[Closed] UK Bike Store being funny...

[i]UK BIkes are refusing to accept their return and issue a refund even though the box is unopened.[/i]

I know SOGA and distance selling regs get overused on here but this really is an occasion when they apply and should be referred to (imo, obviously).

so many day distance selling regs, of course they can be sent back to ukbikestore - he'll have to pay postage though.

HOWEVER, in the sake of customer service, I'm amazed they wouldn't cancel the order before despatch, doubt your mate will use them again now.

beaten to it

I know SOGA and distance selling regs get overused on here but this really is an occasion when they apply and should be referred to (imo, obviously).

so many day distance selling regs, of course they can be sent back to ukbikestore - he'll have to pay postage though.

HOWEVER, in the sake of customer service, I'm amazed they wouldn't cancel the order before despatch, doubt your mate will use them again now.

he told them he was willing to pay the return postage fees but they still wont take them back...and yes i very much doubt he will be using them again

so seeing as they are refusing to take them back and wont give him his money back either...where does that leave him? other than being £20 out of pocket with a pair of forks he no longer has the need for?

they *have* to take them back.

How can they refuse to accept the return? Has he posted them and had them sent back 'refused'?

[did he pay by credit card or paypal? Complain to them too]

From their own website...

Returns Policy

All of our products come with a 10 day returns policy. If you change your mind and don’t require the item(s) you have ordered, please return them to us, unused in their original wrapping & in a re-saleable condition within 10 days of receipt. A refund will normally be given within 10 days of us receiving the returned goods although this may take a little longer in high season when we are exceptionally busy. We do not want you to be stuck with items that don’t fit or cannot be used so we are more than happy to exchange incorrectly ordered items or wrong size parts & clothes etc. If you are returning an item, the costs incurred in sending it back to us are the responsibility of the customer and we also advise that proof of postage is obtained as we cannot be liable for items lost in transit. If you return an item to us with insufficient postage, we will deduct the extra postage & associated charges made by the Post Office from your refund or charge them to the card used for the original order. We also reserve the right to charge for the postage costs of sending out replacement or exchange items back out to you.

he told them he was willing to pay the return postage fees but they still wont take them back...and yes i very much doubt he will be using them again

If that's really the full story then it's pretty stupid of UK Bike to try and force this on the buyer - they're clearly in breach of their own returns policy and SOGA.

http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/problem/i-want-to-return-my-goods-what-are-my-rights

Check returns policy before you buy

You can only return non-faulty goods for an exchange or refund if the retailer has a returns policy.
It's worth noting that shops aren't required by law to have a returns policy, but if they do have one they must stick to it.
Under the Sale of Goods Act you have a statutory right to return something and get your money back if it's faulty.
But you're only entitled to a refund if you return it within three to four weeks, otherwise you can get a repair or replacement.
Returns policies are usually displayed on receipts, on signs in-store and online.You can also ring the shop's customer services line to find out its returns policy.
Most retailers impose time limits for returning non-faulty products, such as 28 days, but many extend around Christmas for example, so you might have more time than you think.
If you paid by credit card, you also have extra protection under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act.

thats what i thought too wwaswas
the package has not even been opened. he phoned them up as soon as they arrived and told them he didnt want them. he would send them back at his cost as long as they refunded the £320 he paid for them and they refused.
when he placed the order and they refused to price match and then refused to cancel the order he contacted them again to say that although Merlins website said out of stock he had contacted them and they confirmed they had 1 left in stock and had sold it to him for £240, and therefore he no longer wanted the forks from them and again they refused to cancel the order even though they hadnt dispatched them.

From another page on nemesis' link;

When you buy goods online you have additional rights to return them.

This is because your decision may be based on a brief description or a photograph – so what you receive isn't always quite what you’d expected.

The Consumer Contracts Regulations replaced the Distance Selling Regulations in June 2014.

Under the Distance Selling Regulations, you had the right to return your order up to seven days from the day after you receive your goods.

The Consumer Contracts Regulations extend this right to 14 days from the day you receive your goods.

Many online retailers extend this even further so be sure to read the terms and conditions carefully as you may have longer to return unwanted items

Did he pay by credit card?

I've used UK Bike Store in the past but might reconsider that in light of their fickle returns dept!

Maybe send them a pointer in the direction of this thread.

SOGA and credit card cooling off should mean your mate is fine. Worst case, post back, tracked/recorded/signed (so your mate can see a name & signature given on delivery) then claim back form the CC issuer.

