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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to feel SO badly treated by Zara. Unsure what do next. So CROSS!!

65 replies

thisislovelyme · 10/02/2020 12:34

I am so angry about this but no clue what I should do next. I've been so badly treated and Zara are now ignoring me...

26/11/19 I place a £200 online order with Zara. A mixture of Christmas presents and stuff I use immediately. Most is perfect. Two presents I need to take back - one for a different size and one for money back.

30/12/19 I go to my nearest Zara to return the items (over an hour drive for me). Manager tells me she cannot do an exchange or refund or anything for me as I have gone over the 30 days since the order. (I later find out via customer services this is wrong and the extended Christmas return period meant she should have refunded me). I tell her I want to make a complaint and she gives me an email address.
31/12/19 Email Zara as advised by the manager.
Wait for reply to email. (unaware that I’ve been given wrong email address)
Mid Jan call Zara customer services to ask why no reply to email. Lady explained the email address is no longer used but she can see my email and will forward to head office (or someone) and they would reply to me.
I wait and wait for a response.
6th Feb I call customer service again. Am told there is no reference to my January telephone call. He agrees I was wrongly treated at the shop and they should have accepted my returns. But then says Zara won’t do anything about it because it has been too long since the incident!! Gives me a new case number and says no managers available to speak to me but I am down as a ‘manager inbox request’. They will call me 24-48 hours, Friday at the latest….!!
I am still waiting... they are clearly not going to call.

So what do I do now? I guess I can prove my phone call in January if I go through my phone records? Should I just call customer services again with this info or I am just wasting my time with them?

Grateful for advice - I am not going to drop this!

OP posts:
BuzzShitbagBobbly · 10/02/2020 12:41

What do you reasonably WANT as a resolution?

Write a concise, factual, chronological account of events and send it to the CEO and ask them to (have a minion) help you resolve the matter. By telling them what you want you make their life even easier.

9/10 you'll get a swift response and conclusion.

cologne4711 · 10/02/2020 12:42

Write to them setting out what has happened and advise that you expect a resolution. Give them 7 days to respond.

Failing that not much you can do as it's all goodwill. If an item were damaged, it would be different and you could mention the Consumer Rights Act. But the fact they got their own policy wrong isn't a legal issue.

BorneoBabe · 10/02/2020 12:45

Did you pay with Paypal by any chance? I had an issue and Zara refused to refund. I raised a Paypal dispute and Zara never bothered to respond so it went in my favour.

Glitterb · 10/02/2020 12:46

This is why I always pay by paypal, I will just open a claim and get the money back that way. Companies do not like it but by that point I am not bothered and just want my money back!

Purplelion · 10/02/2020 12:46

You’re being a bit dramatic I think.
You should have phoned customer services after you visited the store, asked to send the items back or whatever you wanted to do. If they’d let you send them back-great, if not you should’ve just left it there!

Highonpotandused · 10/02/2020 12:48

Having been on the receiving end of Zara's in store 'customer service', I'm not surprised at this.

Keep at them, OP. They're hoping you'll give up.

Highonpotandused · 10/02/2020 12:49

@Purplelion

Why are you blaming OP? She did nothing wrong. Zara made the mistake by refusing her a refund.

SmallChickBilly · 10/02/2020 12:50

But the fact they got their own policy wrong isn't a legal issue.

If they publish a returns policy, I believe it forms part of your contract with them, so they can't just ignore it.

Commonwasher · 10/02/2020 12:51

Ask your question (a short version) via their fb page...

Blackandgreenteas · 10/02/2020 12:53

I’m aware that Zara are very strict about their returns period as I had this with a skirt that was both too small and horrible that I was given for Christmas - had been bought in Nov so no time to return. I couldn’t do anything about it I’m afraid.

I’ve still got it in case my teen dd likes it when she’s grown slightly!

Orchardgreen · 10/02/2020 12:57

Post a review on Trustpilot. That usually works.

Orchardgreen · 10/02/2020 12:59

Actually I’ve just looked on Zara. Lots of similar complaints and no responses from Zara. Try Twitter?

