Online purchase and distance selling regs.
 

I've bought something online for £200 and dont want it - now the rules allow me to return it as new with 7 days......but the firm applies a 20% "handling cost"....doesnt that make the rules rather weak? the whole point of the regs. is to allow you to inspect the goods as if you were in a store...to charge £40 (plus return post) makes that rather expensive!

Is there a rule on what they can charge? A quick google on the key words suggest loads of places have this clause in their small print.

found this

When consumers exercise their right to cancel they are under a duty to take reasonable care of the goods and to “restore” them to the supplier. The term “restore” does not permit the supplier to demand that the consumer send back or deliver the goods, but only that the goods are made available to the supplier for collection.

The Regulations permit the supplier to include in the contract a term requiring the consumer to return the goods to the supplier at their own cost. The supplier may charge for the direct costs of recovering the goods if, on request, the consumer does not return them; this must not be more than the direct costs of recovery, such as postage or, for larger items, the cost of a van collection. Once the consumer has cancelled the order all money paid must be returned within 30 days of the date of cancellation.

The business is not entitled to charge for recovery of the goods if the consumer also has a statutory right to cancel the contract under other legislation, (for example because they are defective) or if the term requiring the consumer to return the goods is an ‘‘unfair term’’ within the meaning of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 and The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts (Amendment) Regulations 2001

Got it from here
Distance Selling (Mail Order, Telephone and Internet Shopping) Quick Facts - BERR

and the above leaves it open for them to charge a handling fee in addition......thus (i expect) stopping a lot of people returning stuff (less they lose 20% of their money!)

From the point of the seller, it may be that they have to buy in the product from a manufacturer etc specifically to sell it on to the customer, now, the business I run, if I cancel an order or want to send something back, I would have to pay a 25% handling charge. So work into the equation, if I were to buy in an item specifically for you, send it out to you and then you don't want it, who really should foot the bill, businesses are there to make a profit and if the end user/customer doesn't want it after ordering (except for damage/wrong item) then I feel that 20% seems fair.

Obviously, this will put people off returning the item, but it probably all comes back to the manufacturers.

Your item, could of course, have been an 'off the shelf' item, in which case, they will have had the time of packaging/arranging couriers, but that should be a fixed price, not a percentage of the item.