Ive always found ukbikestore pretty good in teh past

they are next door to windwave, I wonder if theyve got sulky at merlin flogging grey imports?

still no excuse for their shitty attitude

Did he pay by credit card?

yes he did so he has that to fall back on to claim his money back if UK Bikes dont issue a refund.

Always been happy with ukbikestore so find it surprising they'd be digging their heels on this contrary to their own T&Cs and SoGA...silly attitude that'll get them some bad publicity

Slightly bizarre attitude for an online retailer to adopt given how clear the laws are regarding returns, they are even breaching their own returns policy by the look of it.

Weird!

Part time summer staff on the phone maybe.
Or just trying it on. Both hard to justify by the shop tbh.

It's said all publicity is good publicity. But not in this case.

UKBikeStore are being muppets. Rarely does anyone go online and praise a retailer and with STW having the online presence of a small country this thread will pop up on a Google search forever.

Point them to this thread and tell them to stop being idiots.

with STW having the online presence of a small country.

Really?

Google anything vaguely bike related and STW comes on the first page of results more often than not.

Google is cleverer than you think. It pushes those result you're more likely to click on (since they know you use the STW website) further up the rankings.

Google anything vaguely bike related and STW comes on the first page of results more often than not.

Edit: Beaten by 11secs

And even without cookies too, I believe. There's nowhere to hide, Google knows all about you. 8)

they refused to cancel the order

this is odd even before the refusing to accept a return.

Why wouldn't they cancel the order before dispatch when requested?

You could almost go as far as to say he DID cancel the order on the phone with them and that they sent them anyway.

Not sure what the rules are around cancelling before payment taken and before dispatch, is a phone call enough (legally) to cancel an order?

If UK Bike Store are genuinely refusing to accept a return, I'll put money on the story not being quite that straight forward. A tenner says the friend has had them more than 10 days.

Agree it seems hard to believe if the story is exactly as told but you do get the odd muppet who thinks that they can get away with this sort of thing though if that's the case, shops should make sure they're not allowed anywhere near customers...

Worth getting your mate to put something in writing/email to them so there is documented evidence of him trying to arrange a return in a timely fashion, just in case they continue digging their heels in and it needs to be taken further.

A tenner says the friend has had them more than 10 days.

If UK Bike Store are genuinely refusing to accept a return, I'll put money on the story not being quite that straight forward. A tenner says the friend has had them more than 10 days.

i saw the package in his hallway last night and the delivery note had yesterdays date and the invoice date was saturdays....you owe me a tenner

I'll bet a tenner that poisonspider never pays up 😉

Shame these forks are no longer called "bombers".

Might have been able to make a useful suggestion otherwise.

he's sent a couple of emails since yesterday and has had no reply yet. i've told him to phone them again and speak to a manager to get it sorted out. i've also told him to state SOGA and distance selling regs and quote their own returns policy....hopefully they'll see sense and do the right thing

Shame these forks are no longer called "bombers".

Might have been able to make a useful suggestion otherwise.

they still say bomber on the top of the brace...

Everyone other than us the buyer gets annoyed at merlin but print off a ret form send them back they have to refund.
Price matching is only done on stocked items but that's irrelevant

update: he managed to get hold of one of the managers and explained what had happened. he also mentioned SOGA, dist selling regs and their own returns policy and the manager eventually agreed with him.
they will now issue a full refund and he's shipping the forks off to them as we speak.
retailer finally sees sense...maybe the manager is on STW!

thanks for the advice folks!

All this is just the gods telling him that morally he is wrong. Shouldn't have clicked yes without checking.
Sadly the law is an ass and he should get his way.

they will now issue a full refund and he's shipping the forks off to them as we speak.

I bet it takes 30 days to get the refund. 😉

Maybe Dave Hinde was doing a summer placement at the shop.

Well considering UK Bike store are 100yds from where I am sitting right now and I am on first name terms with everyone in there - there's more to this than the OP is letting on.
They aren't a one man band in someones back room. Their place is massive and they are shipping twice a day.
I'm not siding with UK Bike Store or the OP BUT methinks the OP's friend hasn't given the OP the full information.

Go and ask them we are waiting. 🙂

Maybe they'll sell you some forks with an unusual amount of travel.

