Hello

My case is similar to this described by Mr Hat,

the survey I completed was for Sainsbury's.

I contacted the company one day after 14 day trial period and straight after I returned unused products.

According to instructions given by their customer service I had to open the box to put inside paper with my name and address.

And now they refusing full refund as they shipping department found something wrong with the package condition.

They are unable to provide details of what was wrong or send me report.

After long conversation with customer service I have received "Partial refund offer" as a goodwill gesture.

I am not satisfied with it as they propose half price.

I already spent in addition for shipping and return and I haven't used the products.

By accepting the refund I confirm that I will not seek further compensation or dispute charges

I am still waiting for my bank to confirm how they can help me but I am not that optimistic.

I think Mr Hat was very lucky.

I haven't accepted partial refund yet.

Any suggestions?

I really do not know what to do.

Shall I send them similar email

or seek legal advice?

You need to call back the bank insist they start a claim for fraud.

They must have actual evidence that it is not fraud to refuse this.

They are then obliged to immediately credit your account.

It is fraud as they state that you have 30 days free trial,

so should not attempt to take any money before this.

Hi,

I got caught by an online pop-up offer of a choice of 3 gifts (one of which was Stemologica for postage only).

2 weeks later they took a further 97.95 from my account!

On complaining they claimed it was a free trial but offered a third and then half my money back.

I persevered with advice from Trading Standards/Citizen's Advice and quoted the Consumer Protection act 2013,

which came into force June 2014, whereby they had failed to provide a durable form of terms and conditions and also a return address

- they paid up in full immediately.

This Act protects everyone if you were on a free trial or a free gift and they fail to comply by providing a clear copy of their terms as above.

Don't give up, my bank fraud department suggested I accept the 50% offered

- thankfully I ignored their advice!

Hi.

Have you used someone else to represent your case and contact Stemologica?

Citizen's Advice suggests me to send them an official complaint in the form of the letter

I do not know their office address.

All communication is via email or telephone with customer service.

Not sure if this will work but I will try to refer to the act your suggested.

Conversation doesn't make any sense as they all sound like they read the same instruction from the screen.

I found the same thing, no address, so I used email.

The act is very clear - they are in breach if they don't give you a return address

and if they don't give you their terms & conditions in a durable form (that means not just popping up on the screen)

and they should be given before you purchase,

if you were caught in Sainsbury's they no doubt didn't give you a written terms to read before you accepted.

Companies who breach this act risk imprisonment, so you can be strong in your complaint. Good luck!

I contacted Customer service one day after 14 days trial period to confirm what I actually have:

trial or reward for survey.

They provided me address and later I downloaded from their website t&c where return address is stated.

I do not know if I can quote the legislation in that case.

C. Advisor doesn't see this to be working in my case.

There wasn't any return address on the ordering page.

I didn't have intention to return within 14 day as I didn't know that this is trial under separate rules.

Accidently I found some post while was doing research about the product.

They have to make it clear that it is a trial and you only have 14 days to return goods or you will be charged.

There are a lot more conditions in the Act,

so suggest you read it in full to see if you can find something that applies to your situation.

There is a section that refers to being surveyed I believe and they should give you terms and conditions at that time,

not expect you to read them up later after you have signed.

(What if you didn't have a computer for instance?!!)

If you search for "The consumer Contracts Regulations 2013" you should be able to find the Act in full.

It takes a lot of reading but it is worth it if it stops companies ripping you off.