Is NEXT ripping people off now?

[Happyjoe]

So.. I ordered a few things just before Xmas from Next, pair of walking boots and bits and bobs, just around £150. They delivered it to the wrong store and informed me be a delay, no worries, mistakes happen. Knowing that I'd not have time to collect before Xmas and didn't want to go near shops in Jan sales, I cancelled the order online and it showed as cancelled and planned to reorder after Xmas, which I did.

A couple of days later, I wondered where my refund was - I always pay up front for goods as don't want to pay interest. On my account it was marked as collected, someone had changed it. It took absolutely ages to sort it out as customer services just couldn't get their head around it, so may emails back and fourth. Finally got a refund after a real struggle.

Anyway, online Boxing day order came in to collect last week. Great, was going to collect it next day. Except, later that same evening, after the store was long closed, I received an email from them, saying thanks for collecting your order. Do what?!

No luck in getting customer services help, on chat or on email. Was told to wait for an investigation. Received an email yesterday apologising for the delay and the parcel was still being investigated. 2 hours later, was told investigation complete, and I did indeed collect my parcel.

At this point am beginning to get mad. Phoned them up, finally spoke to a competent person who simply phoned the store for me which is the first thing that should've been done by them instead of make me out to be a thief and a liar. Yep, parcel sat in the store, waiting collection and there had been a mistake with a code put in by a member of staff.

So customer services lied. Are other people experiencing this kind of shoddy rubbish when ordering for collection? Do people just accept their lies as they feel they cannot prove otherwise?

I am going tomorrow to collect the parcel and hand it back to them immediately for a refund, then closing my account. I feel I can no longer trust them to sort out the mistakes they themselves make - funnily enough it's always in their favour!

I have never experienced any issues with Next and I buy most of my clothes from them.

Pleased to hear it then. Good!

If you want the things that you ordered, why would you immediately give them back and ask for a refund? If you want to cancel your account then of course you can do so, but it seems a bit unnecessary to return the things you wanted.

Most people will be getting their orders without any issues, a few will experience mistakes or problems. From my experience of them, Next are as competent as any other major high street retailer.

Fair enough. I've not ordered from them since summer and 2 out of 3 orders were mucked up badly as I was put off then for the sideboard we ordered that arrived warped, twice.

It's not just that, but the battle in order to get money back and being made out to be a liar. Don't like it and a retailer can't be trusted if can't sort out a problem, no? As for handing it back, I've had enough of it all, surely you get that? It's only clothes.

Am glad to hear other people are ok. I presume then it's someone in my local store marking things wrong, but customer services are abysmal and for that reason, am off. Just wondered if others were having same issues, clearly not.

It does make you wonder when there’s so many people who “forget” to collect things and probably don’t even check their statements or their bank and wouldn’t even remember that they haven’t had a refund … yep I’ve worked in a retail store where you pay for your item instore then collect it and every week there was items that had been paid for and left and no one ever returned back into store for them .
I remember being baffled when someone had bought a microwave one day and just left it .. and you think surely that customer must get home and think “I bought a microwave today , where is it?! “

If companies “accidentally” mark something as collected not everyone would realise especially if life is really chaotic for them . Worrying isn’t it how easy it is to be ripped off .

I think the OP’s issue is that the Next ‘investigation’ was merely the simple repetition of the original mistake, without any actual checking of anything taking place, and she feels insulted by the implication that she is dishonest.

Or have I read that wrong?? It’s getting late.

Calm down.

You wanted the things so much you've already ordered them twice. Why cut your nose off to spite your face??

getting a refund is not going to be done 'there, that'll show you' kind if event.

keep them or don't simply depending on whether you still like/want.need them or not.

never had a problem with next. But tbh it's been ages since I ordered anything online from them. I'm guessing they're no better.no worse than anywhere ruse right now. Customer service is pretty shite everywhere until you can get a CS service person that has a brain cell & common sense.

I buy tons from there as I live five minutes from a store. I did twice last year experience a ‘thanks for collecting your item’ message. (when I hadn’t). On both occasions they found the parcel in the back.

Might be the very young and inexperienced staff they seem to rely on at busy times. I wonder if it’s that code pick up system. It’s only 4 digits so if a customer inputs that wrong then they make the parcel collected and come down and shout my name and nobody comes but they don’t update?

No I haven't. Thanks tho. I ordered twice - and collected the second one, no issues. This last parcel was just a few things from sales. I can live without them, just fine.

2 out of the 3 orders I have made since middle of Dec have been marked wrong and both times been made out to be a fibber and a fight to get money back due to customer services being crud.

No, you read it right, succinctly put thanks.
And I wanted to know if other people had experienced the same thing. 2 out of 3 of my orders is a high percentage.

