I have a broken toy (Christmas present) that I wanted to return to Argos and I have never had so much trouble with a company to get it replaced.
It was a pair of Thomas the tank rollerskates that I purchased back in june (I'm one of them annoying people that like to be organised and buy throughout the year) the ankle strap has a screw missing which means they wont do up. I have lost the receipt (I think, I haven't really tried looking for it) but didn't think it would actually be a problem to return for a replacement without it because they are quite obviously broken and from Argos (distinctive catalogue labelling). They don't have them in stock, but would happily swap for something else.
sent my DH in last Monday (our nearest store is in the same town he works in and he didn't go back to work until then) to be told, they wont do anything without a receipt. He rang customer service from his office when he got back, who told him that as they still had the distinctive Argos labelling on the box that it was fine to take them back to the shop for an exchange, the person on the phone told him that she had rang the store on his behalf and spoken to the manager who said they would do it as a 'goodwill' gesture.
He then went back into the shop on Thursday (soonest he could get there) only to be told by the manager that no such phone call had been made and yet again refused to take them back without a receipt.
DH rang customer services again, who said they could not overrule the manager's decision, he told them that he had previously rang customer services and been told that it was fine to take them back without a receipt, but this phone call has mysteriously vanished from their system!!
DH rang me at home straight after letting me know that he couldn't take them back, so I contacted them through facebook to complain about being messed about, and asked them what I could do if I couldn't find my receipt, they asked if I paid by card (I didn't) but I told them I had the reservation e-mail, they said that would be fine as proof of purchase as they could use that to trace the transaction, they would contact the store for us to confirm and ring us back over the weekend....result!!
We had no phone call!!!
I phoned customer service this morning, used ref number and asked what was going on? was told she needed to speak to another dept and would get back to me within the hour......she didn't!!
I rang again this afternoon, gave ref number, explained that somebody was supposed to ring me back (TWICE) and asked what's going on? He put me on hold, phone started to ring again and was answered by someone in the store (wasn't even told I was being put through) so had to explain the situation yet again.....was told by them instore that the e-mail confirmation wasn't enough and they wont be able to trace the transaction, I explained how badly we had been messed around and that I wasn't happy and that I that I wanted to speak to the manager and she put the phone down on me!!!!
I immediately rang back, it rang for at least 5 minutes and was answered by someone else, I told them I wasn't happy that id just had the phone put down on me and wanted the name of the person who did it so that I could complain to the manager, I was told the manager was on lunch and to ring back later, I told her that I had spent enough of my time already and that he could ring ME back, said thank you, bye. and then she said sarcastically "im putting the phone down now, I'm not hanging up on you" I said that I didn't think she was and that our conversation had come to an end and that I was very rude of her to make that comment.
I am now awaiting my phone call back from the manager, I am fuming, I don't even care about the bloody skates anymore, but I am so bloody disgusted by the customer service. Im not being unreasonable am I??