Greetings, recently I had an odd issue with an order return to RS Components UK which developed into an interesting situation.
Here is what happened. Last week I placed an order on RS and ordered 2 butane dusters and 2 1L bottles of IPA. Immediately after I paced the order however I realised that instead of 2 bottles of IPA I ordered 2 bottles of Acetone instead. The bottles on the RS website look identical and I do realise that this was my mistake. So I phoned up RS literally 2 minutes after I placed the order to cancel it (they don't offer a cancellation option on their website). So the support canceled my entire order including the butane dusters and told me to re-order the whole thing. Ok, good so far, I received a confirmation email that the previous order was canceled and proceeded to re-order the items.
The next day... Both the canceled order and the newly made order arrive to my house and I am charged for both...
So I phoned up RS support again to ask what is going on and they told me that somebody had re-initialised the canceled order in their warehouse. And what they offered as the only solution to the issue is to use their return procedure to return the wrongly delivered items.(And pay for the shipping myself considering that this is their fault in my opinion and also they confirmed via email that the previous order was canceled).
I decided to keep the extra 2 butane dusters from the second order and to return only the Acetone. And here is where the major issue began. In the UK Acetone is considered a Hazardous Chemical UN1090; UN1950 and individuals are not allowed to ship it in any of the UK couriers. This was disclosed by FedEx for my reference. Only companies are allowed to use certain couriers to ship chemicals like these because they pay a certain type of Hazardous Materials insurance and know how to label the items correctly for transport. I have had some hazardous materials training in the past but I am still an individual and therefore not allowed.
Here is the Royal Mail guideline on restricted items where Acetone is specifically noted:
https://www.royalmail.com/sites/default/files/royal-mail-prohibited-and-restricted-items-nov-23-2018---23410530_updated%20April%2019.pdfI tried Royal Mail, DHL, ParcelForce, UPS, TNT, DPD, Hermes, FedEx and they all declined, and like I mentioned above, FedEx explained the issue to me. I contacted the RS support once again multiple times and to be honest they did not offer any useful advice on the matter.
I then realised that there was a RS depot close to my place and London and I decided to drive there and deliver the Acetone myself. I explained the issue to the worker there and he told me that they know about this issue but don't address it for some reason.
Also on their website "chemicals" are not listed as a product that can not be returned:
https://uk.rs-online.com/web/generalDisplay.html?id=support/cant-be-returnedSo what can be done in this case and has anyone encountered a similar situation like this? Basically it turns out if I didn't live close to the depot I would have been forced to keep the Acetone.