a supplier to expect a buyer to pay the return costs on something they've decided they don't want.

I think - but could be wrong - that eBay require commercial sellers to abide by the regulations but not private individuals selling their own used goods - IIRC that's in line with the legislation. To be honest I think (and I buy much more than I sell) that eBay has started to favour the buyer too much and the sellers no longer get a fair deal; I wonder if that's to encourage private sales over to Gumtree, leaving eBay for commercial stuff...

 

[RogerP]

..... eBay has started to favour the buyer too much and the sellers no longer get a fair deal; I wonder if that's to encourage private sales over to Gumtree, leaving eBay for commercial stuff...

Well they've always tended to favour buyers. But they can still be fair.

Recently I had a buyer offer to give good feedback if I gave her discount. She didn't say in so many words I get poor FB if I didn't but the implication was there.

I sent eBay the correspondence. They won't tell me what happened but I see the buyer is "no longer registered!" No feedback was left.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I have to say every case of something going wrong that I have experienced or heard of has been a purchase from a private seller not a business, and a few of them have been out and out fraud. In the case of the worst Ebay effectively said tough luck, although the woman had no proof of postage.