Online shopping sites breaching guidelines
23 October 2008
A survey from Which? magazine suggests that a number of online divisions of large UK retailers are breaking at least one of the key shopping rules to do with internet purchases - the option for a customer to have a full refund, including postage, when they return an item.
Out of the 51 online shops which were surveyed, 16 did not offer customers the full cost of a refund back, including postal charges - and these included big names such as next.co.uk and empiredirect.co.uk.
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Some websites also stated the period of cancellation incorrectly, with orange.co.uk and homebase.co.uk saying customers have seven working days from the delivery date to cancel their order, but rules in the UK give consumers eight working days.
In the survey of 8,000 members, website Lizearle.com, which sells skincare products, was given the highest customer satisfaction score of 95 per cent. Other online merchants that can boast of coming top in their categories are Amazon.co.uk, Abebooks.co.uk, Figleaves.com, Virginmobile.com, Johnlewis.com and Wiggle.co.uk.
Figures published by the Nielsen Company in February of this year show that 85 per cent of the world's online population have bought something on the internet - approximately 875 million people.
