to be surprised at the response from M&S

[Lambzig]

I bought a small stuffed toy costing £5 for my 8 month old daughter in M&S on Sunday. It only went from the M&S bag to our lounge. She was playing with it at home when I picked it up and felt something a little sharp at one of the seams. My DH dug around the fur and pulled out, with some difficulty a 13mm piece of crimped wire. Now there is nothing like that in our house and it wasnt part of the packaging label I had taken off and thrown away. Obviously we stopped her playing with it immediately.

I emailed M&S via their website telling them the product code and where I bought the toy on Sunday night and have had no response at all.

To make things worse, I also took it back to the store on Monday to customer services to get a refund. I had a receipt but was refused a refund and they told me that any wire must have got into it elsewhere as it couldnt have happened from them. It felt like I was being accused of making it up.

It hasnt gone in the bin yet as I am hoping that their website will still get back to me. I have since found another small bit.

Now maybe they get people making stuff up and trying to get refunds all the time. But am I unreasonable to be annoyed to be a £5 out of pocket and to think that M&S might just investigate this before they sell a load more to parents.

Go to Trading Standards, they will investigate similar toys to see if a recall is needed to protect other babies.

I had similar with a kid's painted wooden table and chairs, think it was from Vertbaudet. DD as a toddler would rock on the chair a bit (her fault I admit) but the legs started snapping out quite easily. The legs were sill in one bit but there was a large pointy screw sticking out the top and it was this that was snapping out the base. I didn't even want a refund or replacement I just wanted to tell them about it. DH fixed it all with loads of superglue but in its initial state it wasn't safe. They were very rude to me on the phone and insisted I parcel the whole thing up and post it back to them at my expense. I pointed out I wanted to keep it, not send it back and got "well how are we supposed to believe you if we can't see it". Wankers.

VivaLeBeaver, thats awful - I hate that their default stance seems to be that you are lying.

Trading standards is a really good suggestion thanks - I hadnt thought of that and have been really frustrated that they are still selling them from that batch without checking.

I'm surprised as they are usually good about refunding things. Do hate that there is always a massive queue at the refund desk while the pay desks are always well manned in order to make it really easy to part with your money.

So annoying to have shops add insult to injury by implying you're a liar. DH bought me a delicate silver pendant as a Valentine's Day present once, but when I unwrapped the gift I saw the chain had broken. Decided to take it back to the jeweller's myself as DH was working. Huge arguments with staff in shop with repeated pointed glances at DS1 in his pushchair, clearly implying I'd worn the item and my toddler had pulled it off me. Refused to leave the shop until they replaced it, which they eventually did, but I was so upset by the whole row I could never wear the bloody thing without being reminded of it. I'm such a sensitive flower.

Not suprised at Vertbaudet, we have had such poor customer service from them that we abandoned them years ago!

M&S I would expect better from, so I am marking my place here to see if they buck their ideas up. Have been hearing quite a few negative things recently about them.

I'm surprised too - I've always thought M&S refunded at the drop of a hat and without question. Good luck - clearly they should refund you.

I bought my son some toddler jelly sandals from M+S that cut my his foot the first time he wore them. No receipt in my case either.

I posted them back to M+S head office FAO Customer Svcs, with a stinky letter. I had a phone call from their head office, massively apologetic, asking after my son, refunded the amount AND sent me a £25 gift card. This was in the summer. Skip the stores and send it to their head office. Maybe add a para on the treatment you received in their stores?

M&S has really gone downhill in the last few years IMO. Both in terms of customer service and quality of products. They're not the company they once were at all.

We had one of their 'Eat in for a tenner' things a few months ago - it was horrid. I wrote a letter of complaint and have never heard a thing.

I think they got jumpy about the potential injury risk to a young child from one of their products, hence their speedy response and £25 gift card.

Their Chief Exec 'Sir' Stuart Rose hasn't got time to keep the standards up as he's always on the news bigging up the coalition. Ever since they moved their production to Asia, the quality has gone down. My mother always used to swear by their bra's, not anymore.

I'm surprised as I always have had a good experiences at M&S from customer services.

eg bought DD boxer shorts, and they were totally indecent when she was sitting down wearing a skirt and I took them back, no receipt, 2 pairs worn but washed and they gave me full refund.

Write to head office, tell them what happened and about the terrible response instore.

And if you haven't heard from them in 2 weeks then start calling.....

That is appalling customer service OP, I would be fuming, how dare they imply you're lying

I agree with previous poster, either go to Trading Standards or go straight to HO, whether by writing or ringing.

M&S are vile. I don't know why anyone buys anything from them.

A colleague bought a bag of cheese puffs from M&S and started eating, complaining they 'tasted odd'. She stopped after about a third of the packet (she was a greedy little thin, bless her), and we could all see that a mouse had clearly bitten through the bottom of the packet at some point and eaten some of the puffs. Mice widdle pretty much constantly so that was the odd taste...

M&S refused to refund saying that as she had eaten so many there was obviously nothing wrong with them, and that the mouse holes in the packet must have been caused by her. In fact they were quite angry with her saying that there was NO way they had mice in their store. It was extremely disappointing of them.

Go to head office and GIVE THEM WHAT FOR!

I´m also surprised.

They´ve changed, haven´t they?

I took a pair of jeans back after I´d worn them a couple of times as they´d "bobbled" & I expected better quality.

Was given a refund.

The other day I bought a multipack of peppers in Sainsburys and when I put them on the conveyor belt I realised the packet was open at one end.

The cashier noticed and said "Oh!" - thinking she was going to offer to get a new pack I said "Don't worry, I'll just take them" at which point she narrowed her eyes suspiciously at me and said "they don't normally come in that mix of colours" - I think she thought I'd been secretly swapping reds for greens!

I once bought 2 packs of the M&S Count-on-Us chocolate mousse. So that's 8 individual portions.

They were on a BOGOF, and I bought them late in the evening.

When I got home I notice that they expired the next day.

I took them back to the shop, where they refused to refund me and said they were within their rights.

So I asked them was I expected to eat 8 (diet) chocolate mousses in one evening! . The supervisor said that I could have given some to a friend .

Useless customer service, and not entirely diet friendly.

Next time I was in the shop I bitterly checked the same shelf, and they were still on BOGOF and ALL of them were expiring the next day.

Way to get rid of your out of date stock M&S.

Not impressed.

I think writing to head office is a good idea so will do that as still havent heard anything three days later.

I did have a receipt and had clearly bought it less than 24 hours before, so I expected an automatic refund but I was wanting more for them to be concerned about safety. The thing is made in china, so they cant know 100% what has happened in their supply chain.

Have left a message with trading standards, but they havent got back to me yet.