To tell them to stuff their £10!!!

[ICanSeeTheSeaFromHere]

I bought 'hi float' helium balloons for DS's birthday last month... I arrived to collect them and they were not yet inflated, the girl made them up and I followed the instructions she gave me. I left the shop at 4.30pm. The next morning they were on the floor .

I sent the following complaint to the company before 8.45am the following morning:


Dear Sir/Madam,
Considering your slogan is 'Quality comes as standard', I am only further annoyed that the 'hi float' helium balloons I purchased from your shop late yesterday afternoon have not even lasted until morning. According to Hi Floats website it should last up to 25 times longer.... not in this case. This has wasted a birthday surprise.
Unless you can convince me otherwise I genuinely can't see a decent reason to either shop with you or recommend your services again, rather the opposite.
Regards
Mrs 'I can see'.

As no reply I returned to the shop and expressed my frustration. I was told as I had no receipt I had no chance of a refund or replacement. I was not given a receipt.

I finally got a reply on Wednesday (over 3 weeks later):

"There may have been a hundred reasons your balloons failed to stay afloat but I understand that you would blame the retailer first. We don't own Hi-Float but merely suggest you use it to enhance the longevity of the Balloon. After goods leave the store anything could have happened to perhaps you Pierced the balloon allowing it to slowly deflate.
Quality does come as standard at XXX - all goods purchased are of the best quality, I can confirm however that if there had been a Legitimate fault with one of our products we would have been happy to have credited you the cost or exchanged the damaged item should you have
returned to one of our stores in XXX where we have two stores with one open to 7pm 5 days a week. You failed to do this."

I responded:
I was not given a receipt and you have taken over three weeks to contact me with a passive aggressive response. My opinion of your company is now lower than ever.

Their response:
Retailers are trying to do there best to survive on the high street. and as an local based company we try harder than others to please. we are not manufacturers of product but merely a middle man passing goods from supplier to consumer. if there had been a fault with your product then why didn't you return it??? I am sure if you had purchased a sweater from M&S and there had been a problem you would have taken it back? why not a Balloon? we understand your disappointment but its not XXX's fault your helium Balloon deflated after you left our store. we don't sell deflatable balloons you know. I am sincerely sorry that you feel the way you do and I guess as a customer we just couldn't satisfy you. I do hope the next retailer you visit does a better job for you.

I responded:
I did return to the shop and I was told my lack of receipt meant they could do nothing. Sadly there are many more XXX based companies who offer better service and quality. I shall continue to give them my custom.

Their response:
"Once Again I am sorry this has happened however it is company policy that receipts need to be shown to receive a refund or credit as is the policy with most retailers. however since you have came on to us and had a good old rant that as company MD i apreciate in order to improve our service. can i ask you please print this reply and present it to the store manager who will as a gesture of good will whether you shop with us again or not supply you with £10 worth of free cards.
Please accept my sincere apologies
On behalf of XXX
FAO
Store Manager -please attach this to paperwork and send to NC at head office."


So WIBU to tell them to shove it?!?!?!

[AndHarry]

I had a helium balloon given to me in hospital that we popped finally deflated earlier this year, 18 months after my admission. Get yourself to the Royal Free gift shop next time :o

Oh and YABU to buy helium balloons. Hypocrite much given the above. Helium is fast running out and is a critical consumable in such trifles as CT scanners...

[OnTheBottomWithAWomensWeekly]

They were about as reasonable and measured to you as you were to them.

[Cheddars]

Completely off topic but...

Helium is running out?????

Who knew

[AndHarry]

The Independent on the helium shortage. From what I remember from reading about it a while ago, helium can't be manufactured.

[QuintessentialOldDear]

Helium is vital in medicine, it is in short supply, and people on this planet use it in balloons to surprise little children with.

And if the dratted balloons dont stay up, people behave like it is the end of the world.

Which in fact it will be, if we continue wasting Helium on kids birthday parties.

We are all doomed.

OP, I congratulation you on being Ignorant, Bitchy and Tenacious. I suspect, also bored and with nothing of importance to put your mind to.

[WeAreEternal]

Name and shame please.

