AIBU to ask a charity shop to refund a fake designer jumper?

[Thelongestdayever]

My teenage DD has recently got into thrift shopping. She bought a designer sports brand jumper yesterday in a charity shop, new with the tags on, she paid £40 so not cheap but still a saving on rrp.

When she was showing me we realised it’s not real. I suspected as the quality is off and on closer inspection it’s a definite fake.

DD took it back to the shop today and they refused her a refund saying that they only refund faulty items. AIBU to go back with her and ask that they do refund? The RRP would be about £60 so not unreasonable of her to presume it was real but a bit cheaper, IMO (eg it’s not like it was a Chanel bag for a tenner which I would clearly expect to be fake). £40 is a lot of money to DD and it’s not even really a good fake in hindsight.

Tell the manager what you have told us here.
If she won't refund then I'm afraid you'll need to write to the head office of the charity.
In the meantime, have a word with Trading Standards and maybe they will pay the shop a visit.

I suppose it depends - were they advertising it as a genuine Nike (or whatever)? Did a shop assistant make representations/ assure her it was genuine? If they did mislead her into buying it, then they should refund it.

If they didn't and she just assumed that it was genuine without asking or being told that it was, I think I'd just chalk this up as a life lesson (albeit an expensive and annoying one).

They aren’t allowed to sell fake designer goods so they definitely should refund. Tell them you’ll reports them if they don’t.

I would take it back. It was sold under false pretences. She was buying something not making a charitable donation.

Absolutely FINE to do this, OP. You definitely should.
Good luck and let us know how you get on.
YANBU.

Did she like the design of the jumper? Did she think the jumper, as presented was worth £40? She could see the jumper, was happy to pay the marked price, so no, I don't see that she should get a refund. Useful lesson. Buy stuff because you like it, not for the label on it.

I would take it back and say if they sold a fake which isn’t legal

They aren’t allowed to sell fakes, so she should get her money back.

I think I may have misunderstood, a jumper was donated to a charity shop, so second hand. Someone brought it from a charity shop, staffed by volunteers who may know nothing about it. And you want a refund?

Bullshit, the fake designer item is likely to be worse quality than the proper designer item.

Absolutely fine to insist on a refund for a counterfeit jumper. Fair enough that the staff missed it, but I’d go to trading standards if they won’t give a refund.

Charity shops arent exempt from the law on selling counterfeit items. Take it back and spell out the law.

OP's daughter wants a refund as they have been sold a fake item, which a shop isn't legally allowed to do.

As for the volunteers having no idea about the item. That's clearly not the case. They obviously believed the jumper to be a designer item, or why else would they be selling it for £40.

She had the item in her hands. She was prepared to pay the amount asked. It's not as if she had sent for it and then wasn't happy with the quality when it arrived.

I would take it back and inform them that selling counterfeit goods is illegal and they either refund the money or you report them

She’s 14 of course she bought it because it has the designer logo on it!

They do know about brands and they believed it to be real, as otherwise why did they price it at £40? My MIL volunteers in a charity shop and they are trained to research items before they price them. It was on a rail of other BNWT items from other designer brands.

At £40 I think it’s reasonable to presume they’re selling it as real. It was on a rail of other designer items. No they weren’t labelled as genuine explicitly but when are they in a charity shop?

Shitty of them not to refund immediately, especially given her age. It is indeed against the law for them to sell counterfeit goods.

Go down there. If they don't refund, kick off at Head Office, on social media etc.

And if that fails:
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/somethings-gone-wrong-with-a-purchase/report-fake-or-counterfeit-goods/

Charities don't get a free pass at being wankers, because charity.

Normally I would think it’s a bit mean to return an item to a charity shop but given they charged a premium for it being designer, on this occasion I think your dd is more than justified.

That’s bad. In the charity shop dd goes into it’s all assumed to be fake and priced accordingly as the staff rightly say they can’t verify authenticity. Dd thinks she has some real finds but knows.

Counterfeit goods are illegal to sell. Charity shop is trying it on. They’re told this, they still do it, IME.

Trading Standards at the council ought to know if shop carries on doing it; they pop in and ‘train’ the manager.

To give the shop benefit of the doubt they probably didn’t realise, I presume they saw the label and the tags and presumed it was real. She said the lady who originally served her remarked on the brand as she wondered why it was so expensive - she apparently said ‘oh I wondered why that was so expensive, it’s this make, my grandson wears them’.

They priced it high because they thought it was designer but they sold a fake. Bit dodgy ground there tbh, even if unknowingly.

They should refund.

What did the shop write on their own tag?
If their own tag stated that it was the genuine brand then your DD should absolutely get a refund as it is not what she agreed to buy.
If the shop tag said in style of or 'like' x brand then your DD can't claim that it's not as described.
The key here is the shop's published returns policy which legally should be on display near the till. Most charity shops have return policy online (or the big ones do) and is generally 30 days.
Your DD should go back and ask to see the refund policy and request a fund on the basis that the item is not as described because it's fake - if she can show proof then that's better. If they refuse then ask to see the manager and if that doesn't work ask for a contact for customer services and say that you'll be contacting trading standards as well. Chances are they'll refund and the refund must be cash or card (depending on how the original payment was made) and absolutely do not get fobbed off with a credit note as you do not have to accept it unless you paid with one or it clearly states so in their published refund policy for 'good will' refunds. This is not a 'good will' situation if they have sold an item that is proved to be not as described.
Hope that helps 😊