Page 11 | Aibu to think Dunelm are unreasonable?

LadyGodHelpUs · 2023-01-09T14:18:35+00:00

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?

AdelaideRo · 09/01/2023 18:50

@LadyGodHelpUs I'd be spitting if this hapened to me and returning every thing I'd bought to repurchase the stuff I wanted with the sodding gift card.

The answers on this thread just illustrate how poor consumer knowledge is in this county. There is no way your transaction could possibly be bloody money laundering!

angelikacpickles · 09/01/2023 18:50

angelikacpickles · 09/01/2023 18:48

For goodness sake! She spent £167 in cash and £40 on a gift card. She wants to return £97 worth of stuff. So she should be able to get a refund of £97 of the £167 she spent in cash. The £40 gift card is irrelevant because she is keeping £120 worth of goods. How is this difficult to understand!

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Sorry she spent £177 in cash! Managed to get my own maths wrong in my rant! But the point stands.

Face2facet · 09/01/2023 18:51

AdelaideRo · 09/01/2023 18:50

@LadyGodHelpUs I'd be spitting if this hapened to me and returning every thing I'd bought to repurchase the stuff I wanted with the sodding gift card.

The answers on this thread just illustrate how poor consumer knowledge is in this county. There is no way your transaction could possibly be bloody money laundering!

But that’s illegal! Illegal don’t you know!!! 😂

AdelaideRo · 09/01/2023 18:54

@Face2facet I know . I know.

I've recently had someone tell me something I did was illegal - when actually it is very much allowed but they hadn't bothered to check. In fact they apparently don't even have a copy of the document (it's their title deeds) that outline quite why what is happening is allowed.

Why are people idiots.

Longleggedgiraffe · 09/01/2023 18:57

Have a look at the terms on the Gift card. It might say that refunds must be paid back to the card and not as cash. That’s pretty normal, tbh.

pigsDOfly · 09/01/2023 19:14

angelikacpickles · 09/01/2023 18:48

For goodness sake! She spent £167 in cash and £40 on a gift card. She wants to return £97 worth of stuff. So she should be able to get a refund of £97 of the £167 she spent in cash. The £40 gift card is irrelevant because she is keeping £120 worth of goods. How is this difficult to understand!

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I understand perfectly what the OP did but it doesn't alter the fact that £40 of her spend was from the gift card, so when refunding under these circumstances, all shops, not just Dunelm, will of course put £40 of the refund back onto the gift card. It's standard practice.

I appreciate it's annoying from the customer's point of view but obviously shops are going to put the money back onto the card to ensure the refund they've given the customer is spent in their store, because, as I said before, they will do what works best for them.

I'm surprised that anyone finds this surprising.

swapcicles · 09/01/2023 19:17

I used to work in Dunelm and the till software (epos) automatically puts the refund or part refund onto gift card first.
When I worked there it could be overridden by management in cases like these.
May not be the case now but a simple and polite request for the refund to go back onto the original card /cash if you won't use a gift card is the best way to go about things.
Not stamping your feet or demanding you get what you want, believe me if you're rude to a shop assistant it certainly won't get you what you want, be nice and we'll do the best we can. I've seen many a rule bent in the customers favour if you just treat us with a bit of respect.

Face2facet · 09/01/2023 19:19

swapcicles · 09/01/2023 19:17

I used to work in Dunelm and the till software (epos) automatically puts the refund or part refund onto gift card first.
When I worked there it could be overridden by management in cases like these.
May not be the case now but a simple and polite request for the refund to go back onto the original card /cash if you won't use a gift card is the best way to go about things.
Not stamping your feet or demanding you get what you want, believe me if you're rude to a shop assistant it certainly won't get you what you want, be nice and we'll do the best we can. I've seen many a rule bent in the customers favour if you just treat us with a bit of respect.

That’s good to know. I was looking at buying some dining chairs online from Dunelm, but no chance will I be doing that now! I had no idea they were so unethical as to try to force people to shop there. This is not good customer service at all!

Wonnle · 09/01/2023 19:20

angelikacpickles · 09/01/2023 18:48

For goodness sake! She spent £167 in cash and £40 on a gift card. She wants to return £97 worth of stuff. So she should be able to get a refund of £97 of the £167 she spent in cash. The £40 gift card is irrelevant because she is keeping £120 worth of goods. How is this difficult to understand!

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£177 actually

Original poster

LadyGodHelpUs · 09/01/2023 19:27

swapcicles · 09/01/2023 19:17

I used to work in Dunelm and the till software (epos) automatically puts the refund or part refund onto gift card first.
When I worked there it could be overridden by management in cases like these.
May not be the case now but a simple and polite request for the refund to go back onto the original card /cash if you won't use a gift card is the best way to go about things.
Not stamping your feet or demanding you get what you want, believe me if you're rude to a shop assistant it certainly won't get you what you want, be nice and we'll do the best we can. I've seen many a rule bent in the customers favour if you just treat us with a bit of respect.

I was very polite and pleasant. I get that the lady behind the till doesn’t make the policy. I also mentioned to the manager and he “will feed that back”. So no joy.

OP posts:

Wonnle · 09/01/2023 19:34

LadyGodHelpUs · 09/01/2023 19:27

I was very polite and pleasant. I get that the lady behind the till doesn’t make the policy. I also mentioned to the manager and he “will feed that back”. So no joy.

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Well just "feed back" everything else you bought and buy it again using the gift card as part payment .

Job's a good un

theGooHasGone · 09/01/2023 20:30

LadyGodHelpUs · 09/01/2023 18:48

A) Someone writes the EPOS software and tells it what to do. Also what legislation are you referring to, that it is supposedly following?

b) If they have a policy they should inform people of that policy very clearly.

