Unsolicited goods

pxl8

pxl8

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Andy Jones
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In the post this morning was a couple of photos of my wife running in a 10k recently. Also included was a bill for £7 each or a request to return the unwanted photos.

Of course they're unsolicited goods so we're keeping them but I have to say I'm surprised the tog went to the expense of getting 6x8 prints and postage for all the runners. Is there really that many people who would cough up purely because they felt obliged?

Would you?
 
Hi,

The law doesn't automatically allow you to keep unsolicited goods, particularly where the sender has enclosed a returm paid envelope... has he?

Unsolicited goods may be kept, as long as you invite the sender to pay for their return, or have them collected. If he refuses, then you could, in law keep the goods, until such times that the sender has made it obvious that he is not taking any further action.... I think the time limit is a year and a day.

That's the theory. I've never tested it:p
 
Only a business has to contact the seller, from the UK Gov. consumer direct website:
Unsolicited goods

For unsolicited goods that you did not order and just turn up 'out of the blue', there is no need to contact the seller. You are under no obligation to pay anything if you did not order the goods. For further information, refer to the factsheet Scams - unsolicited gifts.
Click to expand...

More info here:
http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/goods-service/scams/fs_u01.shtml

BTW, no return envelope was included with the photos.
 
You could always say "what pictures?" if he asks for them back.
 
I stand corrected.

This used not to be the case, so the law must have changed. Good thing too:lol:
 
i'm amazed at the obvious cost and effort he's gone to for nothing. Very strange behaviour......... Was he the official Tog for the event? How did he get your address? Data protection issues as well??????
 
I'm sure if somebody used your photos without your permission (regardless of how they were acquired), this would be the first place you'd post your rant about it.

Do what's right. Send them back if you don't want them at the price offered.
 
I'm amazed at the expense he's paid out as well. There was about 500 runners on the day and he's probably spent about £750 to do this.

He was the official tog and I guess he got the contact details from the event organiser.

Gfk, what would the point be? He's already spent the money getting the prints done, if we return them he's still wasted the money as they'd be no good to anyone else. If he really wanted them back he would have included a pre-paid envelope. It's more likely he's playing the numbers game, people who purchase cover the cost of returns/no response.
 
pxl8 said:
Gfk, what would the point be? He's already spent the money getting the prints done, if we return them he's still wasted the money as they'd be no good to anyone else. If he really wanted them back he would have included a pre-paid envelope. It's more likely he's playing the numbers game, people who purchase cover the cost of returns/no response.
Click to expand...

Agreed - It's little better than junk mail or spam
 
I dunno, the prints probably cost him 10-20p each, postage another 40p so for 60p he's looking for a return of £14 each from 500 people (if he sent that many out) he only has to get a return from 22 people to be in profit.
 
I value my time and research too!!!!!!
 
Well the prints were 6x8 so at photobox they'd cost 40p each, so that's 80p plus postage that's £1.20, then add the cost of the card backed envelopes used, printing his order form, etc. it's easily £1.50 a throw even without including his time for the shoot, indexing, uploading, etc.

I reckon he'd need to sell about 120 shots before he was seeing a profit.
 
to be blunt; what a plonker! better to shoot and upload onto an online gallery and then people can order as and when they wish...looks like he's 'fishing' doing this.
 
You're not taking into acount large scale savings, buy 500 or 1000 envelopes at one time and the price drops. I'm quite sure that even photobox prices drop when you buy 1000 prints instead of 20 and there's no saying where he got them done. Was postage £1.20? seems high to me but that would certainly bump his costs up.
 
£1.20 was the running total not the price of postage.

In fact postage was 37p, envelopes were 16p each (best deal from Viking catalogue). Assume 25p per print and another 5p for the double sided printed order form. So far that's £1.08 per runner.

Add say 4 hours to hand write the name and race number on each form, print the labels and prepare all the envelopes. Plus another 8 hours on race day (4 for the race and another 4 to sort the photos). That's 12 hours, a low end rate might be £375 for that - so that's 75p per runner on top, a total of £1.83. Of course it depends on how the tog values his time but I think £1.50 a runner was a fairly good guess at costs. He still has to sell to 20% of the runners before seeing any profit and to maybe 40-50% of them to make the profit margin worthwhile - after all there's no point running a business that doesn't make a profit.
 
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