I have never felt more like a company looked at me and thought, "We can take this person for a fool."
Here is the timeline of my ongoing nightmare:
Day 1: I see the product online. It is £4 more expensive than in-store. No click-and-collect. Fine. I pay the delivery fee because I need the item.
Day 2: I walk into the physical store and buy it. Now I have two. I go home and immediately request a refund for the online order. Sent email but ignored.
Day 4: sent another email and ignored again
Day 5: Called twice and waited 45 minutes just to be cut off. Called again and waited 30 minutes for someone to answer. Their response? "Just refuse the delivery when it comes. We'll refund you in 14 days." Simple enough, I thought. I was wrong.
Day 6: The courier arrives. I refuse the package. It goes straight back to them. Job done, surely.
Day 20: No refund.
Day 21: No refund. No email. No nothing.
Day 25: I call them. A bored-sounding person repeats the same script: "14 days from refusal." I remind them it has been over 14 days. They don't care. They tell me to wait.
Day 28: I send a third email. Still nothing. I call again. Same script. Same indifference. I am starting to feel like I am talking to a wall that has been programmed to say "14 days" on loop.
Day 34 (today): An email finally lands. After over a month of chasing, begging, and being ignored, they have decided to refund me. But not the full amount. They are keeping the delivery charge and who knows when I will actually get my refund, do you?
Let me make this crystal clear: I refused the package. The courier never handed it to me. It never entered my home. It went straight back to their warehouse. There was no delivery.
And yet, they are charging me for it.
So let me ask you: what exactly did I pay for? The privilege of walking to my front door and saying "no thank you"? The honour of being ignored for a month? The pleasure of being told to wait 14 days, only for that to turn into 34 days and counting?
They didn't even have the decency to call me. They didn't reply to a single email. They just sat on my money for over a month, probably hoping I would forget, and then tossed me a partial refund like I should be grateful.
This isn't incompetence. This is deliberate. They know exactly what they are doing. They are banking on the fact that most people won't fight for £4. Well, I will. Because it is not about the money anymore. It is about the principle. It is about the month of my life I wasted checking my bank account, refreshing my email, and calling a helpline that exists only to waste my time.
I was told to refuse the delivery. I followed their instructions to the letter. And my reward? A partial refund and a month of stress.
Do with that information what you will. But if you enjoy being ignored, being lied to about timelines, and being charged for services you never received, then by all means, hand over your credit card. As for me, I will be taking this to my bank and letting them fight it out. I am done being polite.