Consumer Rights dispute - faulty dress. Company trying to force me to pay for return?

Hello,

I am having an issue with a company from whom I have bought a dress which arrived on 14th April, faulty. It is stained, and has a loose stitching issue. I flagged this to customer services on the same day I received it and sought an exchange. I have sent them clear photographs and a video of both faults. They have accepted the stain. Repeated requests for photos etc went on for days.

Yesterday, they offered to pay an amount towards a tailor for repair of the stitching problem, I refused this, because that will not remedy the stain issue.

I asked again for a straight exchange for a nonfaulty dress. They’ve now said they will do this, but only if I return the goods at my own cost so that they can inspect the item. Only “if it turns out to have a manufacturing fault” will they refund my reasonable costs of returning the item.

I have refused this, and referred to relevant parts of the consumer rights act. As I understand it, inspection is a matter for them and they may possibly do this before issuing a full refund etc, but regardless as to the inspection, they should cover the return postage either way as it already falls within the definition of a faulty good, and the burden is on them to prove it was not faulty on arrival since I have flagged it immediately.

It is not even just a “potentially” faulty good at this point. Clearly, given they accepted in writing that it arrived stained and have apologised for the condition of the dress I received, they have plainly accepted it is faulty and not of satisfactory quality. To me, this means the faulty goods provisions in the CRA should clearly apply - including those about responsibility for return.

I asked to be put through to their complaints department, but it seems they do not have one. I have indicated I believe their returns policy is likely unlawful.

By way of goodwill, I offered to return the goods immediately if they either - sent a pre-paid label, or even just guaranteed they would actually reimburse me if I fronted the cost of return, or, I also said I would make the goods available to them to collect from my home address (where I received them) if they would prefer this. They absolutely refuse to guarantee they’ll cover the postage and ignored all my other suggestions.

We are now at an impasse. I appreciate it is only about £15 I’d be really risking for the postage, but on my reading of the legislation I just do not think it is correct for them to make reimbursement for return subject to some sort of arbitrary inspection, which may rule against me. Especially given they have already accepted at least one fault which is proven to the civil standard via the photographs.

I am also reluctant to risk my money because it is a £180 dress so really ought to be up to par, I already paid to ship it to me in the first place, it is not my fault that it’s damaged, and I am also just majorly peeved that about the terrible customer service and the way they have treated me throughout.

I am likely to go to citizens advice and thereby report this to trading standards on Monday, but could anyone here please give a view as to whether I am properly within rights to refuse to risk my own money on the return here? I could likely seek a chargeback from my credit card for the refund of the cost of the item itself, but then don’t know what to do with the dress. I won’t pay for it to go back myself unless I must, and they won’t collect it!! Is it literally just a case of “ok see you in court then” over something as silly as postage? I can’t believe a reasonably large company would genuinely choose this hill to die on.

I am a UK lawyer, but not in this area, so whilst I read the statute carefully, I am conscious I may have misread it or be missing something else in case law or wider consumer law etc since it is not my expertise - so I’m just looking for a sanity check really before I double down on my position in the dispute.

Thanks all!