I eventually got an ex gratia refund from Amazon after several long phone calls & threats of Trading Standards & the Small Claims Court. They really are awful. Amazon are doing themselves no favours by supporting these crappy MarketPlace sellers. Presumably for Amazon it's easy money just taking a commission from MarketPlace sellers but eventually they will deter customers from ordering from Amazon at all. Many of these MarketPlace Sellers are breaching the Distance Selling Regulations by not providing a bricks & mortar address or proper Terms & Conditions of sale. It's outrageous that Amazon are colluding in this illegality & profiting from it. Incidentally the Managing Director of Amazon UK was on the Today programme on Radio 4 recently. His name is Christopher North if anyone needs to contact him directly.

You have seven working days (ignore Sat & Sun, Bank Holidays etc) from the day after you receive it to inform that that you want to return it for a refund. Your first email to them was sufficient notification of your desire to cancel & receive a refund. You don't actually have to get the goods back within the 7 days although they do have to refund you within 30 days of your notification.

I have already replied with the relevant information from the OFT's excellent booklet oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/general/oft698.pdf directed at businesses which states that However, the DSRs do not link cancellation rights with a supplier’s ability to resell items as new. However, if the consumer has done no more than examine the goods as they would have in a shop and if that requires opening the packaging and trying out the goods then they would not have breached their duty to take reasonable care of the goods. What is particularly irritating is that Amazon UK are perfectly well aware of the DSRs & their own sales comply to the letter but they seem perfectly happy to take commission from sellers who flaunt the law. I had imagined at one time that their policing of their marketplace sellers would be at least as strict as eBay on their site but it is a lot less than that. One amazing thing I dug up is that you have a lifetime limit of just five claims under the Amazon Marketplace A-to-Z Guarantee. So it's just tough if throughout the course of your life you encounter more than your fair share of crooks on Amazon. I could perhaps accept a limited number of claims per year but a lifetime limit of just five claims is just nuts. Perhaps I should send an email to :- Brian McBride, Chief Executive bmcbride.at.amazon.com I have also managed to obtain the postal address of Amazon UK that is impossible to find on their website so can now send a registered letter to Mr McBride & his legal department asking why they are conspiring with their Marketplace sellers to deny consumers their rights under the DSRs Patriot court 1-9 The Grove Slough Berkshire SL1 1QP United Kingdom

I had a very long discussion with someone in Amazon's Dublin call centre then a couple of days later received an email from 'Laura' that stated In this case the seller sold a "new" item that was not found to be listed incorrectly and it was returned as unwanted so they deducted a restocking fee, which is acceptable under our Marketplace return page if the item is opened. However 'Laura' also wrote Since there seems to be some confusion with the refund the seller issued and what was expected I have made a onetime exception and issued you a refund for the remaining amount. So after a couple of phone conversations & about ten emails I finally got my money refunded. However on checking the Amazon Marketplace UK policy on refunds they do indeed state that If a new unwanted item is returned opened, the seller may deduct a reasonable restocking fee from your refund. which as far as I am aware is entirely contrary to the Distance Selling Regulations w*w.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html/203-7438992-9845524?ie=UTF8&nodeId=1161010&qid=1191174001&sr=1-2

Here are edited versions of the links that I tried to provide in my previous post hopefully this will be permitted by the forum software. Replace *** with www OFT booklet on DSRs ***.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/general/oft698.pdf Express Processing page on Amazon website with brief returns policy ***.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/seller/home.html?ie=UTF8&isAmazonFulfilled=&marketplaceID=A1F83G8C2ARO7P&isCBA=&orderID=&asin=&marketplaceSeller=0&seller=A15TW43BF9Y9WW Express Processing T&Cs on their own website ***.expressprocessing.co.uk/amazon/return/terms/terms.html

According to the OFT booklet on the DSRs the seller should have sent me a copy of their T&Cs (they did not). It is not sufficient to have them on a web page they must be sent by email or letter & as you will see below it was quite a struggle to even find the T&Cs Their T&Cs in any case are contrary to the DSRs as for example they state that they "only accept the return of opened items if they are faulty". I only found this by following a link in the email from Amazon confirming my order There is a link buried on that Amazon page to their returns website (not on the Amazon site) where their full T&Cs are listed but again as per the OFT I am supposed to be sent a copy of these when I order not by ferreting about the WWW Incidentally at the foot of that last page that I linked to is an address in Stockton on Tees for "accounts and Admin only, not returns or service". Otherwise the only means of contacting them is an 0845 phone number or a web page but not an email address. So it does at least appear to be a UK company serving UK customers via the Amazon UK website & thus very much subject to UK law. I realise that traders may dislike the rights that consumers have under the DSRs but abiding by those rules is the price they pay for selling online & saving on retail premises & losses due to shoplifting. I am reluctant to immediately go the chargeback route as really to aid other consumers this ignoring the DSRs needs to be stopped. It's bad enough that this outfit should do it but to have their stance backed up by Amazon who do know better is outrageous. BTW because I have not made 20 posts on this forum evidently I am not permitted to provide the URLs to back up my story but if anyone wants to see them then please PM me

To cut a longish story short I bought an item on Amazon for £144.44 that turned out not to do what I thought it would. When I came to return it I realised that I hadn't actually bought from Amazon (who in my experience have an impeccable returns procedure) but from a 3rd party called "Express Processing" even though the payment was to "AMAZON *MKTPLCE EU". Their T&Cs ignore the Distance Selling Regulations insisting on items being unopened etc. I did however go through their returns procedure via a website & returned the item in perfect condition by Special Delivery at a cost of £7. I quickly had a notification of a refund but this turned out to be for only £118.95 i.e. I am now out of pocket by £25.49 + £7 return postage. Express Processing have ignored my requests to be refunded fully so I complained to Amazon who also ignore my complaint so I claimed under their A-Z Marketplace Guarantee & again this was refused as according to the email I got "your seller can charge a restocking fee and is not responsible for the shipping". I have spoken on the phone to Amazon customer services who apologised said that they would escalate my complaint but nothing has happened. It appears that Express Processing are working the system by giving a partial refund as they know that Amazon will back them up. Presumably the Amazon off-shored customer service people are unaware of UK law. After a l lot of insistence on the phone I managed to get a postal address for Amazon UK but it does seem extremely shifty that neither Amazon UK's postal address nor telephone number can be found anywhere on their website (I think that this is contrary to the DSRs too). I realise that I can probably do a chargeback with my bank but really I want to put a stop to this illegal behaviour & force Amazon to police their Marketplace sellers properly. I welcome suggestions as to my next step. Trading Standards should be interested & I am quite prepared to go to the Small Claims Court.