Disgusted with Sports Direct....AIBU

[Cider4Caro]

I'm really cross but not sure if I'm right to be...Bought a pair of Nike Trainers from said shop online. Paid £18 and a further £5 delivery. They are for my disabled son, and are basketball style with good ankle support as hes quite unsteady on his feet, they have laces and a velcro strap so really supportive. I thought this was a total bargain btw!
After a week, the velcro started failing and the straps on both shoes kept coming loose, swinging all around his feet and he tripped over them twice. After making sure they were actually failing and he hadn't loosened them himself over a couple of days, I wanted to return them as it's dangerous to have loose straps hanging off the shoes between his feet. ( hope this makes sense). I went online to email S Direct, tried twice but the emails were not going through, looked for a phone number, £6 to call them (wtf), I checked on Google and its correct. No return label in packaging and I dont have a printer to print a return slip out off their site, So I take them to my local store. Waited 20 mins for the manager who told me they dont take returns, that the straps are just for looks, perhaps I need to learn how to tie tighter laces as I've not bn putting them on my son right so she doubts ile get a swap anyway. They wouldn't help with a return label and she also told me I should send them back recorded so I can prove I posted them.
So, in order to return these shoes which I can assure you are infact faulty ( I'm 40 years old and having had 3 kids, I can say im not a newbie at tying shoe laces, stupid woman ) I need to buy a printer, pay over £5 for the postage for them to possibly not give me a swap, credit note or refund.
I'm at a loss with this, I know I got them at a bargain price, maybe you get what you pay for, I'm more angry with the manager who was rude to me, i felt like i was trying to do a dodgy return, as she really embarrassed me in front of a big queue of people telling me I need to learn how to tie a shoe lace tighter...I walked out red faced. HOWEVER, On the way out of the shop, i saw a man slipping a T Shirt in to his shopping bag, clearly shop lifting. It made me smile, if only they treated paying customers well, I might have gone back! Revenge is a little bit sweet in this case!
Anyone know the return rights in this case, its 3 weeks since I payed for the trainers btw, so not a long while. Am i right to be angry with the rude unhelpful manager, or am i in the wrong by possibly buying the wrong style of trainer?? Thanks guys! X

I’d also go directly to Nike OP. You will never win against Sports Direct. Take this as a lesson and do not shop there again.

Online and physical store businesses will be two different stock systems. You bought online and need to return online unfortunately.

Is there not a friend or family member who will print you a label? Local FB page will always have someone who'll help.
Also, you need to remove the emotion from it and keep it short. It doesn't really matter that the wearer is disabled, just that they are faulty.

Yep after the modern slavery and employee giving birth in the loo fiasco, this is the least I’d expect of them. I’d be cheering on the shoplifter too

Their customer service is awful. I ordered a football top for my OH. It arrived dirty, with a hole in it and the security tag was still on. I sent it back, at my cost and they sent a replacement with a security tag on! They could not have been less interested.

Call Trading Standards. If SD are breaking any laws they will tell you what to do. They visited an equally obnoxious high street retailer for me and wiped the floor with the manager. Bloody wish I'd been a fly on the wall.

If I buy from sports direct, I would not expect a refund under any circumstances. I treat the purchase as a risk! But usually the stuff is fine and I guess this sort of thing is how the prices are so low in the first place.

I am no fan of SD but when I returned several unused items bought online to a local store I was given a credit note without any argument. That was last Autumn so I don't know if the policies have changed since. In addition I had paid for next day delivery but the items were not delivered until two days later. I asked for a refund of the postal charge and this was given again without argument.

Di you pay by CC? claim on that.

Def trading standards, goods not fit for purpose. Seldom use them, mainly for footballs for the dogs.

