Primark

[iamenougheveryday]

I live in England. Almost every clothes shop I have been to (except Sports Direct), the rule is if you take back an item you need a receipt for a refund, or without a receipt you can get an exchange.

I bought an item of clothing from Primark. I changed my mind, and decided to take it back but I lost the receipt. I decided to take the item to my nearest Primark, and show them my banking app which is a proof of purchase in the hope they would allow an exchange. They said without a receipt they would not refund or exchange the item.

Is Primark being unnecessarily mean, or should I pay better attention to a shop's return policy?

I bought my son a pack of 5 pants in age 10 size. Went to have a coffee, looked at the pants and noticed that 4 pairs in the pack were age 4 size. I went back to the store (a few hours later) to have some idiot tell me their exchange policy didn't apply to underwear. What a fuck wit. She was apparently a senior sales assistant. How brain dead can you get. I kindly explained in a manner that may make sense to such a dumb ass that what I purchased wasn't what the description said and that I haven't changed my mind but a 10 year boy cannot wear pants for a 4 year old boy and the problem was the stores not mine. After some carefull consideration she said I'll do it just this once. Lmfao. What a dim wit. And just to add why is Primark a prime place for shop lifters? If I was going to risk getting arrested it would have to be for more than a £10 pair of jeans.

Good for you.

This is actually the case in most clothing stores now and has been for the past few years.

No disrespect to Primark but this always puzzles me. If I was a shoplifter I’d go somewhere more worth-the-risk.

That doesn’t surprise me at all!

I once bought black and white versions of the same bra in one branch far from my house, only to find that when I took the bras out of the bag the next day, the black bra had transferred A LOT of colour onto the white bra.

I took the bras back to my nearest Primark that very day. The assistant called the manager and he refused to refund me, first saying that I must have caused the damage myself. I asked how he could reasonably suppose that I had caused the transfer of the black colour in the outline of a bra onto the white bra within 24 hours when both bras are clearly tagged and unworn? He had no answer. He then said I need to take the items back to the store where I bought them. I said Primark policy is you can refund to any store, I’m not making a costly and long journey just because Primark have sold me shoddy goods made with cheap dye. He refunded me, but wasn’t happy.

I’m guessing because items don’t have security tags on them and there are few CCTV cameras and just one security guard usually.

Because items are low cost, thieves know Primark are less likely pursue them.

Having said that, I did see a couple with a toddler held outside my local store recently. They had stuffed items on the bottom shelf of their pushchair and walked out.

What was disconcerting was their utter lack of embarrassment, it was just another day to them, so I’m guessing it happens a lot, and with repeat offenders.

They really are the bottom of the pile when it comes to brains.

Me too. 😂

Shops don't legally have to offer refund or exchange if you buy instore. They do it as a courtesy and because they think people are more likely to buy if they have the security of knowing that they can return if they get it home and find it doesn't work with the shoes they were planning to wear it with, or they didn't try it on in store and find at home that it's not a good fit.

Sports Direct have made the calculation that it will work better for them if they don't offer that extra service so they don't. I think they have signs at the tills saying exchange or credit note only don't they?

They really do pursue people even though items are low cost. They also have a lot of store detectives in plain clothes as well as security guards although obviously that depends on store size.

It's not 'a rule' at all!!

I took an item back without the receipt and was told no. I just said, fine, no problem it’s my mistake and the assistant actually thanked me for being nice about it as apparently they spend their days being harangued by people who are rude and unpleasant to the staff for simply doing their jobs.

Im not talking about damaged items, just wrong size or changed my mind returns.

I can totally understand why they refused to refund you something without a receipt that’s completely understandable.

But refusing to exchange for a different size even when you have the receipt is unnecessarily restrictive.

It's really not, as has been repeatedly explained on this thread. People buy discounted items off the shelves in one store and then exchange it in a store where it's still full price. We had people in Ireland who spent their days doing this before policy changed. And people just steal items and ask to exchange it at till and walk out without having paid for original item. It would cost Primark an absolute fortune to allow that to happen.

This is why I always get the receipt. If your transaction is not "proof of purchase" then how dare shops even ask if we want a receipt!

I guess it'll become more common as more shops don't automatically give receipts.

I went to Boots this morning and they didn't have the shampoo I wanted so I bought similar and then thought I'd have a look in Superdrug. Superdrug obviously sell the same stuff and the staff were staring at my every move - I was so pleased to have my receipt from Boots as the shampoo was just rolling around in my cotton shopper.

Sorry but I don’t understand how exchanging for a different size of the same item at the same price with a receipt means Primark lose money? Can you explain?

If this is the case then stores should give out receipts automatically.

I accidentally got a top that was the wrong size and lost the receipt,they wouldn't exchange. I always triple check the sizes before I go to the till now.

If you, as a genuine customer does it, it doesn't.

But having a policy of exchange without receipt means people can pick up two items from the rack bring them to the till saying you'd like to exchange the smaller one for the bigger one, they say ok and pop new one in a bag and you walk out without having paid for anything.

But I have always said exchange should be with receipt only.

I am not sure why you're saying things like 'this has been repeatedly explained on this thread' when you haven't bothered to read my posts properly. Nowhere have I said Primark should exchange without a receipt.

Ha! Because I'm multitasking and misread your post 🤣

Dare I say it but this is an argument FOR being emailed a receipt, something there was a thread about last week.

Sports Direct don’t do refunds even with a receipt. You get a credit note.

But refusing to exchange for a different size even when you have the receipt is unnecessarily restrictive.

That must be new-ish. I’ve changed stuff that didn’t fit in Primark plenty of times. It was kind of accepted that because the queue were so long you could just buy it, try it on at home and bring it back if it didn’t fit properly.

They were strict about the labels still being attached.