To be irritated at having to pay for returns??

[HomeBird43]

Ordered some stuff from a clothing website. Sent back the stuff I didn’t want. £1.99 per return deducted from refund.

Wtf? Is this a common thing?? Is this not something that online retailers build in to their margins etc?! I have never come across this before.

If they're doing this they need to show photos of every garment laid flat with a tape measure showing the true, accurate size. Which should ave been implement years ago, anyway 😒

i view it as being cheaper than driving back to the city or town, paying a fortune in car parking fees

But the city/town has dozens of shops so you can try things on in all of them. Plus not everyone needs to spend a lot to access them. I am a couple of miles from two big retail parks and a big shopping centre. I can also get to a large city on the park and ride, which can cost as little as £1.50 on the bus.*

I can also make looking for and trying things on part of a day out and also visit some galleries/museums and go for lunch so even if I don't buy anything much, the day and money isn't wasted. Whereas you can spend a tenner or more on postage and returns and get nowhere in the quest for much needed new clothes unless you're lucky with fit etc.

I was looking at it from my perspective. My towns is dead. We don't have the big name shops, we have a small Primark and a small H and M. I'm in awe when i go the city and find these stores are over a couple of floors!!
It takes me 45 mins to get to the Trafford Centre if I want decent shops and an hour to Liverpool or Manchester. That is a big chunk of my day by the time I've parked up, wandered into the centre and found the shop and return home.

Shopping is something i don't enjoy so I would rather do it in my own home where I can see what an outfit would look like with different shoes, shape wear, etc.

Also if I'm on a day out doing galleries and museums I don't want to be carrying shopping around
For less than a price of a cup of coffee( usually) its worth it for me to order a couple of sizes and return the ones that don't fit. I save time and a decent amount of petrol money by ordering in line, so I dont have to out in the first place and then go out again and return stuff that is not right.
Like everything,It'll suit some people but not others.

That argument doesn't work for those of us who live in remote places.....it's online or during the couple of trips a year which we make to bigger cities!
I don't order a lot online tbh as it's so much faff.

I hate it too because many stores are online only so it isn’t as if you have the opportunity to try them on in store first to make sure they fit and suit. Seems unfair to charge for that reason alone. Plus even the stores that do have actual shops like new look or h&m are often few and far between so you’d have to travel miles to try the clothes on. They don’t always have everything in store either.

It’s pretty standard and will say so on their website. I do often only order from places that specifically say they have free returns.

Some people order loads of stuff with no intention of keeping the vast majority. I think it’s reasonable to discourage this as it is extremely expensive for the companies to sort and resell stock- cheaper retailers don’t even bother😡.

Either they charge for returns or increase costs of everything for everyone.

The irony is that I'm often guilty of adding something to my basket to get free postage. I usually go for batteries, socks, tights etc that will be used anyway

I must admit I do that too, @Citrusandginger. You are right about the cost of parking too. Someone else told me they looked at parking/delivery costs in terms of their time. She costed her time as mimimum wage so if was worth having it delivered if eg the delivery was £5.21 but it would have taken her half an hour to go and buy it herself.

It's common and becoming more so, and should be standard. Returns have a huge financial and environmental impact. The way I see it is that it's cheaper than travelling to a shopping centre or city centre.

Agree. Before Next started charging for returns I had their Unlimited Delivery pass and I ordered loads. Yes, I did order for size choice and yes, I did send loads back, but I spent far more with them than I would have done otherwise. I didn't spend much anywhere else and I kept far more than I would otherwise.

They've obviously done their own maths on the costs involved, but I'm pretty sure they've lost more from me than I cost them.

This annoys me.... being taller than average, there isn't any shops that I can go to that stock my fit, so I have to order online, and because manufacturers/retailers still haven't standardised their sizing, I need to order more than one to see which size fits best.

Loads have started doing it now, and maybe it's fair and reasonable but doesn't mean I have to like it! I don't shop anywhere that doesn't provide free delivery and returns!

The difference is, if you went into town to buy clothes, you’d try them on, so you’d get the size that fits. You can’t do that with online, so you have to hope that the size you think you are is the one that fits.

