Question about online orders and restocking fees.


O

Orange Irish

Member
I made an online order in August and was told 6-8 weeks shipping time. No big deal but since then I've had a semi-hardship and want to cancel the order (which is now well beyond 8 weeks but again, not a problem to me). I'm told that I will have to pay a 15% restocking fee even though nothing has been shipped, apparently to satisfy the manufacturer that received the order from the online retailer. As far as I know the manufacturer hasn't shipped anything, because I believe it would go straight to my address.

The posted return policy of the retailer only discusses returns for shipped items, not cancelled orders prior to shipment. Does anyone have experience or knowledge of this issue and is this fee fair under these circumstances or should I dispute it?
 
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Sounds like money-grubbing to me. If they haven't packaged and sent the order to you, then it has not been placed except by you, and you should be able to cancel it. You can seek relief from your credit card company if you paid that way, and if there is no policy of that type posted on the website.
 
Not enough information. Some part of the process may have been started/completed and thus the need for a "re-stocking" fee.
 
I don't want to get so detailed that I mention names and possibly sully anyone's reputation (possibly unfairly). A well known model RR manufacturer has been in the process of taking pre-orders on a new item. A fairly large online retailer took my pre-order and sent it to the manufacturer, charging me right away with an estimated 6-8 week delivery time.

I must stress that I understand the whole pre-order process and the likelyhood of waiting beyond the estimated delivery date. That's not an issue. I simply needed the money for something different and chose to cancel my order with the retailer before shipment was made. The retailer advised me to wait because of the re-stocking fee, and that I'd be better off selling them on ebay or somewhere. In this case the fee would be about $95.00. Perhaps the retailer (maybe on behalf of the manufacturer) has a valid point about the fee, or maybe they just want to influence me and get my money.

I contacted my CC company and the person I dealt with saw no reason for me to pay that fee and started the dispute process for me, with the intent of being credited the full amount, even including shipping and handling (since no shipment has been made yet).

Just wondering if anyone that understands the model RR business side of things better than I do can see a justification for a re-stocking fee in this scenario. I'm asking because I'm trying to be fair and possibly become a more educated buyer for future reference.
 
if their policy stipulates that the 15% fee applies to returned items, they should not charge you the fee for something that they have not shipped, or even have in stock. you may have spoken with someone at the retailer that does not fully understand the policy, or the situation. they should have a clear policy on pre-orders
 
Rule No. 1 in all online purchases, pay through Paypal. They have saved me hundreds of dollars over the past few years. Paypal knows no "restocking fees." You get a 100% refund if filed within their time limit.

In your case we're talking about 8 weeks? I doubt even Paypal could help you. I think that overrides their time limit to make a case against them.

They may have you over the barrel if you already paid which I'm sure you have.

Personally I don't purchase from people who use the "restocking" gimmick. What it's really all about is money for the clerical work and hassle in connection with the refund process.
 
Hmmmm, I work for a small business that sells furniture. While we may "pre-order" bedroom sets which are going to be made anyway for a particular customer they are not usually custom sets. With our suppliers we can cancel with no penalty as long as the item is not on a trailer or pallet. After that it is time we must charge a restocking fee.

Every so often someone actually buys a custom living room set. After three or four days in the order is the order and they get no money back once the leather has been cut or whatever.

I think your case falls into the former where the item still does not exist and MAYBE the retailer has a little paperwork to do to cancel whatever you ordered. Maybe that's worth a $10 fee? I dunno. Generally its better to keep a customer happy but I suppose someone is busy cancelling the order for a few minutes instead of otherwise making America better.

Man that's stretching it.
 
I own several small business and I'm not sure it's legal to charge you up front when/if they haven't verified the product is available and ready to ship and it doesn't sound like they have done that but rather are using devious tactics to assess fees against you on future expected availability and fraudulently threatening you with the restocking fees if you cancel the order.

Unless they have the product boxed and ready to ship to you, which they don't, I don't see that they have any grounds for expecting you to pay a Re-Stocking fee of a Non-Existant item? All their talking about is deleting the text of your order.

Did they send you any invoice showing the money you paid for the product? Probably not?

Just tell them your going to get in touch with the, 'Consumer Fraud Division of the Bureau of Weights and Measures' to verify their, 'Standing' in threatening you with a ReStocking fee for a Non-Existent item that is 6 to 8 weeks from antissapated shipping date. Especially when you acted fairly rapidly to cancel the order as well.

That doesn't seem like equitable business dealings at all. Indeed it sounds very devious!
 
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Trussrod said:
I own several small business and I'm not sure it's legal to charge you up front when/if they haven't verified the product is available and ready to ship
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It varies from state to state. General (honest) practice is to not charge the customer until the goods are shipped out because of the many things that can go wrong, and because the retailer shouldn't be collecting money until it fulfills its responsibilities of the transaction.

Many states have laws regarding restocking fees as well.

As far as payment methods, yes, Paypal has their policies, but with a credit card, generally, you get a longer time period to file your complaint and/or chargeback request should something go wrong.

Do you mind sharing the name of this place that's attempting to charge the restocking fee? I'd like to know so that I can stay far away from it.
 
I'd have to concur with those who stated that this company's action is devious if not outright fraud.

The credit card stop payment or reverse payment process cost money (at least it does for us). The last time I checked I think they said there was a $25 charge to reverse the charge. It's been a while so I'll have to double check on that but that sounds familiar.

Paypal has a time limit that's not too long so one does have to move right along in transactions. Most of the negative comments you read about Paypal's faulty refund procedure are by people who have had judgement passed against them or who didn't follow the Paypal refund rules.

