Hello, new member seeking advice re. a Sports Direct selling practice

[Limey]

Hello forum members,

I just signed up with your site to ask for some clarification on a certain issue, I hope that's OK.

The Sports Direct company are operating a selling practice on their website, which I am struggling not to refer to as 'a scam'. Basically the MO is this, you choose certain items, add them to your shopping cart, double check that everything looks correct, and then you click Checkout, as we've all done countless times on-line. Usually all we do at this point is pay, not feeling the need to check for shopping cart manipulation.

The difference is, at this point they added a catalogue, with a corresponding £1 charge. You only realise this when they e-mail you order confirmation (which they will not cancel). Having done some research on this, it seems that prior to this catalogue (which they optimistically call a 'magazine') trick, they were doing this with a mug that nobody wanted too. I've tried consumer advice, with no success, and also written to their customer service dept multiple times. Unfortunately, further research on the internet would suggest that their customer service dept does not actually exist...

So, while initially it is a seemingly trivial matter, it looks somewhat darker when you consider how many people are buying from them, and therefore how many £1's they must pocket every day. Also, being an expat Brit, I am looking at spending considerably more than the £1 catalogue cost, to actually telephone their ultra-high-cost phone number. Meaning that in this case, it is only justifiable for me to try and address this using the internet.

So does anybody know if it is legal to add unwanted items to a customers shopping cart on-line, and then to make it close to impossible for them to get a refund?

[Amethyst]

Re: Hello, new member seeking advice re. a Sports Direct selling practice

When I go on the Sports Direct site and add something to my basket I get a pop up box saying ''
Do you want to add our magazine to your basket? It’s great value and only £1! '' with a YES or NO option. ( I haven't seen this before (I have shopped with them a few times previously but not for 6 months or so) so assume it is quite new. )

I've just gone through to checkout and nothing appears on my list for anything other than items I have ordered and delivery cost.

Are you saying that once you have made payment a mysterious extra £1 appears ?

[Limey]

Re: Hello, new member seeking advice re. a Sports Direct selling practice

When I go on the Sports Direct site and add something to my basket I get a pop up box saying ''
Do you want to add our magazine to your basket? It’s great value and only £1! '' with a YES or NO option. ( I haven't seen this before (I have shopped with them a few times previously but not for 6 months or so) so assume it is quite new. )

I've just gone through to checkout and nothing appears on my list for anything other than items I have ordered and delivery cost.

Are you saying that once you have made payment a mysterious extra £1 appears ?

Yes, exactly. Although the 'Yes or No' option that you mentioned was not there two weeks ago when I made my order.
So it would appear that they've (very) recently made a change. So that is a positive step, however they were certainly previously adding these magazines without offering a choice, in a way that they knew would not be noticed until after the customers payment was taken. Also, I've still not been replied to by their 'customer services' department, regarding the way in which a magazine was added to my order without me being offered a choice.

I just found that this unwanted magazine issue, was briefly mentioned by one of the tabloids here,

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news...direct-2289257

[teaboy2]

Re: Hello, new member seeking advice re. a Sports Direct selling practice

The magazine would in your case fall under The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 Section 24 1:

"1) Paragraphs (2) and (3) apply if—
(a)unsolicited goods are sent to a person (“the recipient”) with a view to his acquiring them;
(b)the recipient has no reasonable cause to believe that they were sent with a view to their being acquired for the purposes of a business; and
(c)the recipient has neither agreed to acquire nor agreed to return them.

(2) The recipient may, as between himself and the sender, use, deal with or dispose of the goods as if they were an unconditional gift to him.

(3) The rights of the sender to the goods are extinguished.

(4) A person who, not having reasonable cause to believe there is a right to payment, in the course of any business makes a demand for payment, or asserts a present or prospective right to payment, for what he knows are—
(a)unsolicited goods sent to another person with a view to his acquiring them for purposes other than those of his business, or
(b)unsolicited services supplied to another person for purposes other than those of his business,
is guilty of an offence and liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale.

(5) A person who, not having reasonable cause to believe there is a right to payment, in the course of any business and with a view to obtaining payment for what he knows are unsolicited goods sent or services supplied as mentioned in paragraph (4)—
(a)threatens to bring any legal proceedings, or
(b)places or causes to be placed the name of any person on a list of defaulters or debtors or threatens to do so, or
(c)invokes or causes to be invoked any other collection procedure or threatens to do so,
is guilty of an offence and liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

(6) In this regulation—
“acquire” includes hire;
“send” includes deliver;
“sender”, in relation to any goods, includes—
(a)any person on whose behalf or with whose consent the goods are sent;
(b)any other person claiming through or under the sender or any person mentioned in paragraph (a); and
(c)any person who delivers the goods; and
“unsolicited” means, in relation to goods sent or services supplied to any person, that they are sent or supplied without any prior request made by or on behalf of the recipient.

(7) For the purposes of this regulation, an invoice or similar document which—
(a)states the amount of a payment, and
(b)fails to comply with the requirements of regulations made under section 3A of the Unsolicited Goods and Services Act 1971 or, as the case may be, Article 6 of the Unsolicited Goods and Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1976 applicable to it,
is to be regarded as asserting a right to the payment.

(8) Section 3A of the Unsolicited Goods and Services Act 1971 applies for the purposes of this regulation in its application to England, Wales and Scotland as it applies for the purposes of that Act.

(9) Article 6 of the Unsolicited Goods and Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1976 applies for the purposes of this regulation in its application to Northern Ireland as it applies for the purposes of that Order.

(10) This regulation applies only to goods sent and services supplied after the date on which it comes into force."

In other words, as you were not given the option to say YES or NO to this catalog, then you are entitled to your money back, along with compensation for costs incurred for trying to get your money back which they took in a CRIMINAL as per section 4 above!

What they did is a form of inertia selling, which is illegal - Only in this case they took your £1 before sending the catalog that you never requested - Where as usually inertia selling involves sending goods not requested followed by a bill for the goods if the goods are not returned by the consumer!