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

It's not just HoF. I bought a pair of sock boots in my local M&S, which I did try on in store and they fitted OK. After wearing them out for 15 minutes I was sick of hoicking one leg up as the elastic wasn't tight enough. Took them back to the store I bought them from to be told by the manager that I had to post them to Head Office for a refund as they were faulty. After about 10 minutes of polite disagreement she did agree to refund me in store but it really is taking the proverbial for a company like M&S to not refund for faulty goods in the store they were purchased.....

@Londonmummy that’s even worse because you bought the goods in store and they were faulty.

That is bad london, especially as it’s not even their usual policy

Londonmummy

Took them back to the store I bought them from to be told by the manager that I had to post them to Head Office for a refund as they were faulty

In a word - bollocks. It's the retailers responsibility to refund the customer, and nobody elses.

"You'll have to send it back to " was a favourite trick of Comet, (for those of you that can remember them ...). Who even with half their customers doing voluntary unpaid work for them managed to go bust.

I certainly wouldn’t order online from them because of this. I imagine they’ll be bust before long. Not much stock in my local store. I used to order stuff online but not anymore.

Thanks everyone - she did back down eventually but it was a waste of 10 minutes of my time and it was really embarrassing as it was in full view of the queue....

Thanks everyone - she did back down eventually but it was a waste of 10 minutes of my time and it was really embarrassing as it was in full view of the queue....

It was an incident like this which was the last time we used M&S ourselves (in 2014). DW had a jacket she had worn once, and a button broke. I returned it, and instead of a quick exchange (which was what DW wanted) the assistant started going through the pockets and produced a bag of spare buttons with a triumphant look of "What are these you stupid man ?" on her face. By the time the manager got there (not because I called them) I'd organised a vote in the queue behind me, and we all decided that buttons were not a consumable on a week-old worn-once jacket.

Shame really, as my DM swore by M&S - it was the only store she'd buy clothes in. Everything else she made.

I can’t believe people are making excuses like you are rude and how it counts against the staff/store sales figures. Stuff that that shouldn’t matter to you, it’s quite normal in 2019 to buy a whole load of clothes online and return the unwanted instore or for free. I do this a lot and have never been refused or paid to return clothes. After reading this thread I will definitely not be shopping at H of F! Bought a sports bra once online from sports direct and saw after it was no returns but luckily it fitted. Annoyingly they did add a mug for £1 which I didn’t realise until afterwards.wont shop there again either.

I can’t believe people are making excuses like you are rude and how it counts against the staff/store sales figures

It’s certainly surprised me. It’s the way of the retail world now, whether you approve or not.

Do you have to return stuff special delivery though?

With free returns you just need proof of postage?

With free returns you just need proof of postage?

FFS - they don’t do free returns! 😂

I understand that but why can't you just send the parcels in the normal post with proof of postage as someone else suggested

I can’t believe people are making excuses like you are rude and how it counts against the staff/store sales figures.

But it does impact staff figures. While that's not a reason for staff members to be rude about handling refunds, it's a fact. Annoying, but true.

I work in a shop where we get several online returns a day, and yes, the cost and number of items goes against the assistants figures for that day/week. We get bonuses when the shop does well, so it's understandable when people get frustrated over refunds - especially when that store never benefitted from the original sale in the first place.

However none of that is an excuse for staff to be rude to customers. I expect my staff to deal with refunds politely, professionally and in a friendly manner. Refunds and exchanges and faulty items are part of retail - there's no avoiding them!

I know they don't do free returns

I meant generally with non free returns, do you have to now send them special delivery

I sent something back to Blacks and it cost £11 at the post office it had to be fully insured as it said that in the blurb about returns and it weighed about 2kg and was worth about £90. Proof of postage would not have covered it.
I claimed the £11 back from PayPal though so was not out of pocket

I understand thatconfused but why can't you just send the parcels in the normal post with proof of postage as someone else suggested

So would you really send nearly £500 worth of goods back with no insurance or come back if either Royal Mail lose it or HOF try to claim the never got it? 🤔

the cost and number of items goes against the assistants figures for that day/week. We get bonuses when the shop does well, so it's understandable when people get frustrated over refunds

I appreciate that it’s not the fault of the frontline employees, but any retailer who operates like that, in this day and age, doesn’t deserve to keep their staff.

It’s so out of synch with how people shop

You shouldn’t penalise people for things which are outside their control - that’s just demoralising and bad management

You can only really use proof of postage with decent places for example like Boden, I would not trust somewhere like HoF with it

@Londonmummy66 I suspect you had an inarticulate manager no m&s ever suggest this what they do with faulty items is send it to head office for them to check and hopefully compensate the customer and deal with the manufacturer. However m&s pay for this and should never expect customers to do it themselves. So I wonder if the manager was just explaining the process it really really badly.

I appreciate that it’s not the fault of the frontline employees, but any retailer who operates like that, in this day and age, doesn’t deserve to keep their staff.

You shouldn’t penalise people for things which are outside their control - that’s just demoralising and bad management

You're never going to have a situation where it's not demoralising for staff. People want to buy online and return things in bulk to shops. Someone is going to have to stand there and handle those complaints and those returns - it's hardly enjoyable even when it doesn't affect your figures!

A shop near us has a specific returns department so someone is employed specifically to deal with returns. That works in a big shop where it's busy enough for someone to be employed JUST for that, but in smaller stores it's not affordable so it's something all staff members are expected to deal with. Transactions need to go through the till under people's ID/name so that any mistakes or fraud/theft can be detected and dealt with easily.

Unless stores go down the route of "all online orders must be returned by post", then bricks and mortar shops are always going to be impacted by online returns. Allowing customers to return their items in store is good customer service - but that can't happen without it having some kind of impact on staff and sales.

I think I would drive there myself to the returns place if possible providing it was not too far North.

I don't think I would order that sort of stuff online in the first place

Someone is going to have to stand there and handle those complaints and those returns - it's hardly enjoyable even when it doesn't affect your figures!

If it doesn’t affect your sales figures how is it any less enjoyable than any other aspect of the job?

It’s not complaints - it’s just returns

I think I would drive there myself to the returns place if possible providing it was not too far North.

Have you RTFT woodhill?

Do you suggest I drive to the HOF warehouse?

Then what do you think will happen?

If it doesn’t affect your sales figures how is it any less enjoyable than any other aspect of the job? It’s not complaints - it’s just returns

Of course it involves complaints, or do you really think everyone we deal with is pleasant? I get numerous complaints each week from people who think various things are unfair and take it out on me.

Not all returns are straightforward - sometimes items are faulty (my fault, apparently), sometimes people want to swap sizes and are unhappy because I don't have their size available/it's sold out. People are annoyed because what they bought went into sale the week/month after they bought it and want to know why we won't refund the difference even though they're wearing said item at the time...

And so on ad infinitum...

But none of that is anything to do with the situation I’m talking about