To be really cross with Monsoon?

[He11oKitty]

I have just wasted so much time on a bloody online order with Monsoon and I need to know if I’m being unreasonable. Is it me or is this really frustrating?

So I bought a Monsoon dress in two colours online to decide which colour to pick. Fine, except I forget to use my introductory discount code for 20% off. OK that’s my fault, but it’s simple, you’d think, just chat to them and ask them to apply it now. No, they say, once it’s ordered, I need to receive the original item and send it back and meanwhile reorder the item again with the discount code. OK that’s kind of silly and pretty wasteful for the environment (and everyone’s time) but anyway I go and reorder the two dresses again, now with discount code. I’m now out of pocket by 4x dresses.

Items arrive, I try on the two colours, decide which, and send the other three dresses back. I carefully check I’m returning the two full price items and one discounted item (they’re literally the same but double checked the order codes anyway). Return comes in today … they have only refunded two items - and both discounted! Arghhh.

YABU - this is just how online ordering goes

YNBU - it shouldn’t be this hard to give your customers a discount code they can use?

and how do I stop being annoyed by this so I can enjoy the dress? It’s for my birthday next week and I may be being overly emotional about it because we’ve recently been unsuccessful in fertility treatments and the dress was a treat to try and cheer myself up a bit. Help!

You couldn't pick a colour and forgot to use the code, so it's a faff of your own making tbh.

Couldn't you just immediately cancel the first ones then order them again with the code? Idk why they tried to force you to pay and receive something you know you'll send back?
Contact them again and explain you bought two at full price so need it refunded at that price. You can show them the online receipt.
It wasn't as if they were in the sale? Unless they are now in the sale which means they may only honour the current sale price. Which seems unfair but can happen.
If not It's a discount across all and any items on the first order.

They only refunded two dresses and not the third dress?

Contact them, send an email, with you order numbers specifying you've returned the two dresses from the first order and so should have the full priced refund. And the third dress is returned from the second order which had the discount applied to.
Complain that they caused this issue by not applying the discount/refunding the difference after u placed the order, instead asked you to go through the unnecessary faff of reordering a new order, and returning the old order once received.

I've had this situation before, the company have always just refunded the difference when I've forgotten to use a code.

You'd think this was possible, but no you can’t actually cancel an order even immediately after placing it. I realised as soon as I hit “pay” (of course 🤦🏻‍♀️) but there is no way of cancelling it (and that’s what they told me too).

It’s not just me that thinks this is weird, right?

It wasn’t a sale, it was a discount code to my account.

@He11oKitty yeah, that sounds weird and crap. You've proof you paid the full amount and sent it back so how can they dispute the full refund? I reckon they'll do it if you speak to them. I'd even ask for compensation as it's been such a hassle. They might give you another voucher code, lol? 🙃

Yes, they also only refunded two out of three items I sent back - despite emails from Royal Mail showing was received. I have emailed them and also raised a dispute with credit card company but that took a wee while. Let’s see what they say I guess.

I don’t know, I know it’s really small in the scheme of things (although a lot of money for me) but it was supposed to be something nice and it’s just turned into this big faff 😫

Oh lordy I don’t think I can be trusted with another voucher code 😂

I actually did get another code again by email, so the whole thing has also been quite baffling to be honest!

Fair enough. The colour is because we don’t have a Monsoon where I live but certainly I was kicking myself after forgetting to put the code in 🥹

Similar issue happened over here.

I ordered a spendy dress, clicked Buy Now and immediately realised the discount code hadn't applied. i contacted them right away and they told me I'd have to receive the dress and then return and re-order.

Such a waste of time.

When the dress came it was disappointing, so I just returned anyway.

I used to love Monsoon but I'm not so keen anymore :(

But then again, why offer me a code in the first place if they don’t give me a bit of grace to use it? I sent them a msg right after I realised I couldn’t cancel it.

Well at least I know I’m not the only one who does this, thank you 😅

I just also think it’s a waste of resources to send something someone has told you they don’t want? And also the return is free, so they are also paying to return it which seems silly?

Most places will specify Discount Codes can't be retroactively applied so YABU to expect them to do that.

Them messing up your return is a pain though

I don’t understand why you ordered both dresses the second time. Surely you could have made your decision with the first 2, returned them then ordered the actual one you wanted with the code.

Unfortunately, probably not in time for my birthday, but also this particular dress has sold out before so I was worried it would again. Otherwise this would have been more sensible I guess.

I think it’s making me realise that I actually quite dislike online shopping, and especially that it’s difficult to avoid these days since so many shops have closed / only open in bigger cities / don’t have many sizes. In person you get a reminder to use the discount code because it’s displayed in the shop or at the till (or common sense speak to someone). You can try on the clothes. And you can speak to a real person, not these endless online forms.

anyway thanks for listening, I do feel a wee bit better