Go and ask them we are waiting.

i'd like to know what their version of events is too seeing as you're insinuating that my friend is a liar

I'm not siding with UK Bike Store or the OP BUT methinks the OP's friend hasn't given the OP the full information.

Gonzy - I never called your friend a liar. I said that he may well have not given you ALL of the inforrmation.
As it turns out - he didn't.
Did your friend tell you that he'd already received the forks before he rang them to ask for the price match?
Betting he didn't....
Bet he didn't mention that he was told on the phone nicely that the "Price match" applies to "in stock items" the same as CRC/Wiggle/Halfords/Evans.
Whether Merlin have a pair "out the back" is neither here or there - if a retailer (in this case UK Bike Store) does a web check and it shows " out of stock" then quite rightly they are going to say no!
In this case they said no because your friend had already received the forks!
Returning an order because you didn't get them at the price you wanted may well constitute a good reason to refuse a return from the retailer.

Feel free to ring them yourself and ask them.
Dave and the rest of the staff are aware of this thread and indeed have all had a good read of it themselves whilst I was there.

*waves at Dave and the rest of the staff*

Unless their policy explicitly says (maybe it does now, who knows) 'we won't accept returned goods if you get arsey about the price' they're not in a strong position.

Hi Dave!
Glad you did the right thing and complied with your own policy (and the law).

*waves at Dave and the rest of the staff*

Unless their policy explicitly says (maybe it does now, who knows) 'we won't accept returned goods if you get arsey about the price' they're not in a strong position.

+1, doesn't matter that they didn't price match, they need to accept returns for upto 14 days. Phoning them up ref. a price match does at least give them an opportunity to keep the fork sold (albeit at a lower price) and not returned to them.

They chose not to price match, but they should accept returns, as the customer has changed their mind. As noted on their own website policy.

Still off my list of places to purchase.. unles -

**unless of course these forks were bought ages ago...

Returning an order because you didn't get them at the price you wanted may well constitute a good reason to refuse a return from the retailer.

Returning an order because you didn't get them at the price you wanted may well constitute a good reason to refuse a return from the retailer.

Actually no it doesn't based on SOGA and their own terms but if their version is indeed true (and it would go some way to explaining the situation) that's probably not the point.

TBF, I'd still buy from them. It seems someone just got arsey at being undercut by a grey import which is understandable.

at being undercut by a grey import

Who said anything about grey imports?

Merlin innit? I thought that was their thing?

Merlin innit? I thought that was their thing?

Not necessarily, a lot of what they sell is from pukka UK distributors.

Ah, soz to merlin then.

They did comply with the SOGA and their Terms for the return.
When they guy actually called them and spoke to Dave there he arranged the return straight off.
They didn't get arsey over it or it being a grey import/undercut. They had agreed to price match even AFTER he had received the forks IF they were in stock on their website.
Again though - someone forgot to mention the not so nice calls demanding a price match because "Merlin say they have one out the back so you have to...." and " the SOGA says...."
I think nowadays people forget that they can call somewhere and speak to someone civilly with perhaps "can we please have a look at this" or "could we possibly" rather than going straight to a rant and spouting "it's the law - my mate said so..."

Returning an order because you didn't get them at the price you wanted may well constitute a good reason to refuse a return from the retailer.

Not - SOGA allows people to change their minds. Whether that's right or wrong, it's a fact.

But this

I think nowadays people forget that they can call somewhere and speak to someone civilly with perhaps "can we please have a look at this" or "could we possibly" rather than going straight to a rant and spouting "it's the law - my mate said so..

also

1:1 scoredraw, no extra time or penalties in this one.

In all the circumstances, this thread is not sufficient to put me off UKBikeStore. However, it does amuse me that hammyuk is pretending that he isn't Dave.

He has been well cheeky but he can do this within the law
UK bike store seem to have done more than they needed to morally then what they had to do legally

Rather have a beer with the shop than the OP's mate

Think I'd get right pissed of with folk like that calling and messing me about, lawful or not. OPs mate sounds like he's been telling porkies too.

My name isn't Dave Ape!
They just happen to be on the same business park as my premises so bloody handy for parts that you don't see elsewhere.

Ok Dave, whatever you say 😉 🙂

I agree, they are good for bits you can't get elsewhere.

Ops friend want s to save £80, can't blame him for that it might be a lot of money to him. UK bike shop don't want to price match (the reason is irrelevant), nothing wrong with that either.
The only issue as far as I can see it was this;

anyway the forks from UK Bikes arrived yesterday and UK BIkes are r[b]efusing to accept their return and issue a refund[/b] even though the box is unopened.

