To never shop at Zara again?

[Avaximitis]

I feel like I've had a terrible customer experience with Zara.
I bought some clothes for my 11 year old DGD for Christmas presents. I bought them online on 9th December and gave them to her Christmas day.
On NYE I was admitted to hospital with pneumonia and stayed in hospital for 2 weeks. I needed oxygen and IV medication and have been very unwell.
I returned home yesterday.
Family visited when I got home and DD gave me 3 of the Zara items back, apologising that they do not fit. Unworn. Tags in place. Simply too small. DD said she couldn't return them to me whilst I was in hospital receiving oxygen, for obvious reasons, so waited until I got home.
I have spent 1 hour today talking on their 'chat' system. They have no customer service telephone number to call, which I much prefer. Anyway I asked for a real person and not an AI bot and was connected to a person. I explained everything and asked if I can return these 3 items. I explained about being in hospital and I explained that whilst I was in hospital I missed the 30 returns date. I explained I got home yesterday evening and am contacting them today at my first opportunity. I explained the items are unworn with tags in place. I have checked, and none of the items are in their January sale. They are all in stock and all full price.
The associate I dealt with point blank refused a return. It is 6 days too late.
Despite them being bought for Christmas present so there was 3 weeks until I actually gave the items to DGD. And despite the fact I have been in hospital.
Not one ounce of sympathy.
No extended Christmas returns period.
No telephone number to call.
No display of understanding of my situation.
A total refusal to accept a return when it is only 6 days late.
I'm staggered beyond belief.
Truly unbelievably poor customer service.
I can't believe it.

I’m surprised your daughter is bothering you with this after you’ve been so unwell. Tell her to try to return them or sell them. And always get a gift receipt! It’s not worth getting worked up over.

It’s not even that cheap. I find their kids stuff quite pricey, and it doesn’t even last well.

They’re a horrid retailer though so vote with your feet in the future.

@IreneFromSkibbereen
Zara’s parent company Inditex posted record profits of £4.6 billion for the year to end October 2025. They do not care about a few items of kids clothes.

That’s what I thought. The day after you are discharged from a fortnight in hospital, some returns for you to deal with!

I'm so sorry for what you went through, it sounds like you had an awful time and I hope you're feeling better. But having worked in retail customer service two things are also true: everyone has a sob story and expects to be the exception to the rule, and some companies absolutely tie the hands of their staff. Two places I worked for wouldn't allow a staff till ID to process a refund with an out of date receipt. It required a manager to override, and if the manager says no it's tough shit.

I've also been a manager and been pulled up and disciplined for overriding too many out of date receipts 🤷‍♀️

It's deeply annoying but they haven't done anything wrong by adhering to their policy. If they made exceptions for every person who had a sad story to tell they'd be making exceptions all the time.

I am sorry you have been so unwell. If that’s their policy though then there’s not a lot you can do. Anyone could come up with a story as to why they missed the return date.

Just forget about a receipt and take them into a Zara store. If they’re still full price then you can get your money back onto a gift card and your granddaughter can shop for items she wants.

This is an aside and a likely contentious one. Zara, Massimo Dutti, Stradivarius and Pull and Bear are all under Inditex company who are supporting the genocide in Gaza. Shop elsewhere.

Amazon gets a lot of flack on here but it would never be a problem with Amazon. One, their return period is long and two, they are very customer friendly, I had no issue ever in requesting a refund past the deadline

sorry OP, I agree that they could be nicer!

Take them and exchange for the side that will fit.

Your dd should not have bothered you with this, and you should not be concerning yourself. Honestly, you have been seriously unwell and need to rest and recover. Next time family visit, advise them to exchange in store for the larger size. You simply can’t get involved, or you run the risk of not recovering. I have spent years recovering from the same. It is not to be trifled with.

Because they're a multi national fast fashion polluter who gives even less of a shit about their customer service than the plastic they produce parading as items of clothing.