Herringbone31 · 10/02/2020 13:03

This happened to me

I brought a pair of Russell and Bromley shoes. They fell apart within 2 weeks of owning them. Took them to the shop. Manager refused to even exchange them as apparently I’d worn them in the rain?!? (It was July. There had been no rain)....!i tried to explain this. But was given a short shrift. On the way out of the store. I rang their head office. Who’d explained that their manager has already ‘warned’ them about us (I’d literally left the shop some 1.5 mins earlier. He also said I’d worn them in the rain. If he owned a nice pair of leather shoes and the weather looked dodgy. He reckoned he would always ‘carry’ a spare pair to change into....bollocks

I tweet them. They suddenly have no recollection of me very having even walked into the Southampton store. They have no account of me phoning. Nothing....

We tried to chargeback. But it was on a debit card. So wasn’t insured so to speak

I had to write off the £250 which I wasn’t happy about

However. I loved the shoes. I brought some on eBay

Guess what? They fell apart again

They were an awful pair of shoes. But even worse was the way I was treated. Would never ever buy anything from them again. It’s horrid when told you’re lying to them. It’s their incompetence that makes them refuse you your own rights.

Somerville · 10/02/2020 13:04

Zara's customer service is consistently rubbish.

At the very least stop buying from them. It's the only way these places will learn.

leadbetter5 · 10/02/2020 13:04

I think you should have just actioned everything a bit sooner, instead of waiting weeks for them to email you back, you could have just tried to ring them the same day.

Just a lesson to learn really about how to get what you want from big corporations. They make enough money to not really care about losing you as a customer, or just piss you off until you need something again. All you can do is learn how to better navigate the system and their rules.

leadbetter5 · 10/02/2020 13:06

This reply has been deleted

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coconuttelegraph · 10/02/2020 13:06

If they already have lots of bad reviews online maybe they don't care but I'd say it's worth a try. No need to put all the detail just start with a couple of sentences about your problem

GardenHeartedDreams · 10/02/2020 13:07

If he owned a nice pair of leather shoes and the weather looked dodgy. He reckoned he would always ‘carry’ a spare pair to change into....bollocks

Good grief what absolute nonsense. Shoes are MEANT to be worn in the rain! We wear them to keep our feet dry FFS.

coconuttelegraph · 10/02/2020 13:17

We tried to chargeback. But it was on a debit card. So wasn’t insured so to speak

I had to write off the £250 which I wasn’t happy about

I think you were wrongly informed on that too, afaik chargeback is what you do for debit card transactions (not section 75 which you do for credit cards). It'll be too late now but I think you should have been able to get your money back

Bibidy · 10/02/2020 13:19

You should have taken the stuff back to the store again once you'd confirmed the return period should have been honoured! Not sure what you can do now after so long, and with no proof of the previous conversations.

melj1213 · 10/02/2020 13:21

Tbf to the original store manager, she was following standard policy - your original return was over their normal 28 day return period and so was refused. At that point neither of you were aware of the extended Christmas returns so why did you want to complain? As far as you were aware, at the point you spoke to the manager, there was no basis for a complaint as the manager merely enforced their standard returns policy.

Once you later found out that they have an extended Christmas returns policy, why would you leave it so long to follow up each time?

ChardonnaysDistantCousin · 10/02/2020 13:21

Wearing their shoes in the rain..fancy that.

miri1985 · 10/02/2020 13:22

Look up your phone records, get the time of the call and file a GDPR. I'm assuming like most companies they record them for "training and quality purposes". When you file a GDPR you end up dealing with one of their solicitors who will just refund you the money once they see the paper trail of how you've been treated.

RaquelWelch · 10/02/2020 13:23

Zara customer service is BAD! I once had a Zara delivery shown as delivered by the courier. I was sitting in my house and nothing had been delivered! I contacted them within 24 hours and they said "tough, courier says it has been delivered". I explained I have a camera at my door and there was no delivery. Again " tough, courier says it has been delivered!" Tried to contact the courier directly but was told I couldn't as the order was through Zara and I had to deal with Zara directly. Eventually, I managed to get through to the courier by entering a fake delivery number on their online form and the courier confirmed that based on their GPS system, the courier had not delivered to my door and was lying!! Even after they admitted this and I showed Zara the email, Zara didn't want to know until the courier contacted them directly. It is pretty bad when a company does not believe a (good) customer with a long history! I got my refund in the end! Keep at it, but it can be like banging your head against a brick wall!!

kateandme · 10/02/2020 13:23

copy and paste your post to here in a tweet?sometimes seeing it in public means they reply swiftly