My order for a replacement power supply for my PC never arrived

I ordered a replacement power supply for my Dell PC from an online retailer, Dell Parts N More, on 7 July for £64.91. Because it was an American site, I used my Paypal account for added protection.

After six weeks the order had still not arrive, so I contacted the company. It told me to wait another week and, if the order hadn’t arrived by then, to submit a claim to Paypal.

I did this when the goods hadn’t arrived after seven weeks and discovered I was outside the 45 days allowed to make a claim. The company has stopped answering my emails.
Nick Powell

It is not a good sign if a company suggests that a customer files a claim with Paypal instead of offering a refund itself. Reputable companies don’t want a history of chargebacks made to their merchant credit facility.

We decided to check out this retailer and visited the website. We found that it was ‘expanding’ with a UK site. The UK site seems to be fully operational as we were able to place an order and we went through the checkout process until we got to the Paypal link.

The website was very badly designed, with low-quality product photos. While this is not a criminal offence, the site did more than raise our aesthetic hackles.

It seriously concerned us because we could find absolutely no contact details on either the US website or the UK website. No address, no phone number, no email, not even a web-contact form.

The site makes clear its intention is to sell to “friends in the UK” so this retailer must abide by UK law.

Having no contact details is a breach of the Electronic Commerce Directive and the company’s terms and conditions breach UK consumer law. The only way you could pay on the UK site was via Paypal so we have contacted the payment provider.

It can investigate the company to see if there is a pattern of unfulfilled orders.

We also found what appeared to be a company link on Twitter and have tried to contact Dellpartsnmore this way as well. If we hear back from this company we will update you in a further issue.

Sadly, unless this company is genuine and will refund Mr Powell his money, there is not much more we can do. Legally, the company is outside UK jurisdiction.

Mr Powell could make a complaint to the US Federal Trade Commission but unless there are sufficient complaints about this retailer remedial action is unlikely.