To think this a really bad of Argos?

[Loveheart10]

I bought a small electrical item from Argos around 4 months ago. It cost £50. It’s the sort of thing you’d expect to keep for several years.

After 4 months it completely stopped working.

I did an online thing on the Argos website, and it said that even though their returns policy is 30 days because it was as broken I still as able to get a returns barcode to take it into store.

Went into store and they were having none of it. They said because it’s only 30 days I’d have to contact the manufacturer.

I went home and checked Argos own returns policy and it literally says that if an item is less than a year old they will refund or replace it.

So I rang customer services, they were having none of it and the woman was almost shouting at me to read the terms and conditions, which I had.

So I went straight to the chief executive email address, it seems to be the only way to get anywhere these days. So I wrote an email asking for a refund under my statutory rights.

Got a call from the executive team almost immediately and he confirmed that the store were in the wrong not to refund or replace the item.

I said I was happy to have a refund via gift card as I’d buy another one, not realising that the item now costs £20 more.

But I had to post the item back at my own cost.

Aibu to think that this is terrible customer service?

It seems to be becoming more commonplace for shops to /take your moneysell you crap and just wash their hands of it.

Edited to add that even though the guy on the phone was as puzzled as me as to why the store wouldn’t refund me, in his email he was very careful to say that the refund was only a goodwill gesture.

It’s not a bloomin goodwill gesture though is it.

That isn't great, but to be fair to Argos customer service has hugely declined everywhere. People often buy this stuff online, but I suspect posting it back at your expense would be the norm with online as well.
This is the trouble when a different method takes over- Argos doesn't have to be any better than online, because that becomes the norm.

Yes I had a terrible customer experience with JL recently too. It’s quite depressing as they used to be the one place you could rely on and now they’re just as dire as everywhere else. The enshitification of society rolls onwards.

You’re just trolling and being argumentative for the sake of it.

There are no end of items that you would expect to get years of use out of. Ceiling lights, wall lights, lamps, foot spa, mini Christmas tree, toothbrush, fan, kitchen scales.

The item actually has a 5 year manufacture warranty arrange so they are clearly confident that it should last.

In my experience the cost desktop necessarily equate to quality either. The longest lasting kettle and toaster I ever had was an Asda smart price set that my mum got me when we got our first house. Dh still has the kettle at work.

Why on earth not? £50 isn’t pocket change.

In hindsight I should have, but I was exasperated and just wanted to get a new item sorted as we needed it.

I might contact them and ask for hem to reimburse the postage.

Let's take for example a hairdryer. Argos has a few that cost between £12-15. I'd be happy if they only lasted a couple of years.

They also have a Babyliss one for £30 with a 5 year manufacturers guarantee. I expect they have them around £50 too. I would definitely expect them to last wasy longer then a few months.

Well, I wouldn't have expected compensation, but they should have paid the postage.

YANBU we recently had the same issue. Fan just broke after a few months. I got the barcode. Took it back, not even in a box or with the remote. She just took it and processed the refund.

If you have a return barcode then it's really not up to shop staff to argue about it.

That’s what I assumed. It wouldn’t allow you to produce a return barcode if it was outside the return period.

Im pretty sure the barcode was produced from my receipt.

Thank you all.

Eh? Plenty of electrical items are £50 or less, and yes I’d expect them to last years. Toaster, kettle, slow cooker. Not sure what your point is?

Sadly, it's the high Street now. All you can do is know your consumer rights and be ready to quote them.

My 15yr old bought a coat. A zip broke within 2 weeks so she took it back with the receipt. They were awful to her. So I took it in.

You'd think I was asking for the staff themselves to give me the money out of their wages. I had to quote consumer rights and refuse to be fobbed off with "call head office". They were so rude! I refused to leave until the manager had called head office herself. She stomped off clearly expecting to come back with a "they agree with me, get out" but instead she came back, suddenly all smiley with some nonsense about how "they were aware of a fault with this batch". She said they could either send it off to the manufacturers for them to issue a refund (yeah right) or I could take a credit note. Now, again, this is against my consumer rights but I wasn't going to win that argument and my daughter would spend the credit note so we accepted that.

They actually gave her £20 more on the credit note because they didnt take off a discount. Normally I'd have gone back as soon as I'd realised but I thought screw them and didnt. My daughter went back a week later to spend some of it and the lady refused to serve her and another member of staff had to step in. Imagine being more childish than a 15yr old. 🤣

I would expect an item like a toaster or kettle to last at least 5 years and cost £50 or less.

thats a shame , I actually use Argos a lot and always have a good experience,

It wasn’t fit for purpose. Write to them and give them 30 days for a refund and say that you will otherwise be issuing in the small claims court for costs and ask for their address for service. You should follow this through, but it’s worth it.

I've just returned my iron to Argos after 18 months , it's absolutely not fit or purpose, is already decided to purchase a different one from there costing £150 more , they had no issues with it.
However if I did not want to purchase a new one from Argos I would have had a refund no problem.

Seriously? Something has to be fit for purpose no matter the cost, and you don't know what the item was either.

I'm afraid its just the way "customer service" goes these days. It really is non existent. Before I retired I was in customer care and loved helping people and giving advice etc,sadly as we older ones retire,so has the "care".

Loads of things that can be bought for low prices I would expect to last for years - alarm clock, lamp, battery charger, kettle.

Just ring them and say you won’t be posting it back, you will take it to this branch of Argos on this date.

i would write a letter of complaint outlining all the issues especially having to post it back and ask for some money for that as well

I work for a company that supplies Argos with fairly high ticket prices. 300 to 600 pounds, and we have had many cases where Argos have refused refunds for faulty items and gave the customer out customer services telephone number. The customer then gets very frustrated that we can’t help at all and they have to go back to Argos. Such bad service and doesn’t happen with any of the other large chains we supply

I know someone who used to buy something from Argos, use it until it broke but by then the receipt and the guarantee would be long gone, so they would buy it again and simply switch the new item for the old and return for a refund 😳 stating they were sold an old faulty item.
I think it was a well known scam - and so this is why we can't have nice things.

@landofstories fitting username btw. I still have an old vacuum cleaner that cost £40 that is still going strong several years later although I was recently gifted a shark so I use that now because it's cordless and fab , point still remains.

I’d expect anything I’d bought for £50 to last years. Has the heat got to your brain?

Yes I would expect any electrical item to last at least 2 years, otherwise imagine all the extra items in land fill.