return rules are taken off the boot
The Consumers’ Union has done a big test among webshops with return shipments. They have ordered more than 600 articles at more than 200 web shops and then sent them back within 14 days. As a law you are then legally obliged to refund the full purchase price including delivery costs.
What turned out? That did not do a good percentage of the stores at all. Almost one third of the stores did not return at least one of the return shipments or returned too late. There were even 15 online shops that did that for all orders, with more than 100 days (!) Waiting in some cases for the money. The Consumers’ Association did a similar investigation in 2016 as well, and the wrong webshops had not made their living better. It was specifically We Love Musthaves and Tabletpoef that did not pay anything back at all and Atlas for Men, Lil.nl and Vegaoo.nl that were waiting very long. So you have to – nothing to say – buy anything.
Come up with something
All kinds of excuses are used to not have to pay back, according to the consumer union. “Sometimes there is an article that we praise so sharply that it can not be returned.” reported a web store. And that while the right of withdrawal is very clear: within 14 days return money back under any circumstance. Fortunately, many webshops just do as it should .
Bart Combée, director of the Consumentenbond, is far from satisfied with the results of the research. It is still sad to observe the rules. There are minor improvements: delivery costs were only reimbursed in 22 percent of cases in 2016, which now rose to 36 percent. But if that is the progress in two years, it is going too slowly, says Combée. The results are now shared with the ACM, who have slightly more teeth to tackle the hard-leather webshops ( and other violators ).