Problem with dabs.com returns procedure

[maven1975]

The story so far:

 

I purchased a PC case from dabs.com just before Xmas and upon delivery the box seemed ok apart from the usual dings that the courier makes however upon opening, the case was visibly damaged so i went through there returns procedure on the website and waited a week for a response and no response was received so then sent another correspondance to which i recieved response and they came picked the item up and sent me a replacement and guess what exactly the same problem box o.k item damaged which was delivered on the 10th Jan 2012.

 

Now due to personal reasons (i.e being seperated from wife) i did not get around to notifying them that the replacement was faulty aswell until 14th Feb 2012 and this is where the problems begin.

 

I was asked to send pictures showing the box and the damaged item which i did and then i received the following response.

 

Thank you for your email regarding order reference number SO02480640 I apologise for the delay in our reply.

 

After looking through your account I can see that this was a replacement for order number SO02433398, which was also damaged upon arrival, with the same extent of damage as this item.

 

I have looked further into your account and I can confirm that this order reference number SO02480640 was delivered on the 10/01/2012. Due to the length of time that has elapsed between the delivery and you reporting this issue, we would be unable to offer you a return of this item.

 

I hope that this email clarifies our position on the matter however should you require any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact the Customer Service Department.

 

So i rattled back the following email:

 

I have never questioned the amount of time i have had the product but the last request i sent through asking for a return was the third time(this was a littlle white lie as i thought it might help my cause) i had used the online form and never received a response this also happened on my first request for a response where i received an email stating this was never received so i think this needs to be looked into as i am now being penalised for this.

 

However i understand yours terms and conditions but the item is clearly faulty and there is no way for me to tell this until the package is opened as the box did not have visible signs of damage and therefore i dispute the terms and conditions as the item is not even repairable at my own expense and is only fit for the bin.

 

As a new customer i can not say my experiece has been enjoyable as this order was for an item that was supposed to be for a xmas present and now nearly two months later i am being told you cant help me yet if i had purchased this item from the high street i would not have had this problem.

Im hoping that due to the points i have raised you will reconsider your decision on this and restore some faith in the company you work for.

 

Then i receive the following response:

 

Thank you for your email regarding order reference number SO02480640.

 

I have looked through the information again and I have spoken to my team leader.

 

As we have previously advised we have not received correspondence from you regarding this matter, neither through the customer service number nor the assistance email on the website. I can appreciate that you claim to have completed the online form however there is no trace of this on the system that records the emails and contact forms. Unless you have used a different email address.

 

From the pictures you have sent to me the item does not appear to be faulty it appears to have been damaged, however the box in which the product was shipped to you in is not damaged in the same area.

 

The damage in the pictures would appear to have been made by rough handling of the item, as the box was not damaged it is unclear how this damage may have occurred in transit from our warehouse.

As we are confident in the integrity of our warehouse staff, we are certain that this damage did not occur in the warehouse and all products are inspected within the manufacturers warehouse before being dispatched to us.

 

I have checked with the warehouse and I can also confirm that the remaining items from the shipment this was originally received on from the supplier were undamaged, and we have not received any further reports of damage to items already shipped therefore the shipment was not damaged before we received this.

 

I cannot state how a "high street" supplier may have handled this situation, however I am certain that if it was unclear how the damage occurred and they had no record of an attempt to contact them for a month from the purchase date the outcome may have been the same.

 

In light of the information we have to hand, we are not reconsidering our position on this matter and as such will not be offering a return of this item.

 

This email makes me feel like they are insinuatingthat i damaged the item as clearly they check all there products according to them which i find highely unlikely.

 

So with this in mind can a company hide behind a returns procedure to fleece you of money now we are only talking £25.00 here but it has now become the principle of the matter and the item was purchased on a Credit Card if that helps at all.

 

Strangely enough though when i now log into my account apparently i have never ordered anything from them as my order history is blank hmmmm.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

[blitz]

Tell them:

 

Under the Sales of Goods act 1979 (As amended) goods must conform to contract and be of a Satisfactory Quality as defined by S.14 of the act. This includes but is not limited to appearance and finish, as well as free from minor defects, per this definition the item does not conform to the sales contract. When determining the responsibility for determining the conformity of the goods at delivery, s.48A states: "... goods which do not conform to the contract of sale at any time within the period of six months starting with the date on which the goods were delivered to the buyer must be taken not to have so conformed at that date." as such the onus is on you to show that the goods were in deed delivered undamaged.

 

Due to this I require a resolution as outlined further on in the act by either replacement, repair or refund within a reasonable amount of time without significant inconvenience.

 

I expect a positive reply within 7 days, should this not be received I will have no option but to consider further action including reporting this incident to Trading Standards as a breech of my statutory rights.

[maven1975]

Thanks for this blitz i will fire that at them and see what they say ?

[maven1975]

ok so here is their response to the above i have to admit they really dont want to exchange this item and now they might aswell be saying that i damaged the item well they kinda off are grrrr.

 

Any further advice ?

 

Thanks in advance

 

Thank you for your email regarding order reference number SO02480640.

 

The information you have provided is relating to items that have been delivered to you with a defect. As detailed in my previous emails to you, we will not return or refund this item as we do not believe that the item was delivered to you damaged, for the below reasons.

