I bought a curtain pole from The Range online. When it arrived it wasn't as good as it looked on the website so I decided to return it.
Took it to my nearest store, very bored looking young woman ignored me waiting at the till and shouted over my head to her passing supervisor to ask when she could take her "fifteen" as she needed to vape.
She then ignores me again when I speak to her and profer my receipt and the item.
I am disabled so use a mobility aid and I had my support worker with me and the assistant focused entirely on my support worker instead of me so I interrupted and said actually I am the customer.
Then after looking at my receipt she says she doesn't know how to refund online orders.
She goes off to ask someone else and then tells me that because the item is supplied by one of their "market place" sellers returns are not accepted in any store.
She says to go home and speak to a bot via live chat to arrange for a courier to collect it.
So I do this the next day.
The live chat tells me it will take 72 hours to get a response from the market place seller and says I need to upload a photo of the item which must be in the original packaging.
I explain that the item arrived in a brown cardboard posting box and there is no internal packaging.
I ask if they really just want a photo of a box which won't show if there is even anything in it or do they want me to unpack it again and just send a photo of the pole.
Bot or human cannot answer this question and ends the chat.
I am then asked for feedback on my experience so click on negative.
This then starts exactly the same chat process with identical questions so I give up and hope to be contacted within the promised 72 hours.
A week goes by and I hear nothing so I search and search for a telephone number to try and speak to a real person but this does not appear to be an option.
The best I can find is whatsapp so I try that.
After two exasperating hours today I am now up to the sixth different person replying to me on whatsapp.
It doesn't seem like there are any actual people to talk to at The Range customer service.
Nobody (or no bot) can tell me what they want a photo of.
They keep returning to the beginning each time as if I haven't already explained the situation and given them all details and order number etc.
They end each "conversation" by telling me that I must now continue on live chat if I don't give them my details, order number etc. All of which I give again and again each time. I have every possible photo they might want just in case one way or another is wrong and sent those too.
None of this gets me anywhere.
I have now given up and am lying down with a glass of wine.
It seems I will never be able to get rid of this sodding curtain pole.
No wonder The Range has a Trustpilot score of 1.9.
Can anyone beat this shite service?