Today most anyone can sell online. Many crooks are out there looking for free money (especially drug money). Some categories are worse than others. Being a long-time professional artist I like most art forms and have bought a lot of art off ebay. In the art category rip-offs are common. Thus my high percentage of claims with Paypal. In an average year of buying art off ebay, Paypal's buyer protection can easily save me $1000. These are mostly cases of deliberate seller fraud. I even got a refund once when a guy took my money and ran. Somehow they tracked him down and within 2 weeks I got my full $360 back.

Here are some red flags to watch for when buying off ebay:

1. NO REFUNDS or WE DO NOT ACCEPT RETURNS - This is against ebay rules and is a clear statement that the seller is HIGHLY questionable.
2. Restocking fees - Already covered
3. Private Auctions - What does the seller want to hide?
4. Negative Feedback - This may or may not be a negative thing. Some of the best sellers get quite a lot of negative feedback. Some of the worst sellers have 100% positive feedback. Read negative feedback and watch for bad grammar, misspelled words, low buyer feedback, etc. Some times these negatives are posted by competition and/or demented individuals. Other times the negative comments are more accurate than the positive comments. Lots of people post glowing positive feedback just because the item arrived and before they even know if the darn thing works. Ebay crooks know this and count on it.

If possible, buy within your own country. There are obvious exceptions to this rule but generally speaking it's wise. For one, with Paypal the buyer is responsible for return postage. Always return items with a tracking number because it's your only proof you returned it. The shipping weight should closely match the weight of the item when it was originally mailed to you. Returning items to other countries via tracking can get expensive. A crook in Canada tried to burn me on an item that cost me $135 postpaid. It cost me $30 to send it back. I lost $30 on an obvious scam deal.

Paypal stands with the buyer unless the case is very obviously the buyer's fault and makes no sense at all. This is the way they work because this is how our general court system works in this country. There's a ton of responsibility that comes with being a seller.
 
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DJtrains said:
The credit card stop payment or reverse payment process cost money (at least it does for us). The last time I checked I think they said there was a $25 charge to reverse the charge. It's been a while so I'll have to double check on that but that sounds familiar.
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I've never had a credit card that charged me fees to dispute a charge. Are you registered as a business or something? That might be it.
 
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I see a lot of fairly long and thoughtful responses (which I very much appreciate...thanks!) and a request for the name of the companies involved. In light of that I'll offer that info as a fair warning. If a moderator isn't comfortable with this info being posted I do apologize and won't be offended if this post is deleted.

I ordered three Intermountain GEVOs through Internet Hobbies, which is based in Pennsylvania. I paid with my VISA through an account with a very large bank. I was charged the next day for $636 and given a 6-8 week ship time. I ended up needing the money for something else and called to cancel two weeks ago. Their stated policies, as posted on their website, warn of a restocking fee in the event of returning SHIPPED items. It does not discuss a cancelled order in any way. Their shipping policy on a different page also does not discuss a cancelled order. Still, I was told the 15% fee would apply (about $96 total), because the GEVOs were a "special order" and that it would cover their cost of Intermountain's shipping charge of the items to their store. The GEVOs I ordered were basic standard items as listed on IM's website, and I listed them here in the buy/sell section a few weeks back thinking I was stuck. I didn't bother arguing with the guy, but I thought that 1) the items would ship directly from Intermountain to me and 2) the GEVOs haven't been shipped anywhere yet at all.

I already had my bank start the dispute process on Friday and I called to inform Internet Hobbies of that today. Turns out he hadn't received the lengthy phone message my bank left them on Friday while they were closed for the holiday. I should find out the results in a few weeks, but the bank thought it was wrong and seemed eager to start the dispute (even 3 months after the order). I'll update this thread with the results.
 
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So my bank has given me a full refund on the charges, including the restocking fee. Internet Hobbies has until January 7th to dispute the decision until it's final, but I tend to doubt they will bother.

Warning to anyone ordering through Internet Hobbies - if you place an order and change your mind before it ships, they will try to charge you 15% anyway.
 
DJtrains said:
I'd have to concur with those who stated that this company's action is devious if not outright fraud.

...
Here are some red flags to watch for when buying off ebay:

1. NO REFUNDS or WE DO NOT ACCEPT RETURNS - This is against ebay rules and is a clear statement that the seller is HIGHLY questionable.
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Do you have any information to back that up? I have never seen an eBay policy that says sellers must accept returns.
 
It may or may not be against Ebay rules, but I would never buy anything from somebody stipulating that condition. Makes me think that they are trying to unload items of questionable quality. I have never bought anything from Ebay. Maybe I just am not trusting enough.
 
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By Orange Irish;

So my bank has given me a full refund on the charges, including the restocking fee.
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To paraphrase Harry Chapin, sometimes when it's all said and done, there is justice in this life.
 
Did you already pay for the item ? How did you pay, credit card or what ?
A retailer is not supposed to charge your CC unless item has been shipped. If not shipped they cannot just charge your CC for anything. If a CC was used, dispute the charge with the CC company/bank. No matter whether it was for the merchandise or the re-stocking fee.
Bill
 
Paid by CC and I was charged immediately. I wasn't too happy with that but I stayed patient until the original 6-8 weeks passed by. I called and was told I was definitely getting the items but it would be another month or so. After that I had an unexpected money problem and called to cancel. Then I got the "re-stocking fee" run around.

So that's another reason not to purchase from Internet Hobbies - you'll get charged right away regardless of the expected shipping date.
 
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