Internet Shopping Nightmare - Opinions please

[SlidingSideways]

Well, it had to happen sooner or later, but after 7+ years of happy internet shopping, I've finally had a purchase go breasts skyward

Bought a table off the internet in the week before xmas (Present for the parents).
3 days later a bloke in a van turns up (not the PO or a courier, just a bloke in a van) and drops off the item. I was a little tied up at the time so didn't notice til later that the table was the wrong colour.
Rang them up and they promplty despatched another on and told me to ring in the new year to arrange sending the first one back.
Second one arrives via Parcel Force and is promptly gift wrapped (after checking on the box that it's the right one.
Xmas day and the pressie is opened. Table's damaged
Since then, I've tried ringing, faxing, e-mailing and writing. No response. The website has now vanished and the phones have been disconnected.

Contacted my credit card co to try and sort this out. After 3 weeks of faffing I'm told that they can do nothing until I can show I've sent the goods back, and even then it's not going to be the whole ammount. They have got me an address (the same one I managed to get off companies house to write to them initially) to send the stuff back to.

So, do I:
a) Cough up even more cash for parcel force to send the stuff back to them and take my chances with the credit card company?

Or

b) Ebay the two tables and try to make my cash back that way?

Any other suggestions would be much appreciated, cheers.

[ProPlus]

do the law abiding thing.

Ebay them and pocket the cash for inconvinence.

[skibum]

You could just buy a table cloth and put it over the original table and sell the other one?

[lunarscope]

Contact you CC company and insist on a refund to your CC account.
It is the CC company's responsibility to trace the supplier, after all, they have the contract with the supplier (and therefore bought the goods) not you.

[SlidingSideways]

skibum said:

You could just buy a table cloth and put it over the original table and sell the other one?

If it wasn't a present for someone else, I'd be inclined to agree with you.

[marcos maniac]

Send the damaged one back - get proof of posting/dispatch (send it to you CC Company) and get a refund.

Ebay the first table to compensate for any shortfall in your refund and postage costs


If you make a profit - have a few to compensate for all the inconvenience

>> Edited by marcos maniac on Tuesday 14th February 16:05

[SlidingSideways]

lunarscope said:

Contact you CC company and insist on a refund to your CC account. It is the CC company's responsibility to trace the supplier, after all, they have the contract with the supplier (and therefore bought the goods) not you.

According to them, they can't legally refund me while I still have the goods in my posession. They have given me an address to send the stuff back to, the same one I wrote to earlier and got no reply.

They also claim that I'll not get 100% of my money back, so I'm a little nervous about sending back the one (well, two really) asset I still have out of this (even if I don't actually want it).