Some are really tardy about refunds too. I bought a dress from Brand Alley and they sent a pair of jeans. I had to take photos of the jeans, the order form stating dress, phone them to get a returns label to download and then it took weeks for the refund to be processed.

Yes, but that is why most people don't live remotely because it is much more expensive and inconvenient for lots of things.

Shops can obviously only be where there are enough people to make it worthwhile for them.

I can understand it to a point - there must be a massive cost to the companies with returns and people ordering loads and only keeping one item.

However I don't order from anyone that charges for returns, unless I am abolsutely certain that the size etc will be right. I used to buy a lot from Next, and yes fair enough I returned some - but as much as anything because their sizing is so variable. Since they hiked their Unlimited charge and started charging for returns I haven't bought a single item from them.

Soooo.....you can buy your clothes from real shops then?
I don't get your argument. Buying clothes online isn't compulsory, if for you it's more cost effective and enjoyable to get them from a physical shop, do that.

For people who prefer to buy online they do so with an acceptance of the stated costs. The only issue would be if the website doesn't make it clear what their refund charges are.

I agree that the shops cause themselves some problems by their terrible sizing though. I don't understand why they can't just include the exact measurements of the item - they must have these to have made it in the first place!

Perhaps the return costs should be based on what you keep - i.e. if you keep more than 50% of what you ordered you get free returns, or if you bought an item in 2 sizes and kept 1 then you can return the other for free. That would dissuade the instagram 'haul'-ers who buy loads and return the vast majority.

I'm assuming it's Boohoo - they want you to buy their yearly free delivery so that's usually cheaper than next day/1 return! It does say it

But the city/town has dozens of shops so you can try things on in all of them.

Mine doesn't. We have Next, New Look, Primark, Roman and Matalan. New Look, Primark and Matalan are like jumble sales and I wouldn't want to use the changing rooms with the dirty floors and flimsy curtains anyway. Next and Roman are the only 2 of those I would want to shop in and neither stock everything that's on the website.

It’s ridiculous. When all of the UK retailers implement and adhere to consistent sizing then fair enough, but until they do then morally they should absorb the cost

I was just pointing out that it's not as straightforward as you were implying.

As it is there is demand for a decent clothing shop or two up here, but I am not sure they would ever be allowed to open.

Not a problem with them doing it but they need to make sizes consistent. What is a 12 anyway? Why can't we just have inches and three different lengths like men?

But it is straighforward. The people who return things should have to pay for those returns. It is only fair.

Why should everyone be forced to pay?

And it will make people think twice before they order unnecessary stuff. I think that this is the main reason that the online retailers are doing it.

It costs them so much to put the clothes back to sell again and a lot of the cheaper retailers just end up burning them or sending them to Africa as it is just not worth the cost for them.

i rarely buy online because of the sizing-one thing will fit another from the same shop wont in the same size its very frustrating

YANBU. Of course returns have a cost associated with them but putting the measurements on the website doesn’t, and doing that would cut down on the need to return - yet they don’t do it, so it can’t be about that.

I didn't actually say we shouldn't have to pay for returns, I think we probably should (or perhaps some sort of scheme where you get free returns up to a certain amount if your kept items come to over a certain amount - sort of a loyalty scheme idea?).

My point was largely in reference to not everyone having the same access to shops, and there are other things that affect that too, such as disability, anxiety etc. I also do think that the sizing around women's clothing is ridiculous, and even different styles from the same shop can have wildly different sizing.

I agree about the sizing.

A while ago, I bought 2 pairs of the same trousers, same size, in different colours. I tried on one pair and they were a perfect fit. Went to wear the 2nd pair a couple of weeks later, and found they were a full 2 inches longer. They were (supposedly) cropped and wide-legged, so the pair that were too long looked ridiculous, flapping around just above my ankles.

When I went to send them back, the return fee was £4.99!

I can't sew any more, thanks to arthritis in my hands, so couldn't turn them up myself, but thankfully a kind friend is doing them for me.