Thanks, that would make sense as to the issue. Cheers!

You are getting a bit of a battering, and you haven’t even put your thread on AIBU! You are in the normally very reasonable Shopping topic, asking for shopping experiences, from what I can see. Funny old world.

Ive never really trusted Next since I ordered a pack of 5 school shirts, but there was only 1 shirt in the pack, labelled as 5.

I phoned customer services who were adamant that I must have been mistaken in some way. Eventually they begrudgingly got a calculator out to work out the precise cost of 1 shirt and they refunded the rest.

Unfortunately I could order any more as they were all out of stock in anything that was close to DS’s size in any style at all.

It really the worst possible timing. Our home had been destroyed in a storm and we had to go to temporary accommodation with just the clothes on our back. I just needed the school uniform that I ordered for next day delivery to turn up as promised without having to endure a cross examination from a surly calm handler.

Op I have never had a hugely bad experience from next but a couple of minor ones...

1. I did put in the wrong code by mistake on the screen. I told a member of staff and they didn't really care. They didn't write down the number down or anything. So a bit worrying if that then marks the other persons order as 'collected'
2. I ordered some dogs pyjamas in size Medium, Package came and had a M sticker but was a small inside. Dog very unimpressed when I tried to squeeze PJs onto them. Upon returning them staff member tried to say I couldn't because it was just past the date or something else (it was an over Christmas order so maybe I was a day or two late returning). I couldn't believe they actually tried to argue it! In the end I won that battle.

Ah, so you have had the awful customer service experience too - at the worst time ever. So sorry about your home! Was it salvageable? I hope you made it back home eventually.

Maybe those battering work in NEXT customer services?! :-)

Totally agree with your stance OP. I would do the same. It’s only clothes in a sale after all.

Today I’ve totally had a guts full of LK Bennett and won’t be ordering from them again.

Shoes came today just thrown in a box, £89 down from £299
Trousers so creased £179 down to £53
Shirt £79 charged to my card on 05/01 still not arrived

I get it’s a sale but from a high end retailer you still expect some standards.

And they send your order out in dribs and drabs which is such a waste of packaging and postage. And they charge you £4.95 to return their shoddy goods, Grrrrrrr……..

Tbf, it’s probably a crap job with zero training and morale.

Did you see the thread about the Next Boxing Day sales on here? People were apparently just loading up racks of random clothes into bin bags, in a right frenzy, presumably for resale or some sort of returns grift.

That’s all management failings.

@LoveAmandaHolden I quite agree! It's hard earned money you're spending here and if they treat sales stuff like that, you'll be put off ordering when sales not on.

Yeah, it may well be. But I spent my youth working in retail (food and goods) before I started on chosen career and to be honest, I still did my job well and I wouldn't have left a customer out of pocket due to no fault of theirs. Mind you, no zero hr contracts etc when I worked in that side of things which cannot help moral, or training.

And yes, I'd never go near a NEXT sale, or any sale in person, people are horrific and greedy but I can remember it being like that for forever.

Your first parcel was delivered to the wrong store because the parcel delivery driver would have a van loaded with multiple stores and then not checked the parcel sacks correctly when unloading.

The five digit pick up codes on the texts and emails sent to customers to collect their parcels are constantly typed into the self service collection points wrong by customers who then insist they’ve entered the correct code.

Customer A - Parcel collection code 12345
Customer B - Parcel collection code 12354

Customer A has typed in customer B’s code by mistake, this cannot be undone, the store staff have no choice but to collect the parcel. They have a short window of time to scan the parcel back into the store which changes the parcel status back to ‘ready to collect’ however it’s not uncommon for customers to type in their collection code and then wander off into another department to browse or into Costa. They can be quite rude on their return when they are told they will have to enter their code again and wait. So these parcels are often set to the side incase the customer appears, meaning the window of time is lost and the status cannot be changed.

You received an email after the store closed because of the volume of parcels currently being processed during the sale period, stores are receiving hundreds of parcels daily, sometimes thousands, so the emails can be delayed, whilst the system catches up.

The crappy customer service you received was from the Next Directory staff so if you plan to return your order please be kind to the retail store staff as it is rarely their fault!

@UniqueLemonFawn
Yes, don't worry, am not the sort to shout at any staff, not even the ones who've mucked up on email.

Cheers for explaining.. Doesn't explain though when I cancelled the wrong delivery order online that my account went from 'cancelled' written by my order to collected a day or two later. That's got nothing to do with codes?

And I don't mind parcels going to wrong store, especially just before Xmas when it must've been insane.

I work in retail, sometimes businesses get it wrong. If you've generally been happy with them, then give them a break!

I can’t believe anyone would buy pyjamas for their dog!

that's crazy