Walk High Mountaineering (near Coventry) - ALERT

My husband is having trouble with this retailer. He ordered an item which hasn't arrived. 15 days and counting. He has emailed 3 times and attempted to phone but only gets a full message machine.

Does anyone else have problems or know anything about this retailer??

Looks bad and I thought I should raise an alert.  

Did he order and pay for it online?

There are a lot of rogue websites trading who get away with taking your money and giving you nothing in return. One example is a company called Datakits who ripped off my partner in this respect although it seems they are no longer trading - so may Trading Standards were, eventually, able to get something done about them.

I'd get checking online about High Walk Mountaineering - you may be in for a shock!

You MUST make an effort to check out online retaillers credentials before buying online these days. Dodgy online traders get away with theft (that's basically what it is) and in my experience trading standards are absolutely useless at getting anything done about them.

Something needs to be done in law about these businesses, in reality, the law does very little to act against these criminals.

The fact that neither of you had the time to check out their ratings/reviews is probably just what they were hoping for. I hope you have better luck with a resolution than we had.

Online buyers beware!

I believe alot of these 'traders' are one-person-bands from the back bedroom type peeps  -  If they have an address or shop near coventry surely there is an om'er in the locality who would be prepared to ask for your cash back politely...or impolitely.

  Being of an irregular size myself I too find it frustrating and difficult to find things which are of a good fit as by the time I get to them they're gone or the sale has finished which is why I always ring before making payment.  Be thankful they - if they are rogues - haven't skimmed your card details as happened to me in of all places Heathrow a few years back!

The international phone number given, is a Kenilworth/Leamington/Warwick dialing code.

For general help with dialing codes, try the [b]BT Dialling Code Finder[/b].

You should take your complaint to Trading Standards.

no problem Cath,

will let you know later

right....

• 1st thing is that under the distance selling regs, the item(s) must be delivered within 30 days of ordering
• If not, they are in breach of contract and must refund you the money back including any postage
• You then must be refunded the money within 30days of the notification of asking for your money back
• You can also start the ball rolling with your credit card company. They wont be able to do anything until the 30days of non delivery has expired as the company is not in breach of contract until then
• Under the consumer credit act 1975, credit card companies are jointly and severally liable for any breach of contract
• HOWEVER, please note that there must be at least a single item of value greater than £100 within the order for the credit card company to be liable under the breach of contract. If not, there is no legal recourse through the credit card company.
• Distance selling regs and consumer credit legislation is civil not criminal law and so if the value is less than £100 and the 30day refund period is exceeded, you would have to persue the claim at the small claims court

So, you do have a few options and a few things to note on top of the above:

1. you can cancel the order now if you have not received the goods (as is the case here) and they will have to refund you the money within 30 days. In these instance the best option is to send a letter via registered post and give them seven days to respond to the letter.
2. Or you can wait until the 30days from ordering the item(s) has expired (with no sign of the goods being recieved) before taking further action
3. Once the 30days is up, you can write to the company (as per point 1. above) and tell them that as you have not received the goods that you expect to have your money refunded within the further 30day period as they will be in breach of contract and that they should respond to the letter within 7days
4. If the 30day period for the refund is exceeded, you can then say that they are in breach of contract and and in breach of the distance selling regs
5. The first "official" point of contact for follow up and resolution of this dispute should always be consumer direct You can contact them at any time but they will only state the above info if the 30day intial non receipt of goods has been exceeded. Once past that they will ask questions such as if you have contacted the seller by registered post (as per 1. or 3. above) and given them a seven day time frame to respond to your complaint/refund instruction. They can then refer it onto the Trading Standards office for your location (not the location of the seller) for further advice and support

Please note, not all Trading Standards offices have the same resources as others, it depends on the area you live in. Trading Standards have no enforcement powers, which is a common misconception. You might have to be patient and "play the game" of waiting for the various time triggers to be exceeded. Normally a formal registered letter informing the seller of intent with a time frame to respond normally does the trick but not always. I hope the above is useful if not entirely what you want to hear

no problem, I hope you get a result. The main thing is that you have done all the right things and you'll have to see if they refund within 30days. I would still recommend sending a letter by registered post in addition to the email.

Let us know how you get on

I had a slightly different problem with a company last year, in the end I resorted to the 'Distance Selling Regulations'

Every letter sent was saved on my computer together with every e-mail. I sent an e-mail and letter at regular intervals basically telling them they had x amount of days remaining to issue a refund prior to my taking action through the small claims court. With about 3 days remaining of the 30 day period they contacted me to say they would issue a refund within the next 7 days, I simply replied and informed them they had 3 days left before I took court action. They issued the refund on the 30th day. 

Just keep hammering away at them and be prepared to take the matter to court if need be, chances are they'll hope you're bluffing so if the worst comes to the worst surprise them.

edit, I'm pretty sure you must inform them in writing, make sure it's Recorded Delivery as Dave says.

You may be interested to know that I have been in contact with Rab who inform me that they ceased trading with Walkhigh just after Christmas due to terrible feedback and payment problems.  They intend to start legal procedings to get the Rab logo removed from the site and also to get any reference to their goods being available through Walkhigh removed as well.  I did a dummy purchasing run today and note that Walkhigh was prepared to sell me a non-existant Rab item and to take my money.  This is now the tenth month of taking money without despatching, refunding or communicating in any way.  What a shame that innocent shoppers are still being stung.

Walk High Mountaineering say on their website,

"We don't have hundreds of staff - sometimes that means we can't get to your call immediately but you'll never have to wait in a telephone queue or speak to a machine (except to leave your phone number) and because we love the same things you do, we'll understand what you're asking for.

We need you to come back again and again - so our service is second to none."