Grrr Primark

[WinterKitchen]

A friend gave me a birthday bag with lots of stuff in which included some slippers and flip flops from Primark both of which were too small. I took them back today obviously unworn and they refused to change because I didn't have receipt.

After explaining several times that no I don't have a receipt because someone else bought them for me they asked did I have a gift receipt or a photograph of one. Of course not. I wouldn't ask for that and I didn't tell my friend I was returning the items as I didn't want to upset her or ask for a receipt.

I know the assistant can't do anything, and she offered to fetch a manager but I didn't see the point as they clearly wouldn't change the items. I told them to keep them as they're no good to me and that I would not be returning.

Just frustrating really. Only talking about £10 maybe, and I've already got far too many flip flops and slippers anyway. But I'm just annoyed.

Primark wouldn’t have put the items back out on the floor to sell. They would have put them in to lost property. If the items aren’t claimed after a month then they are given to charity.

Ask for the reciept. It's not like you were saying that the gifts were awful so want to change , it was sizing! That friend now may buy that size again for you in the future and you'll be in same situation

I used to work at CEX and my gosh it was awful. The customers are so rude and entitled and you just have to take it (most of the time!). Personally think every adult should have to work in retail for a month lol. Or hospitality!

In my 30 years of retail, 99% of the people who say they won't come back are met with a celebration. The most common thought I have is "Do you promise?"

Stores legally don't even have to refund with a receipt unless faulty, Primark's policy gives you MORE rights than the law.

Hi @WinterKitchen I share your frustration.

As PP have said, they may not be able to give you a refund or a gift card to avoid encouraging shop-lifters. But, if it’s an item they still have for sale and it’s clearly unused and undamaged (e.g. shoes still fastened together so clearly haven’t be worn), it’s v unreasonable to not offer you an exchange to the correct size. You came in with the item and left with the same item, just in another size. I sometimes show the security guard as I enter, or go straight to a shop assistant to proove I came in with them.

And the people who suggested it’s churlish to leave them there seem to be missing the obvious (environmentally-friendly) point that, if they won’t exchange them, they may as well put them back on the shelves and someone else buy/make use of them, rather than go to landfill. I’ve done it before myself. And at that point they’ve usually offered me an exchange or gift card, as no one trying to rip them off would give them back for nothing. So, it can be a way to show you’re genuine.

Though, rather than hand them back, better to donate them to a charity shop if you can’t be bothered to sell them and buy yourself a similar pair to the ones your friend chose for you. Or regift them. Stops Primark making even more money.

Personally, if I liked the items but they were the wrong size, I’d have explained to the friend and asked if she had proof of purchase so I could change. If I preferred a different pair, I’d swap for those and tactfully say they didn’t have the ones they’d chosen in my size or they didn’t feel comfy. But I’d chose something as similar as possible, which I’d consider to be their gift, as I really appreciated the thought. Otherwise, you friend may wonder why they never see your wearing them and think you didn’t like them. Or assume they bought the correct size and give you other things that size in future. I’d much rather people asked me for a receipt if a gift doesn’t fit.

Actually a bit of a bug for me when people linger around for a receipt for EVERYTHING. Unless it’s a really high cost purchase, or leaving Costco. Who even keeps a receipt these days?

yanbu it’s such a non-effort to do a straight swap.

if they won’t exchange them, they may as well put them back on the shelves and someone else buy/make use of them, rather than go to landfill.

People have already explained multiple times that they won't put them out on the shelf.

I get a receipt for everything. It's proof of purchase, and essential for a return or refund. I also check them against my bank statements..

Why?

I've literally just explained why in my post!

I don’t understand all the people who are carrying on like this is only a thing that has happened recently. I was a retail manager 20 years ago and it was the case then.

Primark only introduced its policy of no exchange after 30 days and no exchange without a receipt about 6/7 years ago.

I think she means, why do you check the receipts against your bank statements?

I think M & S does the same too now? I read about this somewhere.
People talking about exchanging an item and now having a receipt, ao they can then return it and get a refund - this only works if you have the original receipt. With an exchange receipt (in somewhere like M & S) they give you a credit voucher or gift card. Stores have really tightened up on this in recent years, for all the reasons already stated.

For what reason?

If they are current stock they will probably end up back out on sale because they probably got added to the pile of returns that lives behind the tills and the person who has the job of re shelving stock won't know the reason why they are randomly there and that they weren't processed back through the till.
It will completely mess up the stock figures though which is all computerised counting what comes in and what goes out.
But with the level of shoplifting I expect the stock count is way off every day.

It will mess up their stock numbers for a start. Imagine that happens once per day in each store, that's an extra 70000 items on the shelves per year.

@slashlover stocktake day at Primark must be horrendous.

For that it is presumed to be the property of the customer. So it goes in lost and found until it is unclaimed and then disposed of. Technically, if customer cooled down and came back with their tail between their legs asking for their item back, the shop couldn’t just say ‘sorry love, Janice over there just bought it’

@TY78910 to be honest it depends if the assistant gave them to the floor supervisor or just put them with the other returns.

It's bad enough at every other store I've worked in.

Because I like to check everything. I monitor in case of fraud.

No shop exchanges without receipt.

Pick up item...

So you pick up an item from the shelves, and then you take it to the counter, pretending you brought it with you to exchange for a different size or colour. The shop then exchanges it for the size or colour you are asking for.

Wouldn't the item you are pretending to bring with you have security tags on it, rather giving away the fact that you didn't, in fact, purchase it earlier and have now brought it back to the shop?

I don't think they have tags on stuff in Primark