True, and they’re so quick to refund the return, I got one today and I’d barely left the post office where I’d sent it back 🤣 the box could have contained any old junk for all they know. Although I did once hear that a lot of their returned items go to a landfill as they don’t bother with the manpower to manually process them, so that’s not so good.

OP Zara are horrid. They wouldn’t let me return a scarf once that had started to fray badly on the first wear. The manager was SO rude, couldn’t budge, and said it was just a ‘boho design’ that basically I was too stupid to appreciate (it really wasn’t, it was just craply made)

That aside, I wouldn’t dream of bothering my grandmother with the return of Christmas gifts after she’d been seriously unwell. I’d sort it myself or stick them up on Vinted.

Can you get to a shop @Avaximitis ? Rules isn’t rules as I was just over the 30 days as I didn’t know about it when I took some stuff back for dd early December and they overrode the message saying it was over the 30 days and refunded me.

didnt know how lucky I was!

But that's the sensible thing to do as a matter of course when buying for someone else! However, providing you didn't pay cash, you can show proof of payment and perhaps exchange the items?

Of course never shop at Zara they are one of the worst culprits of the fast fashion culture in the world! You literally could not really shop any less sustainable

Send an email direct to the CEO.
More importantly, take care and rest up. Hope you feel fully recovered soon.

Even with a gift receipt the recipient will have to be quick off the mark given as you say the gift may have been purchased earlier in the month, And even shops that give a fixed window for gift receipts at Christmas might only have e.g a two week window for returns from Christmas Day. And if you're a certain jewellery chain if the gift was purchased in a shop you have to physically go into a shop as opposed to being able to send back online. It's a swizz and is disappointing.

Well I’m sticking to my guns. I’ve extracted refunds and apologies from various bad companies through sheer persistence.

And I don’t believe there is a business on this planet that is immune to bad publicity. One person has a bad experience, they tell their family and friends, who warn their own contacts, who mention it on social media, and the story slowly ripples out…

People are too passive in response to shabby treatment. And Inditex’s billions, in the end, absolutely do depend on selling those “few items of kids’ clothes”.

Dont understand why should a shop accomodated this. I am in a different country and most shops will not allow you to give stuff back at all. Sometimes you can swap for a different item or for a giftcard, if you are lucky.

DM has done similar for me when I was in hospital - go in, in person, with a copy of your discharge letter, and ask for a credit note/exchange not a refund. Ask very nicely, put on your best doddery old lady routine (DM is as sharp as a tack but can “be a bit slow”, repeat herself a lot and spend 20 minutes looking in her bag for a non-existent receipt etc when it suits her), and see if they take pity on you.

Nobody wants to be mean to a sweet old lady, and nobody in retail wants to be stuck all morning trying to fob off a sweet old lady who keeps going round and round in circles about hospitals and receipts. Generally quicker for them to issue a credit note and have done with it.

I personally have friends who due to how the staff were, attitudes shown and general hassles with returns/refunds
Have never ever visited zaras again after at most a couple of visits
This is the only clothing store they apply this rule to

Consumer law in the UK is very strong - they do have to have a refund period.

I was genuinely horrified when I lived in Canada and everything was “final sale only”. Could barely believe it was legal (it was).

I don’t see why they would care about your personal circumstances. Everyone can come up with a reason that’s why this is a policy. Many, many stores do the same.
Nothing stopped your daughter from returning them!

This is their customer service account on TwitX: https://x.com/ZARA_Care

You could try trawling through all 400-ish listings on LinkedIn for likely important bods: https://www.linkedin.com/company/zara/people/?keywords=zara%20uk

You can try phoning 0800 030 4238 or 020 7851 4300.

I strongly support contacting the problem-solving desks of all & any media until you get bored! I used to work at a newspaper, not in editorial, and only had to tell awkward companies where I worked to get a favourable result.

Wouldn’t work in my company either.
No receipt, no return.