Otto Marktplatz - Seller not refunding after return

[Heidi_DE 28]

At the beginning of August I ordered a new processor for 550 Euro from Otto Marketplace. My primary reason was because they offered it with credit.
Long story short, I decided to return it the day after making use of my 14 days Widerrufsrecht.
14 days after the package was delivered (I still have the receipt from the post office), I contacted Otto to find out what's going on. They send an email to the third party seller who just said, "we will have to check it out internally".
I heard nothing for 2 weeks and then I email Otto once more. They told me to be patient and reminded me that the contact was between me and the third party and not Otto.
At this time 1 month has passed since the package was received by the seller.I tried contacting the seller and included a screenshot of the tracking. They said they didn't know what I was talking about, so I send them a copy of the invoice that they send with the processor. Same response: "We need to look into it internally".
At this point, Otto has taken the first payment from my account and I have no idea what to do now.
Until the third party sends the money back to Otto, they will continue taking money from my account. The third party can just keep ignoring me until I've paid the 550 euros.

I was considering sending the company an email and saying that if they hadn't paid within 5 working days I will start the Mahnverfahren as outlined here (but I'm not that confident with doing that), or contacting a lawyer, but presumably they will just start the Mahnverfahren and charge me more money.

Any advice would be welcome
Heidi

[murphaph 9,843]

Have you got legal insurance? If so, some policies offer free of charge "mediation" but this is actually handled by a lawyer who essentially writes a letter to the other party, which often spooks otherwise unresponsive firms/individualy into action. We had a dispute with IKEA over a custom cut worktop that they messed up even though we used their measuring service. They claimed we had signed off on the dimensions so it was tough luck. Once we engaged our "mediator" IKEA immedately changed their position and not only corrected the mistake but refunded us the entire amount, so the worktop was free of charge, including delivery and even fitting (which I hadn't paid for as I installed the kitchen myself).

[Heidi_DE 28]

Hi Murphaph,
Unfortunately not :(

[snowingagain 5,441]

Does anyone here know about rescinding payment plan when you have not received or returned the goods? Can you bank help (ok hollow laugh but worth a try).

[snowingagain 5,441]

Does anyone here know about rescinding payment plan when you have not received or returned the goods? Can you bank help (ok hollow laugh but worth a try).

[emkay 10,318]

@ snowingagain. If you mean a different situation to the OP’s, a similar thing happened to me and my DE bank did cancel my payment plan.

@Heidi_DE. Have you asked your bank to recall your first payment? Worth a try? I think I was told there’s something like a 6-8 week maximum for payments to be recalled.

[Krieg 15,074]

Recalling bank payments in Germany normally makes the situation worse. As far as Otto knows the OP has a credit with them. The seller has to trigger the acceptance of the return so Otto knows about it and return the money.

[snowingagain 5,441]

Yes. For sure. But wondering if her bank can give her advice on what to do. Am hoping the third party seller is just being tardy. And can Otto respond. Have you tried Otto.de ?

[snowingagain 5,441]

Like their Twitter account.

[fraufruit 42,493]

She tried -

"14 days after the package was delivered (I still have the receipt from the post office), I contacted Otto to find out what's going on. They send an email to the third party seller who just said, "we will have to check it out internally".
I heard nothing for 2 weeks and then I email Otto once more. They told me to be patient and reminded me that the contact was between me and the third party and not Otto."

[snowingagain 5,441]

Yes, good points. But still tricky as Krieg explains.

[Heidi_DE 28]

So in the end I decided to ask for the item to be sent back to me. It seemed like the path of least resistance. I know that they are in the wrong, but suing, or starting a Mahnverfahren seemed full of risk. I considered cancelling the payments at the bank, but then Otto Payments would kick off and I could end up with a ruined credit rating. I could go to a lawyer, they could write a letter, the third party seller could ignore it, and I'm on the hook for lawyers costs on top of the original loss.

I received the item back the day after I sent the email. Looks like they never even opened the package. It is very clear after reading some of the reviews of that company that I was never going to get my money back. At least I have the option to sell it now.