To think House of Fraser’s refund policy is another nail in their coffin

[Bearbehind]

I bought several expensive and heavy items online with the intention of choosing 1 and taking the others back to my local store for a refund

Turns out you can only exchange or get a credit note in store

If you want your money back you have to post it back at your own cost

Given the weight and value, I’m nearly £30 down for the pleasure.

Surely they can’t afford to piss customers off by refusing to refund in store - what difference does it make to them?

Very expensive lesson learned!

I will never buy from them again

Actually under distance selling regs you have the legal right to return for a refund and their cost not yours.

No you don’t. That regulation only applies if the goods are faulty.

It does cost them as they would have to return the items to their warehouse which costs.

No it doesn’t

Stores receive deliveries from warehouses then empty vans return to the warehouse to be refilled.

Putting returned stock into those empty vans would cost nothing

I agree with you OP. I wouldn't buy anything from them.

This is why ASOS is brilliant. Next day delivery and free returns!

Why on earth are retailers counting online returns against the physical shop branch? Surely it is not beyond the wit of man to devise a system that accurately logs returns of items bought online as such?

Tabby. I agree with you op. I wrongly presumed I would be okay to take it back in store.
I will never use Hof again as all the other retailers I use (and my kids who shop online all the time) all offer free delivery.

You're not unreasonable.

I spent several hundred ££ in one of their concessions a few weeks back. Only after I'd completed my transaction did the saleswoman tell me that I couldn't get a refund in store.

Why on earth would I now buy from HoF when the concession offers a 60 day refund in their own store?!

YANBU, I haven’t shopped in there or online with them since it turned into Sports Direct. I used to shop in there a lot and use the next day click and collect

I'd just be pissed off at myself for not reading the returns policy before purchasing. It's all explained there very clearly.

Believe me, I am pissed off.

I wrongly assumed they’d have a ‘normal’ returns policy.

Every other high st retailer I use online accepts refunds in store or by post

Most of the time I do return by post but these 3 items were over the 2kg Royal Mail banding so cost a fortune to return

They will be going to A warehouse though - so you do a mini return bay at each warehouse to collect from several lorries then the collection gets sent to the main place. Fairly standard (although I may have explained it badly). It is more cost effective than having empty lorries and avoids badwill.

I don't shop at HOF as not in the UK, but this kind of stuff puts me off using retailers. I will only buy online where there is free return delivery.

In truth, online returns were the reason my shop shut. We were averaging £15k of refunds a week from online, when we only managed to sell £20k of stock a week

If you had allowed people to return items they wouldn't have bought them in the first place

I used to use HoF regularly, had an account card. When Mike Fuckface bought it I binned my card.

It’s hardly surprising if a bloke who ran sports shops known nowt about women’s market.

I suspect that was supposed to have said ‘hadn’t allowed’ not ‘had’

I won’t shop in H of F since the sports direct acquisition, but their returns policy is very clear and easy to read online. I always read the t’s & c’s before a transaction online. It is madness not to.

The company I worked for used to sell items via HOF online. Returns came back directly to us via a freepoat return. You couldn't take them to a HOF store as then they would have had to pay to return them to us.

YANBU to be unhappy with the returns policy. YABU to not read the returns policy and then bitch about it

First thing to do when buying online is to check out delivery and returns prices and seek out a free D and R code if needed

YANBU

Thanks for the warning.

I buy most of my clothes from John Lewis, and return 80% to Waitrose for a full refund. In the last I have used HoF as an alternative for other brands but I won’t now. I am a bit of an odd shape and need to try stuff on. Stores just don’t have the range.

I agree they are better to get my 1/2 purchases than none.

As a small business owner I cannot tell you how ridiculous the whole free returns for non faulty goods is. I have customers who don't want to measure and check before purchasing an item and then would like me to pay for them to return it. I have already paid for an item to be shipped to the customer. I then have to write off a number that are returned but cannot be sold as new. Our policy is now that the customer pays for returns unless the item is faulty, I have had stock returned deliberately damaged.

You need to make your mind up before buying, it is such a waste of resources and time.

Honestly, customers like you who buy too many and return are the reason high street stores are struggling

Stores should stock better then. I would much rather go into shops and try the clothes on before I buy, but I need long length trousers and jeans and the couple of shops I can buy them from don't stock them.

I always read the t’s & c’s before a transaction online. It is madness not to.

I don’t! Lesson learned

I see free returns as a bonus and it never occurred to me that a high st retailer wouldn’t accept returns back to an actual store

Like I said in the OP, I think it’s a nail in their coffin - they don’t sell anything unique really so there’s no incentive to buy from them and making returns expensive means people just won’t bother

OP, you are getting a hard time here.

I will not be shopping there again ever.

You need to make your mind up before buying, it is such a waste of resources and time.

But that’s rarely possible

The chances of a bricks and mortar store having 2 sizes in 2 colours of pretty much anything is slim to none nowadays

Especially if you’re not a size 10 regular