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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Aibu to think Dunelm are unreasonable?

352 replies

LadyGodHelpUs · 09/01/2023 14:18

On Saturday I bought £217 worth of stuff from Dunelm. I paid £40 using a gift card given to me as a Christmas present. The rest I paid by card.

Today I returned £97 worth of things. They insisted that £40 had to go back on the gift card.

I wasn’t made aware of this or I would have carried out separate transactions. I didn’t sign anything and it didn’t mention this on the back of the receipt where it said refunds would be no problem within the set time period.

AIBU that this is unfair practice?

OP posts:
RedHouseWins · 09/01/2023 14:19

I can't think of a single reason to justify that!

DameHelena · 09/01/2023 14:20

I don't know the law, but from a lay point of view it sounds silly and I think YANBU. Ask them how they know that the items you want to return are the items you bought on the gift card.

helpfulperson · 09/01/2023 14:21

I presume its money laundering legislation of some type.

1hyuny · 09/01/2023 14:22

I couldn't get het up about this. Its only a problem if you plan to never shop in dunelm again. Even then you could gift the card to someone else instead of having to buy them a birthday/Christmas present. So it wouldn't phase me at all. Perhaps they've had some fraud around gift cards and are covering their backs.

Original poster
LadyGodHelpUs · 09/01/2023 14:23

They should have at least mentioned it if it is the rule/policy when I was spending so much.

OP posts:
vodkaredbullgirl · 09/01/2023 14:23

Probably due to people buying stuff using a gift card, then taking it back just to get the cash.

Darthwazette · 09/01/2023 14:24

I’d have returned the lot and repurchased what I wanted.

LadyPenelope68 · 09/01/2023 14:24

Lots of shops do this if you’ve used a gift card to part pay, totally normal practice.

Hillarious · 09/01/2023 14:24

Take back £40 worth of stuff you want and just buy it again on the gift card.

Original poster
LadyGodHelpUs · 09/01/2023 14:25

Yeah I get that some people might do this. I would understand if someone brought back something worth £40, but I have spent more than five times the price of the gift card. It feels shady and unfair when they are not up front about this policy.

OP posts:
Swg · 09/01/2023 14:26

It's to stop money laundering. From their point of view you could buy gift cards with dirty money, return what you buy and walk away with a handful of cash untrackable.

mewkins · 09/01/2023 14:27

Darthwazette · 09/01/2023 14:24

I’d have returned the lot and repurchased what I wanted.

Me too

Jemimapinotduck · 09/01/2023 14:28

All refunds have to go back on the original form of payment including the same bank card. Completely normal practice throughout retail, it's fraud protection

Original poster
LadyGodHelpUs · 09/01/2023 14:29

I’ve a single mum with a child who has complex needs & I work full time. I don’t get to go out shopping often. I flew there in my lunch break.

OP posts:
prescribingmum · 09/01/2023 14:29

I have had a shop say this to me before. I replied that in that case, I was returning everything and I would buy back the items I wanted using the gift card at which point they saw sense and changed their mind. Had they not changed their mind, I would have followed through

Needmorelego · 09/01/2023 14:31

That's normal retail practice.
If I was working at Dunelm I would be very suspicious of someone buying over £200 worth of stuff and then returning almost half of it.
(If it was a clothes shop and you can't try stuff on - that would be slightly different).
It's a homewares shop. Why did you buy things you don't want?

MisguidedGhosts · 09/01/2023 14:31

It makes sense. Why would they give you cash back for items bought with a gift card?

prescribingmum · 09/01/2023 14:31

I feel all those quoting money laundering are missing the point that you spent £200+ of which just £40 was on a gift card. So once you return around £100 worth of goods, you have still spent over £100 at the shop which covers the gift card and then some. They would just be reutrning cash you spent as cash

NotAnotherBathBomb · 09/01/2023 14:32

vodkaredbullgirl · 09/01/2023 14:23

Probably due to people buying stuff using a gift card, then taking it back just to get the cash.

This will be it. I've gotten a gift card for Christmas and when I was placing my order online it said to retain my gift card so that any refunds could go back onto the card.

Original poster
LadyGodHelpUs · 09/01/2023 14:32

I wanted to see what a rug looked like at home. It’s hard to guess in a shop. So I bought two rugs to see what they physically looked like.

OP posts:
Christmascracker0 · 09/01/2023 14:32

I thought this was the case with all retailers? I def was when I worked in Next a few years ago.

QuiltedHippo · 09/01/2023 14:32

I'm annoying with them at the moment for not allowing an exchange of a gift I was given without a receipt, its plastered with "dunelm" but I still had to awkwardly ask the gift giver for one. I'd understand if I wanted the cash but just to swap for something else post Christmas is irritating

Everanewbie · 09/01/2023 14:32

Sorry OP, I don't think its unreasonable of them. What you're effectively doing (I am sure it wasn't your intention) is to convert your gift card into cash, that could be spent elsewhere. There would be no point in selling gift cards if this were permissible.

Suziesz · 09/01/2023 14:33

I think most places do this actually.

MisguidedGhosts · 09/01/2023 14:33

Christmascracker0 · 09/01/2023 14:32

I thought this was the case with all retailers? I def was when I worked in Next a few years ago.

I guess it's not something individual people do all that often, though, so for someone who works in retail it's obvious but it's not for an occasional customer