Try & keep short: Son bought '65 Airstream Caravan (yes the polished type)from Florida & shipped by agent in Derby. The agent is a clown & has stupidly paid customs & excise far too much as paid on wrong code. Instead of 5% as its a '65 and due to its weight I believe he's paid 20% which think is about £3.5k. Its his fault & C&E have confirmed they don't know why he paid that amount. Now he isn't releasing caravan unless my son pays whole amount. He only actually owes £937 which is payable on delivery to his door only which he is happy to pay. Police can't act as civil at moment & he has started to contact trading standards. Despite not having the extra he is understandably reluctant to pay the demanded balance in case especially as its the agents fault he paid incorrectly but that he either doesn't ever get back from Gov or has to wait a long time for it. At one point he called police because we thought the van had been vanished as he refused to send any container shipping details either but it is supposed to be in UK now. I am tempted to call the bloke & try & resolve but suspect will still be no avail or to get a solicitor to just send a warning letter to him to release the vehicle. Anyone with any experience in this area gratefully received of how we should proceed.... thanks. I'm going to post additional info as its transpired but on new posts to try and keep clarity and make it easy to understand Information Point 2 the following is info answered by my son as we have gone into it: The person who has the caravan is the shipping agent: He used an unknown shipper to actually collect it from Florida and transport it to New York, and then on to the unknown ship to the unknown port in the UK. He initially invoiced me the correct vat figure which I paid him. I checked this with HMRC and they said sometimes shippers and shipping agents to do this and appears to be a legitimate method as opposed to me paying HMRC directly. It was only when it cleared customs he issued me with a new invoice for the duty and vat. I think it was the US shippers that filled out the customs documents incorrectly and led to a much higher figure. HMRC said the only people who can amend that paperwork are the ones who filled it out. I would contact them directly but he won't tell me who they are or how to contact them. He's just taken it as gospel that the higher figure is correct, paid it from his own account and invoiced me for it. "But I still have no actual proof he's paid this amount. He won't give me any documentation or reference numbers with which I can contact anyone about this. As said, maybe he should be asking HMRC for a refund but I don't know if he can do that unless he resubmits the paperwork. But then I asked him to sort that and he just says I have to pay him the full amount."

If you buy an item online and pay with Paypal they have a promotion where if you change your mind they will pay the return shipping costs. It runs to the 31st August and can be used 4 times up to a value of £15 each time. You need to opt in and it appears to be valid for all Paypal users. https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/refunded-returns Terms and conditions: https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/refunded-returns/general-conditions

Hello everybody, I recently purchased a guitar effects pedal from a store over the internet via PayPal. I sent it back the next day during the cool-off period. The shipping in the online ad states free delivery. They have refunded me the cost of the item minus £6.99 for postage. I did a quick web search and came up with: The Office of Fair Trading; “The OFT’s view is that the normal postage and packing charges for the delivery, but not the return, of distance sales purchases must always be refunded in addition to the cost of the goods when orders are cancelled during the cooling-off period.” From Out-law.com: “Online shopping customers who send back goods straight away must not be charged for their delivery, Europe's top court has said. Consumers can be required to pay the cost of returning the goods but should be refunded every other cost, it said. 15 Apr 2010” “The UK's Distance Selling Regulations govern this right and consumer regulator the Office of Fair Trading has previously ruled that refunds must include the cost of postage or delivery of goods.” I contacted the store with this information and they sent me the following reply: "Thank you for your email and I do appreciate your point of view If you change your mind, you can return your purchase in its original condition within 14 days to us for a full refund minus any costs incurred for the initial dispatching using our express courier and any costs incurred by -------- for the returning of the order. Please note that shipping discounts are removed if your full return or partial return takes your order below the free delivery threshold (this only applies for items that have been sent). Orders which have received discounted shipping (for example, free next day shipping) will have to cover the initial express courier dispatching, normally £6.99. The fact that you received free shipping is because we applied a shipping discount to your order and paid this shipping as a goodwill gesture. We do not ship item via any standard (normal) delivery options and ship everything using express next day service therefore we are entitled to recoup any delivery costs from the refund. I am afraid that the £6.99 deduction is correct and does not breach any consumer rights. So, are they correct to deduct the postage or not? I would be very grateful for any answers to help me resolve this. Thanking you all in advance, Nigel

