Online shopping is so convenient because you don’t have to leave the house (who else loves shopping in their pyjamas?) and you don’t have to brave the shopping centre car park with kids or a pram – what a nightmare!
But mum Asya Moussawi from Hobart got more than expected when a package that she didn’t order arrived on her doorstep.
Asya opened the package to find beauty products form the company LuxStyle International, who insisted that she had to pay the balance on the invoice or face debt collectors.
But this isn’t the first time LuxStyle International has tried to scam Australian customers.
According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) they have received 127 complaints about LuxStyle since January 2017, and issued a Public Warning Notice about their actions.
The ACCC suspects that the Denmark-based company may be breaking Australian Consumer Law, by asserting a right to payment for unsolicited goods.
But what do you do if you receive an unsolicited package from LuxStyle, or any other company?
The ACCC is your first port of call for any behaviour of this nature, and this is what they advise if you receive unsolicited products or services:
• You are not required to pay for the products or services
• You are not liable for any loss or damage resulting from a supply of unsolicited services
• If you contact the business in writing, expressing that you do not want the products, then the business should recover the products within one month
• If you don’t contact the business, then the business may recover the products within three months from the day after you received the products
• You cannot unreasonably refuse to allow the supplier to recover the products
• You may be liable to pay compensation if you wilfully damage the products during this period
• If the supplier does not collect the unsolicited products within the above timeframes, you can keep the products with no obligation to pay for them
According to the LuxStyle website Terms & Conditions, payment can be made via credit card or by Pay-Later invoice but “if you choose the Pay-Later payment method, an additional invoice fee will be applied.”
It goes on to state that “if no payment is recorded, LuxStyle International reserves the right to apply late penalty fees as well as debt collection costs to the total outstanding amount. LuxStyle International can at any time submit its outstanding claim to a third party debt collector.”
“Consumers who have received goods from LuxStyle, or have been contacted by a debt collector about goods from LuxStyle, should lodge a report via the ACCC’s website,” ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said.
