Consumers who make an online purchase may return the item within fourteen days. The purchase price should be refunded within two weeks. However, many webshops do not comply with these rules, according to research by the Consumers' Association.
The Consumers' Association ordered a total of 675 items from more than 200 webshops. At each webshop a purchase was made on three different occasions and the order was returned within fourteen days. Webshops that did not refund the full purchase amount within two weeks sent the union reminders on two occasions. Of the webshops, 32 per cent paid back late on at least one of the three orders. In addition, thirteen webshops went wrong on all three orders.
Webshops are also obliged to refund delivery costs when consumers choose to return an order, which only applies when the entire order is returned. Again, online retailers do not always seem to take this into account: 36 per cent of online shops did not refund the delivery charges on at least one out of three orders, and 50 per cent of online shops went wrong on at least one order. They forgot to refund or were late in paying.
Hallmark
Half of the 200 webshops surveyed have the Thuiswinkel Waarborg or Webshop Keurmerk quality mark. 31 per cent of labelled webshops refunded delivery costs. That percentage is higher than for webshops without a quality mark, but still too low, according to the Consumers' Association.
The Consumers' Association concluded that little has improved over the past four years regarding the laws and obligations webshops have to comply with. The number of webshops that refund on time has even worsened. This year's figures are also shared with the regulator Authority Consumer and Market (ACM).
Editors LogistiekProfs
This article also appeared on VerpakkingsProfs
