Expecting to be refunded onto my credit card?

[TychosNose]

I know Ianbu but I want to rant.

Bought 5 jumpers online from a large department store chain. Total came to £150ish. I had an "evoucher" for £30, so I used that then put the remaining £120 on my credit card.

I knew I wouldn't keep all the jumpers, I don't usually buy 5 at once, I was just trying them on. You know how it is shopping online for clothes.

Anyway, I decided to keep two of the jumpers. Total came to £50. I returned 3jumpers expecting to be refunded £100 onto my credit card. The fuckers have refunded £70 onto my card and given me back the bloody evoucher.

That's not right is it? Arseholes!

That's chap OP. I work in retail and in our shop we'd have given you a refund to your card first and the remainder on a voucher (although in your case there is no remainder which I think makes it worse!)

As soon as I read your OP I knew it was HoF. They just did the same to me, but lost my (tracked) returned item and after 4 times of contacting them, reimbursed me - by evoucher. I paid by paypal for the entire amount of my order. I kicked up enough fuss and they cancelled the evoucher and refunded to paypal - eventually!

chap = crap

Thank youdiploddycus I didn't think what I was expecting was anything out of the ordinary.

I'm sorry they screwed you over too HelsBels well done getting your refund in the end.

Why did I know they were so shit?

Didn't I know

They are crap. I kicked up a stink on their facebook page, but they don't care.

House of Fraser customer services are shit. I won't shop with them again because they have some unreasonable policies.
It would only be a money laundering issue if you asked for the full amount to be refunded to credit card. This is their choice, so that your money is kept in vouchers and you are forced to shop with them again.

Buy some make up or household stuff on the voucher to use it up and then never buy anything from them again. That'll cost them a lot more than £30 in the long run.

I had this with debenhams a couple of years ago too. In store purchase of multiple sale items with gift card and their own store card. At the time using their store card meant you could return items reduced below half price for a refund to the card. Payment by any other method meant you'd only get a gift voucher if returning item. They wouldn't budge when I returned one item (less than the value of the gift card) and insisted on refunding only onto a gift card, despite my pointing out that I had used their own store card so I could return items for refund if necessary. Lesson learned - gift card only for items I'm definitely keeping and in a separate transaction.

How annoying. I would be pissed off too.

Distance selling regulations mean that you can return for change of mind 14 days from receipt.

I said that upthread Neddle.

I no longer shop at HOF because of their return policy. I ended up keeping a pair of boots that I only ordered to try because I didn't realise about the 14 day policy and I didn't want HOF vouchers. My own fault but it's a pain when most other retailers offer 28 days.

Seems I'm not the only one who is now boycotting house of Fraser.

Thanks for the story about Debenhams - I'll avoid them too.

I guess I'll stick to just John Lewis in future. Actually I've always had good service with asos too (can't always afford jl!)

This has reminded me to chase up on my return for a faulty item. HOF sent me a return label which I used on the package on Feb 5th. Haven't heard anything back from them so I chased. They told me that they can't do anything without proof of postage. I checked with Royal Mail who said that HOF will have a tracking no assigned to the package as it's part of the service with RM.

So they tell me they can't check without proof of postage, yet they have access to the tracking themselves.

Talk about obstructive and unhelpful.

I know they might have said this is what they do in the depth of the terms and conditions - but did they flag this up to you when you actually plugged in that you were using a voucher?

If not, you might be able to argue with them that they were deliberately hiding the relevant facts because t&c are always long winded, difficult to read documents that they must know people don't read because of the time taken to go through the form - even skimming most people would need several minutes to go through most t&c, that's assuming they were well laid out, with easy to read headings etc. if it's dense text then it would be more. And yet most people just tick the box and carry on filling in the form - there's no way that they will have had time to read the t&c. If they had had a little info button next to the evoucher bit or some additional text above or below that informed you of the fact then you'd have been able to make a reasonable decision up front about whether or not you wanted to continue with your order knowing that you could still end up out of pocket as you'd have your evoucher back if you returned anything.

This kind of thing in web design is called a dark pattern - where the website owners/designers have deliberately decided on this happening despite it not being in the customer's best interest. It's not a mistake - it's done on purpose for the benefit of the site. (lots more info here: darkpatterns.org/)

It might be worth pointing this out to them or shaming them on twitter to see if they would do the honourable thing in your case but it would be a last hope rather than a definite that they'd do it. It's just that big, supposedly reputable sites/companies, often don't like to be caught in the act of using dark patterns so it might be worth a shot...

Thank you zipzap I didn't know that. it's certainly worth a try. I'm not on Twitter but I think I will join up just to have crusade against house of Fraser.

Keep an eye on anyone you know buying from them. Let them use your voucher and give you cash.

I just read on money saving expert that house of Fraser has recently (last few days) been forced to change the wording on its returns policy because it's misleading with this whole 14 day return business.

Aah. Just been done by this too! I've never heard of any other retailers doing this. And they don't care! @tychosnose - did you get any further with this?
I will never shop there again but I now have a £25 e- voucher, when before I just had a voucher. This is a money making scheme on their behalf.

but did they flag this up to you when you actually plugged in that you were using a voucher? If not, you might be able to argue with them that they were deliberately hiding the relevant facts

I worked in retail for years (different department store). They aren't obliged to advise of things like this. It's up to the customer to know or ask,

Well H&M don't do that. Bought 3 dresses, paying £24 in vouchers. Returned two keeping only the one that's £25. Got all the card payment back. If you've kept goods to the value of more than your voucher you've spent the voucher, surely? No money laundering about it. I'd get on to trading standards. They're making it really hard to spend that voucher!

It may be in their T&C but that's crap customer service! I've done 10 years plus in retail and the policy has always been "refunds will be processed back onto the original payment method."

With the common sense approach meaning in cases of split payment the customer can choose which method they want the refund by up to the maximum tendered by that method.

£100 spend.
£30 gift card
£30 cash
£40 card
Customer returns £50 of goods. They could have £30 cash and £20 on their card, or £40 card and £10 cash. Or really anything in between. (Very rare for anyone to want it back on the gift card but we would have obliged that too!)

You can't look at a receipt and calculate which product was paid for by which method(s).

It's called good customer service and sends people away happy, meaning they come back to your store! Hardly rocket science.

They are saying it was in the t&c. I never saw them. When making the purchase. Exact same reply that others got. It doesn't seem right that they can do this.