AIBU to ask a charity shop to refund a fake designer jumper?

I have volunteered in a charity shop and know someone who is a manager. Their shop will refund clothes within 28 days as long as there is a receipt and the shops price tag is still attached (think this is more to do with GiftAid as it has an individual barcode) and in condition it was sold in. Similar to a normal shop. There doesn’t have to be anything wrong with it. Maybe check if they have an website to see what returns policy is?. Sometimes the volunteers do not always know everything and mistakes are made. It happens, and it’s one of those things so maybe they said wrong thing to your daughter. Also, under no circumstances are they allowed to sell Counterfeit goods. Not even if it was for £1. I’m sure it will be sorted out. Just speak to the Manager.

I know, that's my point, why the PP is bringing that up I don't know

Thank you so much for correcting me on something that has nothing to do with the thread, I hope you are very proud of yourself. You are in fact superior to me on all levels.

The staff probably didn’t know but I would have thought they’d have to accept refunds irrespective of reason? Definitely go back.

Charity shops are v savy about designer labels. I thrift a lot and it's very rare to find a piece that is designer that they have missed. So I guess they identified it as designer but didn't do the next stage which would be to make sure it was genuine. Selling fakes isn't legal so as everyone else has said go back and point that out. They should refund and then they will have to chalk it up to experience, not your daughter.

I have a good compromise.

No raking of anyone over any coals.

Shop refund the item in line with their legal obligation to.

No unpleasantness required.

that is a lesson learnt
you have to chose your words carefully when asking for a refund at a charity shop
and ask in advance if they do refunds

Their refund policy is irrelevant. They sold a counterfeit item so they are legally required to refund.

My local charity shop does refund as long as you have the receipt. No questions asked.

The point is shops aren't allowed to sell fakes. Afaik. Therefore they should refund with an apology.

Maybe that’s what you want in a North Face jumper. Maybe OP wants something different from hers. Neither of you should have to accept being sold something that isn’t what it was advertised as.

If you’d booked the Marriott but it turns out to be a different, worse, hotel, is it relevant that there’s still a bed in the room? No. It’s not what you booked.

About 2y ago i got dd a north face jacket from charity shop maybe about 5-8£ didnt occur to me it maybe face but after a few weeks/months i did notice, the letters had. come off. It does have a north face label stitched in.

The high price was probably a genuine mistake - the person who priced it believed it was the real thing. But your daughter is definitely entitled to a refund. The receipt should have the charity's refund policy printed on it, and the shop should follow that.

But it's good that you now know, assuming that it wasn't a typo, if I was using a word wrongly I'd want someone to tell me rather than have people silently cringe when I used it. Wouldnt you?

They are completely incorrect saying they only refund faulty goods. A consumer has statutory rights and those apply to a charity shop as much as any other shop. They cannot just ignore statutory rights. However I expect the volunteer didn't have a clue, so best to raise it with the manager of the shop. No need to kick off, you can just politely ask to speak with or email the manager and tell them what's happened and that your daughter has been sold fake designer clothes. They do need to sort this out. Ignore all the posters saying charities are exempt from the law. Charities are actually held to extremely high standards under the law, much more stringent than other organisations.

so how can charity shops refuse refunds, and i know plenty that do?

I'm sure the charity shop weren't aware the jumper is fake. They sold it as 'brand new with tags', and priced it accordingly. Yes, with a little research, it can be obvious an item is fake, but it might be they didn't do any research or don't know enough to know if it's real or a fake. Some fakes can be good ones, that aren't as easy to spot.

The shop regardless if a charity one or not isn't allowed by law to sell counterfeit items. They may have sold it unwittingly, but now they are aware, then yes, they should refund the item. If they refund the OP's daughter, then they're £40 out of pocket and might as well destroy the item, because they won't be able to sell it. They lose out completely, so it's not surprising they don't want to issue a refund.

They are using the fact your daughter is young OP, to not apply the law. Hoping she'll just accept what she's been told. You need to go back with her OP, and speak with someone. If they won't back down, then you need to contact head office and possibly Trading Standards.

So OPs daughter should just take the hit then? I don’t think so. The charity should take the hit because it was a donation anyway so they will break even if they refund OPS daughter, who is currently out of pocket with an item not worth £40.

Charity shops are governed by the same law as everyone else. The law says you are entitled to a refund if :

Something is not of satisfactory quality - you wear a jacket and the arm falls off the first time you put it on

It is not fit for purpose - you buy a candle which won't light

It is not as described - this would cover the jumper, even setting aside the fact it's illegal to sell fakes.

Shops - any shops - do not legally have to refund you because you didn't try something on and decide when you get home it doesn't fit, or you change your mind for any other reason. Many do as a customer service measure, but they don't HAVE to, and don't have to offer alternative goods, or a credit note. Many charity shops will happily refund as long as you have the receipt and the original charity shop tag still on the item. The two chains I volunteered for (Save the Children and Oxfam) would happily refund and I would not batt an eyelid at someone asking to do so.

Lots of chancers around though and this is why you will often see things like "red Fat Face dress" or "M&S shirt size 12" written on charity shop labels, we would get people coming in, buying a jacket or dress for £10, then "deciding it didn't fit and oops the tag came off!" and trying to return a scabby old item which was only fit for the bin and which we would never have put a tenner on in a million years.

They don’t lose out, though. They were donated the item for nothing, so they don’t lose anything if they refund her. They were never allowed to have sold it at all.

People do realise you can’t just report directly to trading standards? You have to go to citizens advice, who then decide if they want to pass it on, who then pass it on to TS and more likely than not they never get back to the customer so you never hear of the outcome. We had a strict criteria of what we did and didn’t send over, and what the customer had to do first before we passed the report on.

I used to work for CA and I hated it because people would chase and chase and we couldn’t give out details for TS and we never got any update on if they looked into things.

It is worth contacting CA on this though, they will reiterate what everyone else has said, you are entitled to a refund. They aren’t allowed to sell fake goods, charity shop or not. If they refuse they will also send over draft letters to help you ask for a refund, reiterating your rights. They will obviously also look into sending it over to TS too.

Your DD purchased goods being marketed by the shop as being designer, turns out they weren't as described, which by law they aren't allowed to do therefore I'd say she should be entitled to a refund.

Not sure why people say the volunteers wouldn't know as if this is an excuse.
Usually there is a manager in a paid position. If the volunteers aren't sure about whether they can give the refund then they need to call the manager over. If they don't work every day then they need to either take the OPs details and get the manager to call or to say to the OP what days the manager is in.

Not all shops have a paid manager. The Save the Children shop I volunteered in was 100% volunteers, we had a regional manager based about 200 miles away who was contactable by phone in an absolute dire emergency only. We did check things out with each other though if we were unsure.

@Morethanadecade

I was making the point that the shop very likely did not set out to mislead customers when they originally had the item on sale.

I agree that she is entitled to a refund.