Can a supplier insist on a refund instead of a replacement?

[Fat Tone]

Last week I ordered ~8 items from Dabs (UK) totaling ~£430, making the delivery charge of ~£5-6 very reasonable (and certainly a lot cheaper than the likes of Scan).

Unfortunately a stick of ram was bad so I went to Dabs online returns service, which I have to say is excellent!

The downside is that there is not an option for a replacement, only a refund. I sent an email yesterday to query this saying I wanted a replacement, and they just replied that they only refund and I would have to place a new order.

My problems with this are that ram prices are so variable it may well cost more and that I would have to pay a delivery charge for just one item, making it disproportionate. Also, Dabs take a long time to authorize credit card purchases, adding to the delay.

Can they do this???

[Brian Ellis]

If it's in their conditions of sale, of course they can. When you place your order, you tacitly accept their conditions.

Guarantees are generally repair, replacement or refund at the supplier's discretion.

[Taz]

I find Dab's to be useless specially when it comes to returns. It took them over two months to sort out a faulty DIMM I sent back to them Of course there's no telephone support any more so all this had to be done via email

[ayoub_ibrahim]

I've had the same problem with dabs.
have you tried to see if www.simply.co.uk has the ram as iirc they have free delivery for a short time period?

[GNEP]

I've stopped using Dabs 'cos the site won't work properly on my machine at home (Mozilla 1.3 or sommit)

[J1NG]

Dabs can be a somewhat hit or miss affair in service. I've had bad and good service from them before.

Most notably bad was when I returned a CDROM drive back in those CD days, which couldn't read jack, and was returned back to me saying they tested it and it could read their media. (Don't know what crappy media they used in their testing department) But nothing could work in that drive. And it costed me some £40 back then to buy the damn drive, and more to ship it back to them to test! (And I was just turning a Uni student, so that meant a lot! )

Then of course, there's the good. I was given the option of refund or replacement, opted for the replacement. Arrived early the next day on confirmation.

Again, somewhat a hit and miss affair with Dabs.

J1NG

[GT98]

Boy you guys in Europe and the UK have it horrible when it comes to getting PC equipment on line. Why is it like that? You can't swing a dead cat and not get a halfway decent deal or price in the US from a online retailer with decient service to boot

[Brian Ellis]

The problem is that US dealers 99/100 refuse to ship overseas or accept European credit cards. If they did that, the European purveyors would feel the pinch.

It requires some enterprising US guy to act as intermediary agent and take say 5% or even 10% just to accept European orders, pass them on to the US dealers and then ship them in bulk to Europe. This would make the Eurodealers so sick they would have to give service at a reasonable price.

[Elie]

I never order online even if I am in Toronto.

Nothing like buying computer parts from a local computer store.

[az]

Actually, service in germany is quite good, prices too (not as good as in the US, but better than elsewhere in europe).

In germany, the supplier can choose if they want to refund, repair, or replace, after two or three unsuccessful repairs/replacements, the cutomer can insist on a refund, though.

AZ

[GT98]

Originally posted by Brian Ellis
The problem is that US dealers 99/100 refuse to ship overseas or accept European credit cards. If they did that, the European purveyors would feel the pinch.

I know the big reason that they dont accept cards is that they say have problems with forged/stolen cards vs ones in the US.

[Paddy]

If my visa/mastercard is accepted in America, then why can't I use it online there?

[Wombat]

Making purchases across the pond tends to flag fraud departments. I know, I just had a hell of a time buying software from Germany.

[Brian Ellis]

Originally posted by Paddy
If my visa/mastercard is accepted in America, then why can't I use it online there?

I agree it is ridiculous.

[Fat Tone]

I'm not getting any murc notifications at the moment guys, so didn't see your suggestions/comments for quite a while.

Ayoub - yes, Simply are doing free delivery all October, but I think they put the prices up to match because even with that they aren't the cheapest.

By fluke today I see that Google's Froogle is now up in the UK, and on there I found Savastore.com to be the cheapest by nearly 10% inc delivery.

BTW, Dabs shifted stance a little:

"Re order on-line in the normal way but if the price has increaded and/or you are charged an incorrect delivery charge, send is an email when you have received the goods and we will issue a refund for the difference"

aka "If we charge wrong we'll refund the error....but we aren't offering free delivery and you still have to re-order."
I guess they don't need my future business!