Am I a thief ?

[ohohohho]

So basically Monday I bought some leggings from Primark ,they were only £8.
I got them home and they were on the wrong hanger.
I thought they were a small turns out they were a L.
I went to return them and the receipt wasn't in the bag.
Went back in today and they wouldn't swap them without a receipt and basically said nothing they could do.
So I took my size in the changing rooms and when I came out handed on the L pair.
Both the same price etc
Does this make me a thief ?
My partner says I shouldn't of done it
I didn't do anything wrong did I ?

No because ultimately they didn't lose anything at all.

You just just made up for lacks in their system. They should have items on correct hangers and should have the facility to look up the receipt online. If the receipt had happened to be in the bag, they would've just swapped them.

Did you have the receipt at all? If yes I would have found it and done things properly.

If no and they refuse to exchange/refund without one, you could have purchased another pair in the correct size and used the second receipt to swap the first pair, giving you two of the correct size if that makes sense. Or refund the original pair for being the wrong size.

You're not technically a thief because you'd paid for them, you just swapped for the correct size. Also they're unlikely to even notice. Some other customer might pick up the same ones though and have the exact same issue as you.

If you were a thief you wouldn't make much of a living out of it would you 😂 Your partner is being weird, don't give it another thought.

Not really no. I guess it shows you how easy it could be to steal stuff. But you bought leggings, you left with leggings, they have another pair of leggings. It's quite clever really. Lol.
Who keeps receipts for under £10 of shopping? They usually try and make you give your email for a receipt now anyway.

Sounds fair enough to me, as long as you haven’t worn the first pair beyond trying them on. I can’t stand dishonesty, but your action just seems sensible to me.

Well I don’t think you’re a thief, but I do think it was a silly thing to do.

If a sales assistant had heard you trying to get a refund, then seen you handing back a different size to the one you took in with you, you’d been stopped by security & you’d have had to convince them that you weren’t a thief. And even if they accepted it after talking to you, I’m not sure it would have been worth the embarrassment of everyone staring and some random nosy arse taking your photo to put on your town’s local FB page with a caption of ‘saw this woman trying to steal an £8 pair of leggings today’.

I think that’s ingenious. Not thievery.

I wouldn't give this another thought. It was their error and they could have shown a bit of goodwill after seeing it was on the wrong hanger (assuming you brought the hanger back too?), and just done the exchange.

It was sneaky (and bloody smart), but no, it doesn't make you a thief. You might want to explain the definition of theft to your DP: the dishonest appropriation of another person's property with the intent to permanently deprive them of it.

You didn't deprive Primark of anything - you simply ended up with the goods you thought you'd paid for in the first place!

Considering it’s Primark I wouldn’t have thought twice about it.

Well, if you are a thief, you are crap at it.

I wouldn't say you are, as they were both the same amount and you did pay originally.

Bloody quick thinking on your part!!! 😁

Well I wouldn't have. But provided they were clean, unworn with tags on and 100% in saleable condition then I don't think it really matters.

They would have been classed as faulty goods. Being of the wrong size to the hanger they were not fit for purpose.
You don't need a receipt in that case. Showing the purchase on your bank statement would suffice.

No you're not a thief.

If it were me and they refused to change them, I would have kept the leggings for future masks for bank raids. (The larger size is actually a requirement for me because of my bigger than average head.)

I would then have lobbed a pair of socks or anything that was on the counter across the shop and while the shop assistant went to retrieve them, I would have grabbed the till and scarpered.

But then that's probably just me.

Bit risky as you couldn't prove you had bought any in the first place so you could have been caught shoplifting the ones you actually bought!
Don't think it makes you a thief though

Oh gosh, I have done exactly the same myself! It feels wrong but then logically it is not stealing . .

That's quite ingenious lol 😝