Returning unopened formula - Tesco

[dannid]

This afternoon at approx 4pm I purchased a can of SMA Soya milk from my local Tesco as I was considering trying my DS on it as for various reasons I think he may have a milk intolerance. When I got home I did a bit of Internet research and decided that I do not want to give the soya formula to DS. I decided I would take it back (unopened and with receipt) to the store and exchange for his usual formula. I have just visited the store an been told by the (very snooty) lady on customer services that it is government legislation that they cannot accept returns on any baby products. Does anyone know if this is correct? I cannot find anything on their website to say that I can't return this type of product?!

You can't return formula.

I have three unopened boxes of various prescribed formulas from when we were testing them for DS and I can't do anything with them, except give them to a pharmacist to be destroyed. Such as shame as they're worth quite a lot of money.

I would imagine its due to the risk of tampering and contamination. I seem to recall a few years ago in China ( I think) baby milk was tampered with and lots of babies were very ill

Where does it actually 'say' this though?!? I could understand if it was weeks later or it had been tampered with or if I didn't have a receipt but I really can't imagine what they think I could have done to it in the space of a few hours!?!

They won't take the risk.

It wouldn't take long for someone to tamper with it.

Yes u can't return any baby products - we once tried to rerun the incorrect nappies but no not allowed

I may be paranoid, but I'm really glad they have this policy, I know it's unlikely, but it wouldn't take long to tamper with the formula if someone wanted to.

I have returned nappies to ocado, ordered the wrong size and they took them back off me at their next delivery a week later

I had a couple of tins of unopened formula when DS was tiny and I panicked about bfing going wrong. We didn't need them in the end so I gave them away on Freecycle. It is a shame because they ate expensive but I thought someone could benefit from them (and they obviously trusted me not to have tampered with them which of course I didn't). Just a thought.

Fairly sensible policy I think.

*are

You do know that you have no right to return any product just because you don't like it, if bought in store?

Perhaps you should have done your research before buying, i bet you do next time

Its only baby food and formula that can't be returned by law (unless faulty in some way) - nappies should be fine

This sort of thing is why

Yes I will probably put on FC or give to a friend...am sure I can find something to do with it but it's not the point IMO. What annoys me is that they don't make this policy clear when you are purchasing items. If I had known i wouldn't be able to return it i would have waited to purchase the item after researching on the internet! Also, I may be being naive but I don't see how anyone could have tampered with it when it has a foil seal over the can?!?

It's because they can't resell it, they can't take the risk of anything having been done to it and being sued someone's child being affected.

So if they exchanged/refunded the one you've bought they'd just have to dispose of it, it's not good business for them - though they could exchange it as a goodwill gesture and destroy it.

Same with the prescribed ones we have - they can't give them to anyone else, even though they cost the NHS a fortune. I feel really bad about it, so I've kept them to freecycle them if anyone's willing to take them on trust.

You can usually return non edible/medical kids products but like with adult medicines they take a cautious approach due to possibilities of tampering. There have been some nasty cases over the years leading to this caution.

Some people go to incredible lengths to harm others for no good reason, and have used tiny needles to contaminate things. So the foil would look intact, but the product could still be contaminated. It's happened before, sadly.

In the article I linked, someone drilled a hole under the label of the can through which they emptied out the formula and replaced it with flour and salt. They then returned it with foil seal intact, someone else bought it and fed it to their baby...

I understand that there are some crazies out there...but am still confused as to where tesco actually state this is their policy or what the actual law states!

That article is chilling. How awful that anyone could even think of doing that. :(

I'm pretty sure you have no legal right to return any item just because you've changed your mind or bought in error. The fact that most shops will exchange unwanted items is just a gesture of goodwill (and if it were adult food eg fresh meat they wouldn't take it back either) Probably says something about this on tesco's website.

www.tesco.com/termsandconditions/termsconditionsGroc.htm#Returns

The Sainsbury's website states they won't accept formula returns, so I imagine that Tesco have the same policy written down somewhere.

These t&c's are for Internet orders. I don't know about what legal rights people have to return items they no longer want? Was just annoyed that it's not made clearer before you buy items either way!

You have no legal right to return an item that you dont want.

I took Aptimal back to morrisons and swapped it for cow and gate. I didn't think there'd be a problem..