YANBU Sports Direct are atrocious. My son ordered some weights, and the parcel arrived with one set of weights missing. Hermes tracking showed the parcel as not even been delivered, but as damaged beyond repair. (The packaging wasn’t even torn, and Hermes have no clue either, but that’s a different story!).
No phone number apart from the £6 one, and so we filled in the online form. Got no answer, so filled it in again on a laptop, in case it hadn’t worked properly on my tablet. Sent an email to customer services as well, in case the online form wasn’t working. Eventually after about 3 weeks of no reply, I emailed Mike Ashley’s address, and informed them that I would be posting on social media if I didn’t get a response within 3 working days, and also messaged their FB page to the same effect.
4 weeks after missing order my son has received an email which just says do you want a replacement dispatched. No apology, or offer of refund. Shocking customer service, and we won’t be ordering online from them again. It remains to be seen if the replacement weights will ever actually arrive....

Nilke trainers for 18 quid sure they are gen ones?.

Seem very cheap. Next time use a Credit card to pay for them on their problem then not yours:)

Could start spouting the sale of goods act that can change some minds these "goods" are unfit for purpose.

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1979/54

The majority of retailer will not take online products back in the shops.
Again not a fan of SD but there returns is very clear. returned and refunded products online no problem . But thats why they are cheap to keep overheads down customer service email only .

Mike couldn't care less about customer care ... he is another Philip Green - greedy billionaires both of them!

Under the sale of goods act/consumer act, goods need to be fit for purpose, of merchantable quality, free from defects.

Having worked for them, the company is a shocking shower of shit and exploits young workers like you couldn’t believe. Every pay period you’d have people queued outside managers office to dispute hours worked vs pay. They managed to underpay me for 10hrs a week regularly without me clicking on until someone said, so when I approached manager having done the sums I was told ‘prove it. Prove you worked those hours. We tear up time sheets so the onus is on you’.
I quit without a backwards glance. Absolute cunts.

Sorry op, I’d print at library and go from there. And if you can, go to a different store and ask for the manager on the shoe department. They always had one separate to other departments

Sports direct are total arseholes.

I ordered 3 wetsuits last year, only two arrived in the parcel. Had a very long exchange of emails and it was clear I was getting nowhere. They said I couldn't have a refund unless I returned the item after I told them repeatedly my problem was the item was never in the parcel in the first place. I just gave up in the end and had to buy the missing one again from amazon.

Under the distance selling regulations, if you return stuff bought by mail order or online within 28 days of receipt, you are entitled to a full refund.

If the 28 days aren't up, print the label at a library and send it back, get a certificate of posting, then go to trading standards if you don't get the refund within 2-3 weeks.

Sports Direct are the pits, they're on my boycott list.

I won't buy from House of Fraser online anymore because of Mike Ashley's shoddy customer service. Such a shame, it used to be good. Sports Direct on the other hand has always been shite

Under the distance selling regulations, if you return stuff bought by mail order or online within 28 days of receipt, you are entitled to a full refund

That won't help the OP, the shoes have been worn and even if they hadn't she's passed the 14 day limit for informing them that she wants to return them.

The key point here surely is whether if the shoes are returned SD will accept that they aren't fit for purpose and give a full refund, that's why I asked above for a link to the shoes to see if the straps are just for effect or a part of keeping the shoe on the foot

YABU for going there in the first place. Please don't go there again and look up the accounts of how those in their Shirebrook warehouse (or should I say workhouse) are treated.

Lots of basketball type boots at Nike outlets if you have one near you.

Thanks so much everyone. Theres a pic here of the trainers, the strap is the velcro that's coming undone, it sits over the laces just so you can see what I'm on about.
Never thought about the Library to get the label printed.
Is it worth sending them back guys I already payed £5 postage, plus ile then have to pay a further £5 to post back plus printing costs and petrol to get to Post office. They can refuse the refund, and ile have lost a further £10 plus.
I'm shocked at how many people have terrible experiences with the shop, and I had no idea of the treatment of staff and awful conditions. I'm taking my money elsewhere from now on...my boys love the branded sports wear, I spent alot in that shop, worked out over £600 since January, I'm happy to give them the finger and go elsewhere. I feel sorry for the employees, no wonder she was such a cow!