And for what's it's worth where did I call anyone a lier.

Asking for a price match after you have bought something is just stupid, you were offered a price and agreed to it. Also if you have just bought it and happy with the purchase why go home and check prices after?

Not price matching something that someone else doesn't have makes total sense as well, they are not actually selling them for that price if they don't have them are they?

IF (and I stress IF) this happened, it's the only thing anyone's done wrong.

I think most of us would argue that asking for a price match [b][ after the purchase and delivery][/b]for forks not in stock is someway short of best behaviour.

The customer is not always right as this example shows

I suppose so, he should have kept his trap shut and just sent them back without mentioning the merlin price.

another slag a bike retailer off without knowing or relating the whole truth of the event, 99% of the time a retailer provides great to excellent customer service its what keeps us customers going back.

Wow, either price is exceptional for some 350CRs, I love mine.

I think most of us would argue that asking for a price match [ after the purchase and delivery]for forks not in stock is someway short of best behaviour.

Really - There is nothing wrong with giving the retailer the opportunity to save a sale if you are going to return under soga. I did it with crc once on some shoes that I discovered where cheeeper (like half price) elswhere, CRC refunded half the price.

Some shops offer this as part of their service; if you subsequently find it cheaper elsewhere we'll refund the difference.

OP was entitled to ASK if UKBS would price match to keep the sale; UKBS were entitled to decline for whatever reason. After which OP is legally entitled to return for refund (soga, etc) and UKBS is not legally entitled to refuse.

No-one's entitled to behave like a ****, whatever played out. Being nice about a transaction that didn't pan out as initially intended costs nothing.

I think nowadays people forget that they can call somewhere and speak to someone civilly with perhaps "can we please have a look at this" or "could we possibly" rather than going straight to a rant and spouting "it's the law - my mate said so..."

Gobby jobsworth customer gets messed around by staff having a wind-up, think I would too in their position.
😆

Really - There is nothing wrong with giving the retailer the opportunity to save a sale if you are going to return under soga.

This. Could have sent it back without asking under SOGA, and UKBS would have lost the sale. Everyone's praising Rapha in their various PSA threads for their generous refunding of sale price differences.

A-ha!!!

My tenner is safe after all.

I knew it!!

(And I'll take the other bet that I'll never pay up, I would have honest, ahem, so that's a tenner you owe me)

a-ha?
[img] /revision/latest?cb=20131019034010[/img]

nemesis - Member
I'll bet a tenner that poisonspider never pays up

Have you paid up? No. As such, I win 😉

Gotta love STW he-said she-said threads.
Everyone always comes out looking soooo good!

Thanks Hammyuk for making us aware of this, much appreciated.

Just to set the story straight I work for UK Bike Store and I'm afraid the original poster has been giving a grossly inaccurate version of events.

The customer ordered from us on Saturday, the fork was delivered to him on Tuesday. The then phoned up and asked if we would price match Merlin. At no point did we say he couldn't send it back for a refund, quite to the contrary and it was for that reason that, after quite a bit of pressure from the customer, we gave in and said we would match it - it would be better to match it and not make much on it than have it come back for a refund and loose our shipping costs.

However I noticed when doing the price match that Merlin didn't actually have the fork in stock and we wouldn't price match on something that is out of stock, let alone something that the customer had already received from us so I let him know that we wouldn't be refunding the difference. As mentioned it also wasn't clear that it was the same fork as we don't deal in grey market while merlin often do and the product doesn't mention the Marzocchi aftermarket 3 year warranty.

He then came back to us saying that they did have one in stock despite the site saying otherwise and he had already ordered it but wanted us to either knock something off his order and he would send the merlin one back or pay for his return shipping! We refused to do either but at no point did we say he couldn't send it back for a refund, it was made quite clear all along that it wouldn't be a problem and we even emailed him the returns address. We offer more returns period than the statutory minimum and often will go beyond what our terms say to help people out but this guy is clearly taking the piss. Will be interesting to see if the fork does actually get sent back to us or if the one supposedly coming from Merlin turns out to be imaginary and so he decides to keep it.

[img] [/img]

Grrrr..... someone needs owning, with Bombers. If only there was somewhere to get a set, at a good price, with them in stock.......