From my recent experiences with Overclockers UK, it would appear that they have a policy NOT to issue refunds on the outgoing shipping charges in the event they sell you a faulty item. I purchased a new computer display on Friday 13th (should have known better!), which arrived the following day. This display was touted as being extremely accurate in colour expression, which is one of the reasons I opted for this model. It was only released a few weeks ago. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-211-SA The display itself had terrible backlight bleed and it's colour accuracy, probably because of this, was awful. [ATTACH=CONFIG]56098[/ATTACH] I spoke to Overclockers on the Monday to arrange a return and full refund due to the fault. To their credit, they did arrange to collect the item the following day. I since picked up a much better screen at around half the price. Yesterday I received an email from Overclockers informing me that I would be refunded in full, less my shipping charges of £20.70. When I rang to query this, I was told that the shipping component was a seperate service that had been supplied and it was not Overclocker's policy to refund such charges - even when the goods are faulty. (N.B. They agreed the backlight bleed was really bad). There is nothing in Overclocker's T&C's that states this. Regardless the Sales of Goods Act states that a full refund should be given, including postage costs and any other losses that have been incured as a direct result of recieving faulty goods. Had I simply changed my mind about the display (i.e. if it was not faulty), then I would have still been entitled to the basic cost of getting the item to me as per the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013. Overclockers' T&C's state something similar. However, when presented with this information I was still refused a refund. Furthermore I was refused a conversation with the manager, even though the advisor himself had consulted with him/her only moments before. Again, something along the lines of "Company Policy". Only after repeated insistence that Overclockers would be breaking the law should they not provide a refund, did the adviser apparently receive a "thumbs-up" from his manager to "authorise a refund in this instance". Great - but it would still appear the company stance is not to provide this automatically for other consumers! Incidentally, the display itself is now listed at a £60.00 reduction for "this week only". Wonder why... ----- Sadly, I did record the conversation using a new app on my phone but the record quality is terrible! If I can clean it up I'll try and post it on YouTube.

I bought a bathroom tap from Amazon marketplace and received the item a week later. I immediately noted the item had dents on the chrome finish, as if it was dropped or impacted by a metal object. I also realised the seller was based in Germany. I wrote to the seller and sent photos, all communications going through Amazon. The seller was fairly slow and replied with single line emails every time. They initially offered a small amount £10 refund but I clearly explained that I wanted a replacement. Again no reply for a couple of days, they said "if you don't like the tap, then send it back and we will refund it". I gave the seller every opportunity to correct this, to me they appeared lazy and unwilling to cooperate. Then I raised the question of who will bear the shipping cost and where to return the item. The seller provided no return address to the UK and the only address was on their package for "Germany". Soon after and given the seller was being difficult to communicate, I contacted Amazon UK support to complain and raise the matter. They agreed to bear the return shipping cost and so I sent the item back to Germany with registered international post. For the record, the item cost was £60 and postage to return was £45. It may seem ludicrous but that was the minimum traceable package cost and that is exactly why I made prior agreement with Amazon. I posted a scan of the receipt with the cost through the very same email communication,and waited for a refund. A couple of days later I received a call from Ireland from a guy working for Amazon support (perhaps senior?) apologising for the inconvenience and confirming that the seller will refund the item and will pay the return shipping as well, as they should have provided a return address in the UK. Most importantly, that same guy put all of this in writing and confirmed by email! (Yes I still have it!) The item arrived at the seller three days later, who although having the reference code, delayed the refund of the item for five days until I requested it again. The shipping cost was NOT refunded. The seller is impossible to communicate with, they don't speak good English and give lazy responses. They do not even acknowledge the shipping cost. I have now been chasing Amazon UK for over a month with emails, which are being ignored. Also made several complaint phone calls to their support team which are always met with a confirmation the matter will be resolved, but nothing seems to happen. We are going around circles or they are mocking me. My understanding is that under Amazon's policy I have followed every step correctly to return the item and either they or the seller should refund the shipping cost for an item that was damaged to description. It is clear to me that under distance sales (now Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013) and even Amazon's own policy the shipping cost must be refunded. I have been shopping with Amazon UK for over 10 years and I have never had such a terrible treatment. Perhaps an article to the Guardian or a letter to Trading Standards will refresh their memory of their obligations to the consumer? Or action in court?

Trying to make sense of the terms and conditions of ebay's Global Shipping Programme - In places, somewhat confusing and possibly unfair. This would seem to indicate that all fees and charges have been paid up front.... This clarifies the claim that all fees, including VAT has been included in the price paid for shipping.... Then we get to this section: Err.... Unless I am mistaken, previous clauses would suggest that no further charges will be liable once payment has been made.... Finally, the unfair clause: So eBay can amend the T&C without giving notice - Something is seriously wrong with that ! Having paid for this "service" on the assumption that import duties, VAT, brokerage fees, and shipping costs have all been paid up front, should I incur any additional charges, would I be within my rights to: a) Lodge a PayPal dispute and/or b) Do a S77 charge back on my credit card. c) Demand that eBay refund any additional charges on the grounds of unfair contract or mis-sold "service".

The Shipping Forecast as read by UKIP. (Audio link).

We ordered a sofa from Harveys on Boxing Day. My wife has rung several times about it and the last couple of times they "suggested" we pay the balance for the sofa in advance as this would speed delivery up considerably. My wife rang again just now and was told they will not ship the sofa from England to Northern Ireland until the balance is paid. Is this proper? Surely once they have our money they can make us wait as long as they want before delivering (we had the same thing happen with MFI many, many moons ago and this has tainted our faith in furniture companies).

Hi - I'd be very grateful for some advice re. drafting a POC for a claim against a parcel delivery company - I'm aware there are quite a few templates for reclaiming bank charges and I haven't found a POC template for services / reclaiming damage / compensation in this case. Any relevant advice / links will be much appreciated! Thanks!