I bought few foil helium balloons from a local Birthdays shop and they all deflated within a few hours, I took them back to the shop the next morning and the woman was very apologetic and gave me replacements straight away.
It turned out that she had forgotten to tape down the 'seal' which they usually do.
The replacement balloons lasted weeks, DS was very impressed.

[ICanSeeTheSeaFromHere]

Quintessentialolddear 'OP, I congratulation you on being Ignorant, Bitchy and Tenacious. I suspect, also bored and with nothing of importance to put your mind to.' :- you are a delight .

[ICanSeeTheSeaFromHere]

I will happily PM anyone the company name.

[mycatlikestwiglets]

I think part of the problem OP is that you didn't say in your original email (or any of the others it seems) that you wanted a refund - you just had a rant. You don't need a receipt for a refund on faulty goods so that's what you should have focused on. Their correspondence was pretty poor though I agree!

[JenaiMorris]

Quint's right. Your approach hasn't helped matters at all. And the helium thing.

[WafflyVersatile]

Yes anyone who didn't know there was an issue with helium supplies is a bitch.


Definitely their fault for buying something readily available in the high street. Not the fault of govts for not regulating its sale, or actively selling it at rock bottom prices. Our the gas companies for not collecting it. Yes.

[WhatAFunnyPotato]

"...since you have come on to us and had a gold old rant..."

Name and shame - seriously, an appalling attitude like that deserves to be outed, and publicly too.

Doesn't matter that the OP's original note to them was...strongly worded. The company should have tried to be as helpful and apologetic as possible. Not sure where the law stands but it sold you faulty goods and it's up to them - not you - to take up the issue with the manufacturer.

[WhatAFunnyPotato]

good oops

[BonaDrag]

Your complaint letter was the wrong tone. But the shop sucks.

[JumpingJackSprat]

I thought their reply was quite funny. you need to lear. how to word a complaint better ie set out the problem and what you want them to do about it. storm in a teacup.

[MortifiedAdams]

I would have written about disappointment in the product and maybe their supplier has sent a faulty item and as I would now need to replace the items, could they refund me the cost of the faulty baloons please?"

You get better results with the carrot tgan the stick.

[SoupDragon]

TBH, your original letter and subsequent responses were bad.

And I agree with others that people shouldn't be using helium in balloons anyway. I pointed this out to DDs school and they didn't do their usual balloon race at sports day - whether through what I said or just because they decided not to, I don't know.

Helium balloons have now become standard. They used to be just a rare surprise. No wonder helium s now running out.

[500internalerror]

Your email was ranty and offensive in the first instance; would it have hurt to be polite? Ignoring the ethics of wasting precious resources, and hiw cross you were, if you wanted to resolve it you could simply have been polite. Manners get you far further!

[DearPrudence]

Your original email is like a case study in 'how not to complain'. The shop should have replaced or refunded, but you'll get nowhere if you carry on like that.

[Choccywoccydodah]

I think they were extremely rude!! Yes you did not have a receipt, but surely that was an error on their part.
I would suggest getting cheapo balloons from card factory next time. My ds was 2 11 days ago, I bought his balloon 13 days ago and it's still here floating in our lounge, all for a grand total of £2.39

[Misspixietrix]

You Only need a Receipt for Refund. You don't need one if You are Only wishing to exchange. Also as someone Else posted out You don't actually need a refund for faulty goods neither. Look up the Sale of Goods Act. I'm thinking specifically along the lines of Fit for purpose. The Shop was wrong they Should have at least replaced the faulty ones. I would have told you to take the £10 but given the attitiude I would take it Further. Did You e-mail the Head Office originally? If not I would copy All these e-mails and send them on ~

[Montybojangles]

Do they have a fb page or twitter feed? Post in detail just how crap their balloons were, AND how negative their customer services are. Bet their tone changes when they think potential customers are reading negative stuff about them.

[Floatsyourboat]

You do know you can buy canisters of helium online and make your own balloons! For £30 I filled a living room with balloons for my daughters birthday and the buggers stayed up for weeks! My kids were giving them away in the end.
Obviously if I had known about the helium shortage I would not have bothered although I do still have loads of helium left in the canister...ICE? Not that I would know how to use it lol