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b) If they have a policy they should inform people of that policy very clearly.

They did, when you went to return some things and they put a chunk of the refund back on the gift card!

Given that you've said you deliberately bought two rugs with the intention of returning one, I'd have thought you'd double check their returns policy before buying. I'm sure if you'd asked the staff when you made the original purchase, they'd have told you store policy is that gift cards are always refunded first.

Original poster

LadyGodHelpUs · 09/01/2023 21:45

theGooHasGone · 09/01/2023 20:30

b) If they have a policy they should inform people of that policy very clearly.

They did, when you went to return some things and they put a chunk of the refund back on the gift card!

Given that you've said you deliberately bought two rugs with the intention of returning one, I'd have thought you'd double check their returns policy before buying. I'm sure if you'd asked the staff when you made the original purchase, they'd have told you store policy is that gift cards are always refunded first.

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I did ask staff. Two staff. They said no problem.

OP posts:

Original poster

LadyGodHelpUs · 09/01/2023 21:47

theGooHasGone · 09/01/2023 20:30

b) If they have a policy they should inform people of that policy very clearly.

They did, when you went to return some things and they put a chunk of the refund back on the gift card!

Given that you've said you deliberately bought two rugs with the intention of returning one, I'd have thought you'd double check their returns policy before buying. I'm sure if you'd asked the staff when you made the original purchase, they'd have told you store policy is that gift cards are always refunded first.

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Also, it is fair to tell people up front when they are spending a large amount of money. I would have paid two separate transactions, had I known.

To tell someone about a policy later when they have spent their money and your terms & conditions are not clearly out, lacks good faith and looks underhand to customers.

OP posts:

ClubhouseGift · 09/01/2023 22:01

LadyGodHelpUs · 09/01/2023 21:47

Also, it is fair to tell people up front when they are spending a large amount of money. I would have paid two separate transactions, had I known.

To tell someone about a policy later when they have spent their money and your terms & conditions are not clearly out, lacks good faith and looks underhand to customers.

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No it doesn’t.

Terms and conditions are long and convoluted and up to you to read. They cannot recite them at every transaction lest someone get upset that things aren’t going their way.

Cakeandcardio · 09/01/2023 22:23

Kick up a stink on Twitter. Shame them for being dicks, effectively forcing you to purchase from them again.
If you can, take the other item back and re-buy with the gift card.
It's got nothing to do with money laundering or getting cash etc - as you clearly haven't done this.

bakebeans · 09/01/2023 23:00

YANBU. You paid well over that in card so yes. They should have refunded. I've requested the same and it's been agreed

mogsrus · 09/01/2023 23:01

40£ on a gift card would need to be returned to the card used. We had this a lot when working in Argos yrs ago. 50£ on card 50£ on visa. They would return stuff & try to get it all back on visa. Nope, that is not happening. 50 on each card or walk away

mogsrus · 09/01/2023 23:04

To tell someone Ts ‘ Cs on every transaction. Why does it come down to the retailer to do it all the time , just ask, it’s not complicated

theGooHasGone · 09/01/2023 23:15

LadyGodHelpUs · 09/01/2023 21:45

I did ask staff. Two staff. They said no problem.

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You explicitly asked them whether you could make a purchase on a gift card, then have it refunded to a different payment method?

CountZacular · 09/01/2023 23:20

theGooHasGone · 09/01/2023 23:15

You explicitly asked them whether you could make a purchase on a gift card, then have it refunded to a different payment method?

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I really doubt the OP asked that as it isn’t what she wanted to do.

She wants the cash she paid refunded as cash. The gift card has gone towards the rug she’s kept. It’s really not this hard to understand.

ABBAsnumberonefan · 09/01/2023 23:23

Face2facet · 09/01/2023 19:19

That’s good to know. I was looking at buying some dining chairs online from Dunelm, but no chance will I be doing that now! I had no idea they were so unethical as to try to force people to shop there. This is not good customer service at all!

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Dramatic much? 😂 any corporation is unethical in some way or another get over yourself

Thoughtful2355 · 09/01/2023 23:29

I understand you OP and honestly the ones that done.. they just arnt that clever.

At the end of the day, Dunelm would have still ended up with the £40 the gift card was worth you just wanted some of the cash back that you gave them.
You wanted less cash than you gave them so really money laundering laws dont apply because you wernt spending the gift card and then wanting a refund in cash.

You were spending the gift card towards items that you kept. you then gave them cash to cover some other items. the only way it would have made sense is if they needed to actually tell the register what items the gift card was paying for and then you returned those, that makes sense in a technology type of way BUT if that was the case they should tell people that and ask what items you want to use the gift card for.

UncleQuentinsWife · 09/01/2023 23:41

You explicitly asked them whether you could make a purchase on a gift card, then have it refunded to a different payment method?

Why would she ask that? That's not what she wanted to know.

pigsDOfly · 09/01/2023 23:45

CountZacular · 09/01/2023 23:20

I really doubt the OP asked that as it isn’t what she wanted to do.

She wants the cash she paid refunded as cash. The gift card has gone towards the rug she’s kept. It’s really not this hard to understand.

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How was the shop supposed to know that the £40 gift card was to pay specifically for the rug the OP kept? Are they supposed to read her mind, because she doesn't say she told them that that was her intention.

She bought other things as well, maybe they thought she had wanted to use the gift card for the things she returned.

Anyway, that's not how gift cards work, the refund would have gone back onto gift card as a matter of course.

It's not unethical or sharp practice. It's how these things work. If you return something bought with a gift card they will put the refund back onto the gift card. Even if you spend more than the gift card's value the refund will always go back onto the gift card first.

Why are people finding that so difficult to understand?