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An online shopper in Calgary is told that his nearly $ 2,000 battery was lost in shipping and will have to bear the cost.
A Vancouver man receives a “Proof of Delivery Notice” even though the security footage shows the delivery was never made.
Canadians are shopping online in record numbers during the pandemic – sales nearly doubled from $ 1.6 billion in February to $ 2.8 billion in August, according to Statistics Canada.
But what happens when those items don’t arrive? In the case of Vardan Hovakimyan, it took the music student more than a year to save for an expensive electronic drum kit, but only a week to be told that it was lost in the shipment and was hooked for the $ 1,800 it cost.
The Speedlight 40003 electronic drum kit was shipped in two boxes. Only one arrived at the Purolator on September 16, missing key pieces and rendering the set unusable.
Things got complicated when Hovakimyan asked for a refund. He spent weeks going back and forth between the shipping company and the retailer, trying to get them to track down the missing box or return his money.
Purolator said he would look for the package but would have to deal with the seller if he wanted a refund. The seller, Acclaim Sound and Lighting in North Bay, Ontario, would only offer a replacement if the set was back in stock in the future – or give it the $ 100 it received from shipping insurance.
“I was humiliated and very, very angry,” Hovakimyan told Go Public. “It felt so wrong.”
Consumer laws are on the side of online shoppers when deliveries are short, but experts say taking advantage of such laws is harder than it should be, made more complicated when businesses try to pass the cost of lost packages onto shoppers in their own. policies.
“It is certainly not uncommon for companies to write unilateral policies designed to make consumers feel they have fewer rights than they do,” said Ken Whitehurst, executive director of the Consumers Council of Canada.
Whitehurst states that some company policies indicate that the buyer is responsible for merchandise lost in shipping, although consumer laws clearly state that the retailer is responsible.
He says shoppers often think they’re at the mercy of shop policies. Hovakimyan did this after reading Acclaim Sound and Lighting’s shipping policy, which states that the customer assumes “the risk of loss” once an item is shipped.
“There are contradictions between the laws and the [stores’] the policies … clients don’t even know what they’re facing, “Hovakimyan said.
Acclaim Sound and Lighting owner Tim Hazelwood tells Go Public that the shop’s policy is there to protect his small business from losses he can’t afford when shipping companies lose merchandise. He said he was unaware of the consumer protection law.
“I’ve never heard of them and they’ve been in business for 30 years,” Hazelwood said, adding that small retailers are at a huge disadvantage when it comes to online sales because it’s harder for them to absorb losses and because larger companies love Amazon and Walmart get better deals on shipping costs.
The company repaid Hovakimyan’s money more than a month later, but only after Purolator located the missing box in one of its warehouses.
Hazelwood says the company is reviewing relevant laws to see how they apply to its business.
Most provincial consumer protection laws are very similar but, in this case, Alberta law applies because that’s where Hovakimyan lives.
A look at two shoppers who ordered online never arrived, with some tips on what to do before shopping online. 2:11
Signed for, not delivered
Then there is Kamyar Yousefi from Vancouver. He only got his money back after CCTV footage of his building’s post office revealed that his online order was never delivered, despite receiving a “proof of delivery” email notification from FedEx in it was said that he had signed for the package.
“They put my name as someone who signed it, but I didn’t sign anything,” Yousefi said of the $ 330 online order he placed in August with fashion retailer Diesel.
Yousefi says FedEx wouldn’t have taken his concerns seriously at first. He says it was only after Go Public contacted the company that he sent someone to his building to investigate and confirm that the package never arrived.
He also wasn’t sure Diesel would return his money, since his policy also transfers responsibility for lost packages to buyers once an order leaves the warehouse.
The company provided a refund after FedEx confirmed the package had not been delivered, minus the $ 35 that Yousefi spent on shipping and duties.
FedEx tells Go Public that the package was probably delivered to the wrong address and this is what triggered the delivery confirmation.
It says the seller did not request a signature on the delivery. FedEx, along with other shippers, he implemented “contactless” deliveries during the pandemic, which means no signature for most shipments.
So who is responsible?
Most provincial consumer protection laws are “firmly on the side of the consumer,” according to Jeff Orenstein, a lawyer and owner of the Consumer Law Group firm, which deals with collective consumer law suits.
It says, in general, if sellers fail to deliver the product within 30 days from the specified delivery date, the consumer has the right to cancel and get a refund.
But using these laws to get a refund can be tricky, he says, if the seller doesn’t cooperate. These cases can end up in small-scale courts, requiring time and money on the part of the buyer, which may not be worth pursuing other than for very expensive purchases.
“This is where practical reality and law collide and it becomes more problematic,” he said.
Instead, Orenstein says consumers should try to avoid court all together by paying for online purchases with a credit card rather than an electronic transfer or any other method.
Hovakimyan paid for the battery using his Visa debit card and Yousefi paid for his clothes with a credit card.
Most banks, Orenstein says, allow cardholders to request a chargeback when an order is lost during shipping.
Consumer advocate Whitehurst says the same thing, but cautions online shoppers to make sure they know their banks’ chargeback policies before using their card to make a purchase.
Banks and credit card companies often have specific rules on how to request a chargeback and how quickly it should happen after the purchase.
He also recommends researching shipping policies before deciding where to shop, noting that larger retailers often make it easier to get a refund due to the volume of sales.
Hovakimyan says he gave up on online shopping after his experience. He says he would like to see the government do more than pass legislation to protect consumers, giving consumer protection departments more power to fight on behalf of buyers.
“I think this is something the government needs to look into and improve,” he said.
Yousefi says he would like to give up online shopping, but will likely have to continue doing so due to the pandemic.
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