Someone might have been here and done this, so thought I'd ask. I recently bought an item from a UK component site that advertised the item (the picture) as a matching colour to what I wanted. Item arrives and its not glossy, but matt and dull, so wont match my other component. I emailed them a week later (waited for my other part arrived in case it was ok). No reply. I whats app'd them and they say its a non stock item and a link explaining no refunds on non-stock. Just checked the site and all the components I have looked at are also "non-stock". Is this a get out from them? Its not a custom item and I'm sure they have stock of these - give them their due, the item arrived the very next day after ordering!
Do I have the right to refund? Further links from website show actual colours, which I didnt notice. You'd think they would change their product advertising photo..
I wont name and shame just yet. But of course I will avoid using and advise all mates to as well. In fact my mates components just snapped in half. Same manufacturer....
Further links from website show actual colours, which I didn't notice.
that puts you in a poor position as you cannot really argue " not as described" so consumer law does not kick in apart from distance selling Seems to me like the "non stock" is to get around the need to allow returns under that aspect.<br />Polish or varnish it?
The company just seem underhanded the way they have advertised the main pic as a different colour and add a link elsewhere in product to real pics. And the fact that they have a clause of non-stock. I'm not sure how companies expect to continue to exist with a good reputation given that way of running a business.
Surely this is covered under distance selling regulations, and you have 14 days to return without giving reason.
https://www.gov.uk/online-and-distance-selling-for-businesses
Rules above apply to online selling according to the gov website
https://www.gov.uk/online-and-distance-selling-for-businesses/online-selling
Well i won't be using unite components anymore, and i hope this might put a few people off, leaving unite far more than £70 down.
Well, I for one had never heard of Unite Components before so you've done a great job in bringing other folks attention to them.
They have come up before
After the posts and comments on here about their finish and service I will be taking them off my list of ‘possible UK companies that aren’t Hope’.
Yeah, they have a bit of form for this. They can and do coat items to order, so maybe they could come down as technically correct. But it's a crappy product finish and a crappy way to treat people.
highly unlikely though if they can still manage next day delivery. And irrelevant anyway, even if they’re choosing only to manufacture items as and when they’re ordered, it’s still not bespoke/personalisedThey can and do coat items to order
If it arrived the next day it was in stock, may be a stock of one but that's low stock.
This is the nice side of the internet.
By own admission OP missed the links to other pictures showing actual colours, maybe not the best ladies out site but doesn't sound like a conspiracy. As a result buys incorrectly annoying but customers error. Forum members try to to use power of Google to leave bad feed back to site potentially really damaging business. Lovely, really lovely.
I'm a little confused as every item I've just looked at on their site I needed to choose the colour and there was also a paint 'splatter' option - are you saying that the colour you selected doesn't look like the colour on their website, or something else?
Also never heard of them, until now.
For clarity, this is the item from website:
My item:
You can see from top pic the font colour to almost blend into background for "Click here for Real Life pictures". Why choose this colour for this link!? I mean, yes, I didnt read all the ins and outs of a stem component apart from its 35mm, 42.5mm and burnt bronze which looks the colour I want in the picture.
What total bollox.
Deceit from online company that breaks consumer protection law. Do you run the place ?
I think it's a bit rubbish, why would you put up pictures of various colours of the component you're selling but none of those colours are the actual colour of any of the components....
If the colours don't match then put up a picture of the raw stem then link the other colours.
Your within the 14 days. Just send it back.
yeah the image from the website is clearly a render, and it has pics to the real item. Its clearly an in-stock item (I doubt they're annodising it to order), so if you're within the distance selling regs (or whatever they're called now) you can just reject as you don't like it.
Even if it were non stock, if you're selecting the choices from a menu (ie fabric on a sofa or colour on a car) you're protected. You're only not protected if the thing is made custom for you (ie, you had your name laser-etched in the front of the stem)
Cant find any contact details on website for returns. Well, there is the whatsapp or email, but no returns address. TBH I'll just put this down as a mistake and chuck stem in spares box. Thread is more to warn others off
If you used Paypal you can start a claim via that. I could not find a picture on their website of that component finished in that colour, the only image showing the stem in that colour is the render, so to me that is misleading.
There is nothing personalised about that stem that stops it being resold from stock.
Looks like this might work as a returns address:<br /> https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/09075643
Unit 8a Dyffryn Industrial Estate, Pool Road, Newtown, Wales, SY16 3BD<br /> <br />but also could be this<br /><br />31 Mochdre Industrial Estate, Mochdre Industrial Estate, Mochdre, Newtown, Wales, SY16 4LE
Makefast https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/01165517/officers
Never order from a company that doesn't have a physical address listed on their website.