 

- The packaging for the item was not damaged, and would have been to explain the extent of the damage to the machine.

- No mention of the damage to the item was made upon receipt and we have no record on a system that logs all correspondence of notification within 3 days of receipt.

- The item was not damaged in the warehouse as all incidents are detailed, and again the packaging was not damaged.

- We do not believe that the damage occurred between dispatch from the supplier and our receipt in the warehouse as again the packaging would have showed damage and this was not the case

- The item was not damaged when it was dispatched to us as the supplier quality checks all items before sending.

- This is the only report of damage that we have received on a bulk order and therefore if an incident had occurred with the shipment in transit to the warehouse, other items would have been damaged.

 

Also our terms and conditions state that we have to be notified of any damage to items within 3 days of the receipt of the item, upon placing an order with us you accepted these terms and conations and as per my previous email we have no contact from you within this time frame.

 

Again as per my previous emails this is our position on the matter, and we will not be refunding or exchanging this item for you.

[blitz]

Send a complaint to Trading Standards via: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Diol1/DoItOnline/DG_195913

 

Send a recorded delivery letter to

 

John Thornhill (CEO)

National Logistics Centre, Wingates Industrial Estate

Westhoughton, Bolton

BL5 3XU

 

Outlining the complaint and the above, change the last line from including reporting this... and I have sent this complaint to trading standards as due to the breach in my legal statutory rights.

 

You might also like to point out that their 3 day examination period in the T+ C does not affect your statutory rights.

 

If they still reject your claim the step after is to send a Letter Before Action and then 14 days after a court summons. All depends on how far you wish to pursue this.

[conductor71]

I can confirm that Maven1975's experience of waiting days for a response is not unique as I am currently having the same problems with Dabs.com and I will definitely not be using them again. They have completely wasted 3 weeks (so far) of my time and I suspect that they knew right from the start that they weren't able to deliver the correct product to me.

 

I wanted to buy a replacement hard drive for my Humax PVR and I identified the item I wanted to purchase on their website. The first problem was trying to sort out issues with getting the website to automatically deduct VAT from the price because I live in the Channel Islands. There was a page on their website saying that once the customer entered their postcode, it would automatically recognise the location and deduct VAT from the price. However, it did not. Hence my first enquiry to them (on 16 Jan 15) was to get this sorted out before I could place my order. Alarm bells should have rung with me when it took them 3 days to respond (19 Jan 15). I was then assured that if I logged back in and placed the order, the VAT would be deducted. Sure enough it was and I placed my order. On 21 January 2015, I received confirmation by e-mail that the product had been despatched. However, more alarm bells began to ring when I noticed that the delivery charge on the invoice was only 82 pence to deliver a hard drive to the Channel islands! It would appear that they had undercharged me for the delivery in error, although they have never acknowledged this.

 

On Monday 26 January 2015, a package arrived by ordinary letter post, just dropped through the door with the other mail onto the carpet below. It was not the hard drive I had ordered, but something completely different- a pack of 2 DDR3 memory sticks (RAM) for a computer, although it had a label on the back containing the description of the hard drive that had not been delivered to me. I e-mailed them the same day (26 Jan 15) to notify them that the wrong item had been delivered to me in error. I also informed them of the apparent delivery price undercharge and offered to pay any extra as I was concerned that at a later stage they might try to send the hard drive to me by ordinary letter post and it would get damaged on arrival.

 

Three days later they finally replied, attaching a copy of their Enquiry Information form, which they wanted me to complete and return. I e-mailed this back to them late on Saturday (31 Jan 15). I then had to wait until the early afternoon of Tuesday (03 Feb 15) before they responded. Instead of just arranging for me to send the product back, they now required me to take photos of the wrongly-delivered item and forward these photos to them. Remember that I wasn't claiming that the product was damaged- only that it was the wrong product. Just two hours after receiving this request (3.50pm, 03 Feb 15), I e-mailed them two photos of the item they had sent me.

 

Today (Sat 07 Feb 15), I finally received an e-mail from them informing me of the following:

we will only be able to refund this for you please can you state a collection date and address and I will arrange this for you.

Just to clarify that I did not request a refund- I was still hoping that they could, after all this time, deliver the correct item to me that I ordered. So I have sent them another e-mail today, threatening to contact their local Trading Standards office. I have told them that they should arrange the collection of the item 'as soon as possible' and that they should NOT wait the best part of a week again before replying to me. I am now wondering how long it will be before the product is collected and then how long after this before I finally receive a refund into my bank account....

[conductor71]

Well here is the final part of my tale:

 

I finally managed to get my wrongly-delivered Dabs product collected from me on Friday 13th February and the following Monday (16th) I received a notification of refund/credit by e-mail. On Thursday 19th, my money finally arrived back in my bank account - a full month after I originally placed the order for the hard drive. I have just checked the Dabs website today and guess what? That same hard drive is still apparently available with "more than 50 in stock". Not good enough. I just don't know why they wasted so much of my time when it seems they never intended to sell me the hard drive. Lesson learned.

[Guest]

.......Lesson learned.

 

 

Lesson = dont buy from them again. another customer they have lost.