Company won't refund, keep promising gift card, never arrives - next steps?

[RockingMyFiftiesNot]

I don't want to mention the company name . However, I ordered over £100 in a sale from a company I've bought from many times, in store usually but online recently for obvious reasons. All I'll say is it is a single label, not a department store.
Usually almost all clothes fit and suit but this time the clothes fitted badly and seemed very poor quality compared to usual.
Tried to return, but website now just points to customer services. Won't bore you with all the details of the 5 online chats I've had over the last month but summary is they have been taken over, systems have changed - so I have their sympathy. But £90 of the goods need to go back, they aren't issuing refunds just gift cards but I have been waiting weeks for the gift card and they keep saying 'it will be with you in 48 hours'. Setting aside the fact that I don't want to order £90 of goods from this company, the gift card still isn't materialising. If it was £20 I might let it go but £90 is a lot of money.
Anyone know if there is some sort of retail regulator I can take this up with?

Hi OP. It’s frustrating isn’t it. I’m afraid I’m not help regarding taking this higher up the chain/to regulators (I’m sure other posters will be)

If you have Twitter, I would write a complaint post and tag them in. You’ll get a response straight away. They don’t like to be called out publicly and the negative publicity. 😄

It’s worked for me. Wasn’t getting anywhere with a company’s customer service and someone responded straight away, was sorted within an hour.

Yes, Twitter is great for this and have used it in the past but now just use Twitter for professional reasons so don't want to use for this - although I could try to set up a separate account i guess. But I have no issue getting a response out of customer service, just the voucher isn't materialising.
Really frustrating!

Ahh I see. Sometimes you can find their CEO’s name and contact details online and email them. Also mention regulators. I know MNers have done this in the past as I’ve read it on here. Not sure what else to suggest. Hope others seeing this can?

I found this...
www.complaintexpert.co.uk/retail-and-shopping-complaint.html

I’m not a lawyer but I think if you are not returning due to the goods being faulty it’s a bit different
Still pretty shite customer service though

Is it Next by any chance? I would keep hounding them. What is the reason they won't refund the money? Does it say this in the terms and conditions?

@Hoppinggreen as OP ordered online she has the right to return them for any reason due to distance selling regulations. Did you pay by debit or credit card? You could try doing a chargeback on the card you used

I'd check the sale of goods act as sounds like good weren't merchantable quality & ask for a refund. Take names of who you've spoken to. Say if the money doesn't come, you'll lodge a formal complaint.

When buying goods off the internet the seller have to offer you 14 days right of return and refund.
www.businesscompanion.info/node/469/mid/1488

I dont think its Next, their returns are pretty straight forward. It's not house of frazer is it? They were taken over by sports direct

I have the names of all the people I spoke to as they send a chat transcript.

No it's not Next.

Did you pay by card?
Do a chargeback through your bank

Thanks for the links and advice, will follow up if I don't receive my gift card in a couple of days. It seems the problem is due to changes in systems and processes due to change of company ownership but I think I've cut them enough slack now

This is why I use amazon so much even though it's not a moral choice.

Distance selling rules state that you have the right to a full refund if you are returning within a specific time frame. You need to notify them within 14 days and then you have another 14 days in which to return them. The business can offer better terms than this, but these are the absolute minimum.

If it's a change of mind return (which I think this would fall under) they must be returned unused in the condition sent.

If you bought this "at a distance" then you do not have to accept the gift card. I would not accept gift cards at the moment anyway as too many retail businesses are folding and the card will be worthless.

As AutumnDragon says, if you told them that you didn't want the goods within 14 days of receiving them and returned them within 14 days of telling the retailer, you are entitled to a full refund. If that is the situation you should not allow them to fob you off with a gift card. This assumes the goods were not sealed for health protection (for clothes, that generally only applies to underwear) and were not tailor-made or personalised.

I see a poster refers to the Sale of Goods Act. That was replaced by the Consumer Rights Act some years ago. It would apply if the goods are faulty and gives you longer to reject the goods.

If you are entitled to a refund and the retailer refuses to give one, send a letter before action setting out brief details of the case, saying how much they owe you, giving them a reasonable deadline to respond (28 days is normal) and saying that you will take legal action without further notice if they fail to respond satisfactorily by the deadline.

Thank you @prh47bridge, very helpful. There was no paperwork in the parcel (which you would usually use to make a return). They tell me this is because they are now paperless. They sent no email confirmation of the order (I thought I mustn't have ordered it correctly, was going to place the the order again when the parcel arrived!) Online says contact customer services to make a return - which I did the day I received the parcel. They fobbed me off saying they had no record of my email address having placed an order. Eventually after a couple more contacts then said they couldn't refund, only offer a gift card. You couldn't make it up. I have ordered from this company many times using the app but the app was taken down. Never had problems with them before, I know they are struggling with the systems due to new company taking over. So I'm not sure whether the new company is duty bound to make a refund?

Problems they have with their systems are irrelevant.

If the new owners took over before you ordered they must provide a refund.

If the new owners purchased the old business, they must provide a refund.

The only way they are not liable is if the old business ceased trading and the new business purchased the assets.

@prh47bridge looks like they were bought out of administration but I'll have to have to do a bit more searching on dates the new company took over vs when I placed my order.

Have you returned the goods? How did you pay? I wouldn't accept credit from a company "just" out of administration

Do you have legal cover on your home insurance?

I called ours with a similar scenario - they told me exactly what to write in a letter to the seller referencing the correct legislation, then subsequently how to pursue it with the credit card company (because they'd gone bust )

It's worth a phone call.

If they bought the assets of the business from the administrator, the administrator is liable for any refund. That probably means you won't get anything, so the gift card is a goodwill gesture.

If they bought the business (i.e. the limited company) they are liable for your refund.

If you ordered after they bought the business from the administrator they are liable regardless of what they bought.

Ok thank you everyone. They have said I can keep the goods and donate them or pass them on (as they are no good to me else I wouldn't be returning them). Lots of good advice on here, will re-read and take it from there. Thanks everyone, appreciated

Update: I have finally received a refund via PayPal.
Long story short, I had an email from them saying I had 2 days to respond to their query else they would consider the matter closed. I had had nothing from them to respond to, only transcripts of the chats with customer services. As you can imagine, they received a strongly worded (but professional) response back. It was picked up by another customer services person in Australia (!) who immediately arranged a PayPal refund which has come through. Thanked him profusely but asked that he feed up the line that those manning the customer service chats are given training in how to deal with these situations.

Just shows it's worth fighting for, particularly when a company is in a state of flux with takeovers etc