Sounds like they might be struggling to afford the refund.
Not that that excuses denying your statutory rights.
As soon as I saw this I knew it'd be Unite. I ordered a raw chainring that looked like it'd had greasy fingerprints all over it before being lacquered and he wasn't interested at all, just ignored messages about returning it; like dealing with a stroppy kid.
maybe not the best ladies out site
You're not wrong. There's loads better out there.
Reading the first post before you named the company I guessed it would be Unite and sure enough it was.
I’ve got a chainring and stem spacers from them and they’re fine but I’ve heard enough of these stories that I wouldn’t order from them again.
Regardless of whether the op “should” have noticed, a company with any care for their customer would sort you out and there's plenty of other UK based component manufacturers who would do just that.
Non-stock is quite a dubious term especially when selling to consumers. It's more of a b2b term.
As somebody who sells to consumers, and does sell customised items, I wouldn't class an item in a basic listed colour as a custom item. If it was some customer specified specific colour, whereby I had to get that colour specifically for them, yes it's custom made, but not if it just means I need to pick up a different tin for a colour that I offer as standard.
Not using actual photos, and having a link to random photos, doesn't really help their case of defending an argument that it's not as described. If the link had been to sample parts that showed the actual finishes (be that swabs or other parts), they could argue you have seen what your order will look like, but a wall of random photos with no descriptions isn't really letting you see/imagine accurately what you're going to receive.
Even if it were non stock, if you’re selecting the choices from a menu (ie fabric on a sofa or colour on a car) you’re protected. You’re only not protected if the thing is made custom for you (ie, you had your name laser-etched in the front of the stem)
Interesting. Invisiframe used to charge for returns, and now seem to say this:
"We do not accept returns or offer refunds/exchanges on protection kits as everything is cut to order."
It felt like BS then, but I sucked it up and paid to return when I realised I didn't have the patience to install a full kit a few years ago. (For a Santa Cruz that they definitely could re-sell).
Invisiframe really do cut their kits to order though. They couldn't keep all bikes and all sizes in stock.
They are good guys with good CS, IME.
My son has a few unite bits on his bike and seems to like them. I had a quick look at their site, specifically the real photos. Got bored of scrolling but I couldn't find one of the stem in the OP's colour.
I agree non-stock is not the same as customised. Non-stock normally means the company has to order it in from the distributor, that's all.
Not the same as customising e.g. engraving your name on it, a non-factory colour that sort of thing.
There is a chance that uncoated stems a Cerakoted to order but I'd definitely say that a stock colour is still standard. A custom splatter design is would understandably be not refundable.
It's a bad render of Burnt Bronze, here a better render and the real thing.
Distance selling regs for companies
Right to cancel<br />There are different rules for downloads and streaming services.
You must tell the customer they can cancel their order up to 14 days after their order is delivered. They do not need to give a reason for cancelling.
If you do not tell the customer about their right to cancel, they can cancel at any time in the next 12 months. If you tell them about the right to cancel during these 12 months, they have 14 days to cancel from when you told them.
there is no debate required here, supplier has to refund the item.
I can’t see a ‘real life’ pic of the stem in that colour on their site. I must say I’d be a bit miffed if I thought I was getting the stem pictured on the website, only for it to turn up in a cat sick shade of brown. Is there a pic on the site that does accurately depict the colour?
if not..
if a company is selling something as not as described and refusing a refund then they deserve to be flamed. If that sinks them then that’s on them for being a bit shit. It’s not the Op’s concern.
Paypal to the rescue. Glad I used it. Unite replied swiftly after I raised the case and have sent me their address and agreed a refund. I will close the paypal case once I receive the refund. Cheers all. Shame, I wanted a 42.5mm stem and not 35 or 50mm. Deity get my money.
Seems a shocker tbh - they could just coat a stem in each colour and then photograph them for the website. Not a huge outlay given they cost them in house.
The ‘photos’ on the main page for that stem are clearly not reality - either renders or previous versions that had been anodised.
On the mobile page when you click through it gives links to actual colours - but that takes you to the Cerakote page which have pictures of guns. A lot of which are multicoloured or camouflaged. So hard to really know what you’d actually get.
This is clearly a stock colour (one of 10) with no actual customisation.
As I understand it under distance selling they should accept a return in 14 days for a full refund. You’ll probably have to pay postage to return though.
robertajobb +1
Glad the OP got a refund, but ppl/companies like this need a (virtual) kicking, for trying it on.
of course they could, but that's irrelevant. The fact that they don't, and choose to manufacture on demand instead, is a business decision - no doubt sensible, but not a loophole to break the law, which is what they're doing.Invisiframe really do cut their kits to order though. They couldn’t keep all bikes and all sizes in stock.
