Tom Tom sat nav carry case cancellation causes problems

I ordered a carry case for my sat nav from the Tomtom website but changed my mind.

I tried to cancel the order two hours later but I couldn't find a ‘cancel' button on the My Orders page, so instead I sent a cancellation email and followed it up with a call to customer services the following Monday morning.

Unfortunately, the carry case had been dispatched via UPS about 45 minutes before I made the call and I was told to accept the parcel and send it back for a refund.

I have received a refund of the cost of the carry case but not the £6.95 postage costs.

Tomtom has said that since the cancellation was made outside of office hours its terms and conditions make it clear that there will be no refund of these costs unless the goods are faulty.

Paul Marlow

We were surprised that the emails sent to us by Tomtom appeared to show that it did not realise Mr Marlow was entitled to send the case back for a full refund under the Distance Selling Regulations (DSRs), even though it was not faulty.

By full refund we mean the cost of the case plus the £6.95 postage costs he was charged.

Because he cancelled the order the same day, he was also within his rights to refuse delivery of the case.

This would also have saved him the inconvenience and cost of sending it back. When we contacted Tomtom about this case it agreed to refund Mr Marlow the original postage costs as required by law.

But it indicated it was doing this as a goodwill gesture rather than because it was legally responsible to make this refund.

"If you can point out where it says we are always liable for all outbound shipping costs I'm also happy to look at our policy with the team responsible to make sure it matches the DSRs," a Tomtom representative said.

We duly emailed the relevant information contained in the Office of Fair Trading's guide to the DSRs for businesses.

These state customers who reject goods, even if they are not faulty, must receive the price of the goods plus the original delivery costs. At the time of going to press the matter was still being investigated.

Your rights to cancel an order

The consumer has an unconditional right to cancel an order for goods or services that fall under the protection of the DSRs.

Consumers who have cancelled under the DSRs may refuse to accept delivery of the goods.

Refusal in such a situation cannot be treated as a breach of contract. If the customer refuses delivery then the retailer can’t hold them responsible if goods are lost in transit when being returned.

If a buyer cancels before they have received the goods and refuses delivery the retailer must still refund the total price of the goods, including any delivery charges.

See our upate on this case here.