“Emilie” (20) bought a blow-drying brush from the online store Moderneliv.no. The blowdryer cost NOK 2,499 and “Emilie” thinks the price was far too high in relation to the quality of the product. Therefore, she sent the blow-drying brush back to the online store. Emilie’s name isn’t Emilie, by the way. She wants to be anonymous for fear that Moderneliv will send her a new invoice. After waiting to get her money back for about a month, Emilie chose to write a negative review about the online store on Trustpilot, a website where consumers share their experiences with various businesses. – I was annoyed and frustrated, and wanted to warn others that they could be defrauded by the online store. It did not take long before Moderneliv responded to the criticism. The company thought the mention was completely unreasonable, and put the payment on hold. news has looked at the e-mail correspondence between Emilie and Moderneliv.no, and has reproduced the content of the e-mails. When she read the email, Emilie was shocked and distraught. – NOK 2,500 is a lot of money as I am a student. Nora Wennberg Gløersen, consumer lawyer at the Consumer Council says that the consumer is entitled to a refund of the purchase price if she returned the product correctly. – The shop cannot set unreasonable conditions for payment. – Consumers must be able to share both positive and negative experiences on websites such as Trustpilot without this affecting their rights under the purchase agreement and consumer legislation, says Gløersen. Moderneliv wanted Emilie to delete the negative review, which she agreed to. She replied that she would not post another review if she got her money back. The next day the money came into the account. Even though she got her money back, she decided to write another review anyway. – I thought I had finished my contact with Modern Life and still wanted to warn others. After publishing a new and longer review in which she wrote that they refused to give her the money because of the first review, Emilie was sent another email from the company. “Hello Emilie, your order is being prepared for shipping. We will notify you as soon as it is sent.” It looked like Moderneliv had placed a new order on behalf of Emilie without her permission. In the e-mail, Modern Life claimed that they can demand that Emilie pay for the product anyway, as she has published a new review even though she wrote that she was not going to do so. “The invoice is being sent due to breach of agreement. An agreement was offered to you in which you as a person were not to have any public comments about the store Moderneliv.no”. – I felt very helpless, and tired of the whole online store, says Emilie. Modern life agreed to cancel the invoice if Emilie deletes the last review, and does not post a new one. Once again, Emilie met the online store’s requirements. – I am very relieved, but disappointed that I had to remove the review to get my money back, and to release a new invoice. But Moderneliv had no right to send this invoice to Emilie. – Stores cannot order goods in the customer’s name, without their consent, says Gløersen from the Consumer Council. Gløersen specifies that the Consumer Council cannot comment on individual cases. – But based on what we have been informed, the store’s procedure appears to be completely unreasonable and frivolous. news has been in contact with several of Moderneliv’s customers who have also encountered problems when they have returned products to the online store: In an e-mail to news, someone who introduces himself as general manager, Martin in Moderneliv, writes that he does not know why Emilie was asked to remove the first mention. – Nevertheless, we see that this customer has not experienced a decent return and we take criticism for this. The customer shall not be refused a refund due to a trustpilot review. Furthermore, Martin writes that Emilie never received an order for a new item, but that the confirmation she received was a confirmation of the return product that would be sent back to her. – The customer wrote that she should delete the review and not post a new review about Modern Life on Trustpilot afterwards. The customer receives the refund amount and breaks the agreement, as she herself suggested. This is also the reason why she received an invoice for the refund amount. Martin also writes that it has taken longer to get a refund for returned goods due to illness in the warehouse. – But we work continuously to process all returns. We hope to complete this as quickly as possible. Read the full email from Modernlife: Email from Modernlife Hello, I am unable to see the first Trustpilot review that was written by the customer, nor can I see the basis on which they were asked to remove this review before a refund would be found place. Nevertheless, we see that this customer has not experienced a decent return and we take criticism for this. The customer shall not be refused a refund due to a trustpilot review. We have reviewed this with our customer advisor and are now creating new internal routines to prevent this from happening again. In the event of damage to the product, missing contents in the package or packages where the shipment has been returned incorrectly. All customers can of course share their experience with us on Trustpilot. What we are concerned about is that the review that is given is based on real events and not fabrications to put our company in a bad light. The customer wrote that she should delete the review and not post a new review about Modern Life on Trustpilot afterwards. The customer receives the refund amount and breaks the agreement, as she herself suggested. This is also the reason why she received an invoice for the refund amount. The customer has never received a new order or product. The customer would have the product returned and sent again due to a breach of the written agreement. The customer was sent the basis for the invoice by e-mail (see attachment) Due to illness at our warehouse, we have had a longer processing time for returns than normal, but we work continuously to process all returns. We hope to complete this as quickly as possible. Martin, general manager. Hi! Do you have any tips for things I should look into? Feel free to contact me. Malin Nygård SolbergJournalists
ttn-69