If they print each panel with e.g. your name, or they are literally creating the pattern brand new for the first time at your request, then it's personalised and non-returnable, but that's not what they're doing.
The ‘photos’ on the main page for that stem are clearly not reality – either renders or previous versions that had been anodised.
Very common with online stores these days. A model they've got on computer and it's re-rendered with all the colours and patterns they claim to sell. What you'll really get may not match.
T-shirts, hoodies and stuff like that is another. Obvious when you see the same product with different designs on offer, with a model wearing it with exact same stance, same creases and lighting on the garment. Often wonder if they've ever manufactured some of the designs on offer, and the model wearing them probably doesn't exist or is a stock photo. To be fair it's a cheap way of knocking up a store instead of having to produce every variant and in the case of clothes, having to do a shoot with them wearing every one.
Amazon marketplace and ebay is full of this stuff.
of course they could, but that’s irrelevant. The fact that they don’t, and choose to manufacture on demand instead, is a business decision – no doubt sensible, but not a loophole to break the law, which is what they’re doing.
If they print each panel with e.g. your name, or they are literally creating the pattern brand new for the first time at your request, then it’s personalised and non-returnable, but that’s not what they’re doing.
Not so sure in this case.
"John" is a very common name. Is it then right that a company that personalises items has to offer returns on John but not on, um, Caspian?
Maybe the top 50 most common names should be stock items and below that counted as "made to order"... where do you stop?
Same with Invisiframe, they have a bunch of templates for the most common bikes and then cut to order. How popular does the bike have to be in order for it not to be called "custom" and who regulates this?
Sounds fair enough to me to treat it all as personalised.
The stem colours thing seems more like trying it on, whatever their actual manufacturing & order filling methods. Hard to see why though if I think about it... probably because they only offer 10 colours instead of 10,000. 🤷♂️
Same with Invisiframe, they have a bunch of templates for the most common bikes and then cut to order. How popular does the bike have to be in order for it not to be called “custom” and who regulates this?
Sounds fair enough to me to treat it all as personalised.
If they've got the template then it's not custom. It would be custom if it weren't explicitly listed on their website, and, for example, you sent them a template to cut. Fair enough and the law are two different things.
https://www.gov.uk/online-and-distance-selling-for-businesses
Linked from the the source quoted above is https://www.gov.uk/accepting-returns-and-giving-refunds
Here's what that says:
You have to offer a refund for certain items only if they’re faulty, such as:
personalised items and custom-made items, for example curtains
perishable items, for example frozen food or flowers
newspapers and magazines
unwrapped CDs, DVDs and computer software
Seems clear to me - you wouldn't expect curtains where you'd supplied the exact dimensions to be refunded. If you bought a standard size, you would.
And back to the OP - he clearly didn't specify anything custom (eg a colour Pantone) so should be refunded. It's really not our problem how or when this stuff is manufactured.
FFS. 502 Error.
Really?
OP was quite reasonable in his expectations and the retailer was clearly trying to pull a fast one, having dropped a clanger by ordering a load of cosmetically unappealing stock that they're probably struggling to shift... IMO.
From what I gather (from a video on Youtube somewhere - think it was Pinned) Unite are essentially using Cerakote as a method to reduce inventory to a fraction of what it would need to be when outsourcing anodising of parts.
So potentially thousands of parts down to literally tens if they are cerakoting parts to order.
The 'no returns' looks like an extension of this model - e.g. they don't want the stuff back because they don't want to stock anything, it could be months until they sell that colour / part combo again as there is so much choice.
I think the calling a single-colour item 'custom' is stretching reality a little and probably not technically allowed - custom splash etc, sure but this isn't that.
Its telling that there seems to be quite a bit of Unite stuff for sale on Ebay / Facebook unfitted / unused, probably because people weren't a fan of the finish and were refused a refund.
Ill echo what many other people have said - moving to cerakote seems like an absolute disaster when their parts before were really rather nice when anodised - it looks horrible (imo) and seems like it chips off on items like pedals, I cant imagine the saving in inventory has outweighed the obvious drop in sales they must have experienced here, there's a reason hardly anyone else uses it.
When they announced Cerakote, it was one of those raised eyebrow moments when a company you like does something you think might ultimately break them.
Returned my "silver" (dirty grey Cerakote) pedals to a retailer, and managed to track down what might have been the last anodised silver ones in the country as a replacement.
