I had an item despatched from a shop on 21/01/10 and it still hasn't arrived.

The shop have said that Royal Mail said they wont consider it lost until it has been 28 days, and I have to wait 28 days in case it arrives before they will do anything else.

Is it reasonable to wait this long before giving a refund?

It actually says on their website that parcels lost in the post are not their responsibility and it is the buyers loss, Im pretty sure that is illegal so probably have that bridge to cross yet! 🙁

Your contract is with the shop (**** sound like TJ 😉 so if their chosen courier doesn't deliver, its their problem, not yours.

For Royal mail, over 15 working days is considered lost- so three weeks.

It is always the retailers responsibility to get stuff to you. Thats the law.

Check with RM about the time when they consider it lost. Have you tried checking with your local depot? /sometimes stuff ends up there without you getting a card.

I once had an item take 3 months. It was a shock bearing kit from BETD. BETD kindly sent me a replacement after about 2 weeks waiting tho. and I returned the original kit when it did eventually arrive.

Yeah all as I thought, thanks.

I'll ring the local depot tomorrow and then get back to the shop when it's been 3 weeks, don't know where they get 28 days from?!

I think they are allowed to take 28 days to deliver under distance selling regs, but could be wrong.

Dear stevethebarbarian,

Thank you for your email.

I can confirm that your order was dispatched on 3/12/09 by first class mail and should be with you in 1 -3 working days; however the delivery can sometimes take longer.

Sometimes the Royal Mail let us down with their delivery times. Please note that we do have to allow 14 working days as stated on the Royal Mail website before we can peruse a claim for the lost item. (please allow longer for overseas.
http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/jump3?catId=400144&mediaId=15500181

In our experience it is very unusual for items not to arrive but occasionally they can take longer to be delivered then expected.

We appreciate that this can be inconvenient to our customers but unfortunately once and item has been dispatched the delivery time is out of our control.

Please contact us if you have not received your item by the date stated above +14 working days.

We are sorry for the delay and the inconvenience caused.

It is always the retailers responsibility to get stuff to you. Thats the law.

^ This. Even if they say "but you didn't pay for insurance, you should have done if you wanted protection against it getting lost in the post", it's their responsibility to get it to your house and if they don't, they refund. Easiest way is via your credit card company if it comes to that.

The quicker way is to cancel under the Distance Selling Regulations, which you are allowed to do before delivery (and up to 7 days after). If the goods do turn up, just reject them.

Follow-up:
The shop did state that it was not their responsibility, and when I questioned them on it they said they had drawn their terms and conditions up with legal advice and approval of trading standards, so they believe them to be correct.

Thankfully they gave me a refund anyway, so I didn't need to test these t&c's in court.