Debenhams -absolutely appalling ‘customer service’!

[Chachacha2]

I am at a loss as to what to do now so would welcome any advice. I purchased two bottles of aftershave for for DS’s for Christmas from Debenhams online. They never arrived. After various emails from Evri, who said they could not locate them and that I had to go back to Debenhams for a refund. Well, trying to get hold of Debenhams has been a NIGHTMARE! There is no phone number. I have emailed multiple times and got nowhere apart from a bot email thanking me for getting in touch and someone will get back to me. No one has got back to me. I’ve tried msging via their instagram etc and nothing. I spent £160 and have nothing to show for it. Does anyone have any advice? I can’t believe a big company like Debenhams is treating customers like this!

Chargeback through your bank is the best way of dealing with this. Just send them all of the emails / copies of call logs / screen grab of the bot chat.

Same with some perfume. Took me six weeks to get a refund and will never buy from them again.

Debenhams is now just a shop front for Chinese tat stick with John Lewis.

I'm sure that there have been other threads about the shittyness of the customer service of Debenhams, Op. Might be worth trying to find them to see if people managed to get things resolved and how

That's terrible! I had similar issues with Debenhams taking forever to issue refunds (like 2/3 months!).

Go through this company called Resolver. It's completely free and just gives Debenhams a kick!

I realised that after I ordered and read the reviews. Painful 12 day wait on delivery just before Christmas. But it was not tat it was genuine branded products, I wouldn’t use again, too stressful!

I think your issue is Evri. it's the shitty company, formerly know as Hermes.

There was a Panorama episode about them just before Christmas because they are so dodgy. My village features heavily because so many packages went missing that a villager set up a spread sheet! And a thief was up in court for it!

Evri is shocking, as the Panorama episode reveals. They do not pay drivers a living wage, never mind UK minimum. I pay extra for other carriers. The issue is still ongoing in my village. Currently I'm 1.5 for 3.

The key is to hit Debenhams so that they stop using Evri as a courrier. Round here, they're known as Nevri ... It's not the delivery bods,

I remember early 90's the customer service of Debenams was remarkable. My late great aunt returned a kettle and left her handbag on the side, the manager not only personally returned it to her home but also sanded and gave her front door 2 layers of gloss paint.
You will not find service like that today.

It's Debenhams in name only now. It's basically a scammer site.

Honestly I am so totally shocked and disgusted! They really do not give a single toss about customers. I will never never buy from them again. I just want my money back. If it was tenner I’d just put it down to a bad experience, but not £160!. I’ll look into revolver

Does anyone know how I can get in touch with an ombudsman or similar in order to resolve this issue? I can’t believe a big company like Debenhams can get away with this!

If you bought on a card speak to the bank.

Have you tried their Facebook page or twitter if that's your bag? They usually respond to public posts.

Why would you want to involve the ombudsman - if there is one - before you have even spoken to your bank or CC company?

Similar happened to me but I got money back through bank. Think it’s just a scam site now.

Can we keep this thread going please? I can't believe I didn't know how poor Debenhams customer service is now. I feel we need to spread the word before others buy from them.

I'm a month into waiting for a returns label. The only way to contact them is via FB. It's AI bot hell, and the people who respond after days are doing exactly the same as the people before them.

Don't buy from them.

Again, Debenhams is the name only. The real Debenhams is closed and has been for a long time.

The more people who know that the better.

I'm in shock at how appalling they are. The 'customer service ' is a joke. I'm going to go through Resolver.

Please use all beauty for this kind of thing - I’ve ordered countless amounts of stuff and never had an issue including a missing parcel -I ended up with both a refund AND the stuff!

My last refund from them took over 3 months.
I kept getting stuck in a hellish circle of online chats with their bot.
I eventually got through on Facebook Messenger. I had to send the same information over and over. Finally received an email, which after more back and forth, resulted in my refund.
Absolute nightmare and took hours and hours of time.
Have you thought about contacting a consumers rights organisation?

My boyfriend had to send well over 50 messages. He eventually used ChatGPT to get a phone number. They are horrendous

Debenhams is now owned by the Boohoo Group, who also own several other brands such as Dorothy Perkins, PLT, Wallis, and Burton.
I know this because just before Christmas I bought some items from Boohoo for the first time for one of my teenagers. It was a complete nightmare: the items arrived damaged and the quality was awful, so I requested a refund. It took weeks of dealing with AI and WhatsApp messages that largely ignored me. They repeatedly claimed they had refunded me when they hadn’t, and then tried to issue only a partial refund. In the end, I had to go to my bank and request a chargeback.
I had a similar problem when I ordered from Debenhams, but that time I used PayPal, and as there was no way I was going through all that again and it was much easier and quicker to get my refund.

Something needs to be done about the growing use of AI customer service by online retailers. They make it extremely difficult to resolve problems when issues arise, especially when there is no clear way to speak to a real person. Because of this, I now refuse to order from any company that uses WhatsApp or AI bots as their main customer service channel, and I avoid anywhere owned by Boohoo altogether.

By way of an update. I have FINALLY received a refund via my bank. No word at all from Debenhams. Absolute bastards. Six weeks and nothing. I will be purchasing the aftershave’s again from a more reputable company in person. I will NEVER use Debenhams' or any associated company ever again and I wound advise everyone to do the same!

I wish I'd read this thread before. I recently ordered from Oasis not realising it has changed ownership. Four items. Three have turned up fine from Evri. The forth is no where to be seen. It is not being delivered by Evri.

Looks like I have some fun to look forward too.

Did you try tweeting them? That generally gets me a response from companies