I recently bought an item on-line from a company with a French address, delivered to my French address.
The item doesn’t work properly, I want to return it for a refund, and I sent them an email to this effect.
I was slightly surprised to get their reply today offering me a 30% refund with an offer to keep the item.
I haven’t replied yet but I intend to refuse their ‘kind offer’ and insist on a 100% refund (I appreciate I may be liable for the postage costs of returning the item.
Am I within my rights to demand a full refund of the cost of the item?
Is there a piece of French legislation that I could reference in my reply (my knowledge of the French language is not yet good enough to find this out by myself).
What do you think?
You’re protected if you reject an item as not working / not as described etc ISTR for 14 days after delivery, by statute, same as in the UK.
And I’m sure in the case of rejection within that time for that kind of reason, the seller is responsible for the shipment costs for the return.
Quechoisir.org will have accessible articles on this, their ‘public service’ articles haven’t been behind a paywall when I’ve looked in the past.
Try googling “site: quechoisir.org mes droits vente à distance”
That should give you enough terminology to find more than you need by googling generally and not just on quechoisir.org.
Keep records of all comms with them, do it in writing as well and be firm. Rejection, 100% refund, return at their cost.
Do it in proper writing, by LRAR. Email counts for nothing.
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Doesn’t need to be not working or not as described - EU distance selling regs mean you can return for *any* reason within 14 days (though as discussed ad infinitum French sellers may resist).
Not as described - don’t have to return within 14 days but claims will be easier to uphold if you do return it with minimal delay.
Faulty etc covered by mandatory 2 year warranty, whether you can get refund/replacement depends on timescale.
If “doesn’t work” means “mostly works” then 30% refund might not be unreasonable - if “doesn’t work” means “at all” then paying 70% for 0% functionality doesn’t really cut it, does it?
Insist on a full refund/replacement.
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Because of the difficulties regarding returns and refunds, I am increasingly writing off duds and trying to buy anything really expensive locally.
When I ordered something months back that was nominally put in one of the keycode controlled boxes outside the supermarket, I tried, many times, to get access to it by ringing the company and the delivery people. Then eventually when none of that worked, I requested a refund and they didn’t even bother to reply.
Recently, I ordered something which arrived with some small parts missing and I went out and bought them myself rather than go through all that sort of hassle.
It’s a big toss-up between ordering on-line (convenient, cheaper perhaps) and buying locally (more expensive but possible to walk in and talk about it). Not a fan of distance buying apart from small stuff for that reason.
If buying from Amazon stick with stuff sold by Amazon themselves - returning normally no problem.
In the UK I don’t have too many qualms about buying online
Don’t forget that if you buy by CC then the credit card company is also liable and you might be able to get the refund from them if the vendor is not cooperating.
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Also if you pay by PayPal, I believe, although I have never tried it.
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I would not mind betting that the item is low value, made in China and the ‘seller’ is online in Poland - perfectly legal, but often more complicated to take an item back and issue a new one. Keep plugging away and eventually they will cave in.
The like of Amazon is a different story - they seem to take things back because you were in a bad mood when ordering 
Only if the seller is outside of the EU will it be difficult to have a complete refund.
I have an update on the situation.
Further e-mails to the supplier resulted in them upping their offer to a 50% refund, with an offer for me to keep the defective item.
I wrote back stating that I did not want to keep the defective item and wanted a 100% refund.
Their latest message is that they will give me a 100% refund if I return the item at my cost - to an address in the United States! The item was sent to me from an address in France so this just sounds like a ploy to stop me returning the item as the postage costs (I imagine) would be astronomical.
I’m not sure what I can do now . . . . . . .
Offer to return it to the French address it was shipped from.
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This. And if you don’t have that address, I’d look up the company address via their siren here and tell them you’ll send it there.
Yes, AM & G, I am in the process of writing this to them.
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That’s a firm “no” if the reason for the return is a defective item, even if the request to return an item you bought in France from a French seller to a US address was not, in and of itself, ridiculous.
Under UK, not sure about France but could be as we shared a pretty common playing field back in 2015 when the consumer rights act was introduced meaning with a faulty good the seller has to pay the return postage.
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Yeah the rules are different if you’ve bought something online and simply changed your mind. The seller can require you to pay the shipping fees in this instance, but needs to have explained that in the T&C’s otherwise they are liable themselves.
But for a faulty product my understanding is it’s the seller’s responsibility to cover the shipping costs (although you may have to pay up front and then get reimbursed).
There’s some useful info here about how to complain if your rights aren’t being respected, @Mike313
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Indeed, but I doubt it would be considered reasonable to demand the item returned overseas if the seller’s business is registered in France.
Keep going, Mike313. They really are a load of shysters this lot.
They 100% are responsible for return costs and the way they’re behaving I’d want to send it C.O.D.
If I’d bought it off a platform I’d by now have lodged a complaint with the platform.
Also check any coverage on the card you used to pay though sadly I don’t think France has s.75 equivalent.