A seller sent less than I ordered and refunded the difference after sending without asking

[oblonghead]

So I ordered a couple of items from someone in another country (US to UK). This generally incurs a customs fee which I am fine with as the items are a hassle to get in my country however I generally order a certain amount at a time all together so that paying the customs fee feels "worth" it to me.

So they sent out 2 of the items but did not send the third, more expensive one as they had "oversold" on it by mistake, they sent me a message the day after sending the order and refunded me the amount that item cost, without waiting for confirmation on what I wanted to do. I didn't check my messages until today when the order arrived with that item missing and having paid the customs fee which prompted me to investigate.

Now if I had known this item wasn't going to be in the order, I wouldn't have bothered ordering the order as a whole in the first place and I certainly wouldn't have bothered paying the customs fee when it arrived in my country which cost about 2/3rds of what the two items cost essentially making the order more than I was willing to spend for just those two items. Even if I get a refund on the order as a whole I'd have to spend more sending all the items back so I will have lost money and have no items.

Do I have any recourse here? I tend to be pretty chill about this kind of thing but I'm pretty aggrieved with this. Especially since now that third more expensive item has only gotten more expensive in the time since I originally made the order during which I thought "well that's fine because I already have it".

[john1297576]

You don't quote any amounts but customs duty would never have come to 2/3rds. No doubt it would be the collection charge made by whoever delivered. Last I heard Royal mail charged £8 but Couriers much more.

All you can do is leave appropriate Feedback. Returning for a refund would be expensive, you would have the hassle of reclaiming from customs and the Delivery charge would not be refundable.