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

[thisislovelyme]

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!

Aren’t Zara quite notorious for being arseholes?

Write to head office.

i’m not totally sure what you expect from Zara? Is it the case that you haven’t managed to return the clothes yet, within the extended return period, and still want to return the clothes?

If not, you’ve already had an apology from Zara about the mistake made about dates.

Or maybe trading standards of some sort?

I'm actually currently having a problem getting a refund from Superdry but I returned it via hermes. 19 days since I posted back now. If they don't email soon I'll be phoning and then head office/trading standards.

Write to Ms Ana Oliveira - Zara UK Head of Operations.
Here's her e-mail address:
[email protected]

Buzz I just want my £75 back now. It would be great if they gave me more than that as a gesture of goodwill to cover all my time and pointless 2 hour trek to Zara to return the goods. But not expecting that.

Cologne & PP who suggested I write to the CEO I will do this.

Borneobabe no I didn't pay with PAYPAL sadly. I did pay with credit card though - I wonder if I can reclaim through them?

Commonwasher I will comment on their FB page, thanks!

Orchard I've just left a review on TrustPilot, which apparently gets sent to them. thanks for that tip.

Herringbone - exactly - I just can't believe the treatment I'm getting from Zara, they just clearly aren't bothered once they've sold the goods. And surprised to hear Russell & Bromley sound to have similar policy.

I don't know why people are being pissy to the OP. It doesn't matter how long the OP took to chase them; they gave her the wrong info about their returns period (so it's meaningless to say they're 'very strict' about it) and a wrong email address. They should be falling over themselves to put it right.
Head office and Twitter/Facebook.

You have my sympathies. I loved their baby stuff but when I had a problem with something (jumper fell apart after one wear), they were a nightmare to deal with. They were happy to send a replacement item but wanted me to traipse to the post office with the faulty one. I said that they were welcome to collect it but I wasn't doing their logistics for them - especially as I had a young baby. They said ok but courier didn't turn up for three collection appointments, then came every day for a week while I was on holiday although I told them not to! Infuriating. But keep on at them - they gave in, in the end.

I wonder if I can reclaim through them?

Not if you have the goods and they aren't faulty.

Use Resolver - I had a similar situation with Sports Direct which I'd spent months ringing about, and using Resolver it was fixed 48 hours later.

I second Resolver

I hate this kind of thing. Had a similar issue with Office ten years ago. I'd never shop there again.
The Guardian have a consumer complaints page might be worth raising it?

Just saw they still owe you £75. I'd be fuming.

They dont 'owe' OP £75. 30 days is a bloody long time to not bother returning something especially as it could have been returned by post at any PO if bought online- no need to drive 2 hours and you are not actually legally entitled to a refund on good at all. Store returns policies are based on goodwill and not the law so are ultimately discretionary. Online purchasing is slightly different but doesn't guarantee a refund after the cooling off period ends.

I'm not saying it isnt annoying but the returns info will have been on your receipt and you could have asserted this at the time if it said you were entitled to an extended returns policy. People make mistakes.

The amount of time stress and effort going into the complaint just doesn't seem worth it. They've apologised, you've told everyone they're shit and left a review (perfectly reasonably), some of it is your own choices though. Sell them on ebay of you want to recoup some money.

@dontgobacon

The shops don’t have to offer extended returns but if they do, they should honour it. Why is that so difficult to comprehend?

30 days is a bloody long time to not bother returning something…Store returns policies are based on goodwill and not the law so are ultimately discretionary.

They themselves conceded the person in the store got this wrong. The OP says they told her 'the extended Christmas return period meant she should have refunded me'
Quite simple to understand, I'd have thought.

Zara don’t give a shit about their customers. The arrogance shown by their store staff is breathtaking; they are renowned for it. I’m surprised they haven’t gone under yet as their clothes are shit and poorly made too. This doesn’t surprise me. Hope you get it sorted OP.

Surely the store manager should have been aware of the extended return period... It's not your fault s/he wasn't. I don't blame you for being angry. I am a bit and by some of the chippy responses on here! You'd think it was coming out of some posters' pockets! You are in no way to blame. It's quite wrong of Zara to behave as they are when they have such badly informed staff who seem disinterested once the sale has been made! A manager who doesn't know the rules surrounding Christmas returns and gives you the wrong email address? Laughable! You only fell out of the extended return period because of their misinformation.

Have never bought from them - having read horror stories about their poor quality clothing and awful CS - and definitely won't be tempted to now. You should be refunded and offered a goodwill gesture for all the hassle you've encountered along the way. Hope you finally get it sorted.

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

You're right if it was published and incorporated into the contract of sale. But was it? Presumably had it been published both the OP and the person in the shop would have known.

But if they decided to extend the returns period over Christmas but after the OP had bought her items, then it's different.

It's a good point though and worth putting in the OP's letter.

Was there a particular reason why it took so long to return them? I dunno if its the same in the UK but in Ireland Zara have a system where you can print off a labale, stick it on the box and you can post for free in your local post office or if not a courier can collect aswell. I understand there was some confusion in the shop but Store returns policies are based on goodwill and not the law so are ultimately discretionary. Is it really worth all the stress and hassle its causing. Sell them on Ebay to get some of your money back.

www.theguardian.com/money/series/bachelor-and-brignall-consumer-champions

Maybe contact these people. They are good at taking shitty customer service people to task

Don’t bother writing to the CEO, she won’t respond. I had an issue a month ago - returned an unworn top with label on and they wrote to me to tell me it was not resaleable and they were going to dispose of it. I was clearly shocked and confused!

Tried the online chat service - they just cut you off.
Tried the whatsapp service - they sometimes respond then stop
Tweeted and they did respond and then stopped
Called them - rudely told me I wasn’t allowed photos (they said mark on neck) I said I disputed as unworn, they said I wasn’t allowed to dispute. They then said they’d send it back, it arrived about a week later purposefully screwed up and no marks on it.

Their in store service is shocking, staff are so rude and now their online service is getting just as bad.

Virgin customer services are crap too. They lie consistently.

If you go on sites like this, you might get good help too, here's a kind of similar example - (and definitely, I'd say report them to Trading Standards ) - forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1889955/company-not-giving-me-a-refund-been-waiting-6-months

If it’s just one item your returning? Not the full £200 then I’d just let it go? How much are we talking here £40? Just sell the item on eBay- less stress.