Should I have to pay high fees to return furniture I bought online?

I bought a patio table and two chairs from Marks & Spencer's website. After assembling the items I decided to return them. When I called M&S customer services I was told the cost of returning the items would be £100.
Michael Knowles

Mr Knowles was a little put off by the price Marks & Spencer wanted to charge him to pick up and return the patio set and, considering he paid only £200 for it in the first place, it does seem rather high. But the Distance Selling Regulations (DSRs) do allow the retailer to charge customers for collection costs providing this is made clear before goods are paid for.

We checked with him that this charge only referred to delivery costs and there were no hidden administrative fees, which would be illegal.

The thing to remember is the patio set will be a bulky and heavy item to return and this will account for some of the cost. Also, Mr Knowles lives in Northern Ireland so it may be that Marks & Spencer has to ship it to somewhere else within the UK which adds to the cost.

We explained to Mr Knowles that he can pay for a different company, such as Parcelforce, to return the patio set and have advised him to check out the costs that another company would charge to send the patio set back.

Mr Knowles also didn’t understand why he couldn’t return it to the nearest Marks & Spencer store. We explained that not being able to return it to a store is not unusual. Most major retailers’ stores are not set up to take return items from online sales and the majority have these goods sent to warehouses.

We have contacted Marks & Spencer about this matter and the retailer is investigating the reason for the cost of the return delivery charges. We will update you when the company responds.