Do you ever order clothes when you have to pay for returns?

[Restorer]

I'm not good at on-line shopping. Over the years I've kept far too many duff items because I was too lazy to send them back. Now I have a policy that if I don't love it, it goes back. OK is not good enough.

I have a largeish order I'd like to place, including a couple of items in more than one size and colour to see what's best. I thought that was how on-line shopping was supposed to work, but if I have to pay Royal Mail rates to return them, it's going to be very expensive indeed, so I probably won't buy anything at all from this company. I can't go into the shop, because we don't have any decent shops round here - even the slightly better shops only seem to sell the bottom end of their range.

Why do companies think it's a good idea to charge for returns and do you use them if they do?

Problem is now that RM postage costs have gone up by so much and you need to send it guaranteed delivery, or if it gets lost be prepared to pay the cost.

I therefore only order from companies who pay for returns or where I can return it to the store.

I even hate paying for delivery. I know this is entirely unreasonable.. However Internet retail does have lower overheads, so once you've added delivery and return onto an item, you could be paying about 7 quid for nothing at all, except for trying on!

Lower overheads yes. But still, office space, staff, warehousing, insurance, stock, payment processing, oh its a long list - lets just say all the usual business overheads. Plus the growing problem of being ripped off by fraudsters. That has to be factored in, despite all efforts this is a significant cost when selling online.

As previous posters have pointed out, if you return an item for a refund within the 7 day period (soon to be 14 by law) you are entitled to outward delivery cost refund (obviously not possible if free delivery) so essentially actually we do cover the return cost when you look at it that way.

Next don't charge for returns ?..

Agree land end is shit

I don't order online anymore unless 100% or have seen irl too many cock ups and crappy fits

Oh I love ordering online. Bit won't if postage over £3

I like it in theory but I have become a trier- onner in my old age and I am transformed and don't waste as much £

Nehru, they do if you have to use the courier and are sending the whole order back.

I don't think Next charge for returns either.

Again I reiterate my point. Why not buy from shops you can return to easily. Blimey next is the easiest . Out of town shops are open late of you work. It takes seconds. I always take back to the shops as its free. I only order shoes from schuh then I take back what I don't want for free . Card gets refunded immediately too. Win win

No way !!

Check out the distance selling regs, free returns are the law!

vix what is your company? Would you pm me with it? (I need a nice cossie ).

Am annoyed as I bought a dress from People Tree, I measured my size and checked against their sizing chart but it's way too small - I'm an 8-10 and I bought a 10, it cost me over £4 delivery and I have to pay to send it back.

I might email them and point out that their sizing is wrong and ask for a full refund, their sizes should be accurate as published.

I should add that free returns do make me more likely to buy something from a new company, or for my daughters where I am less sure about fit as sizes vary wildly and my older child is very slim but tall, so tricky to fit. However with smaller companies like viz's, or where fit matters but it won't cost a fortune to return (e.g underwear) I don't mind so much. I have paid out about twenty five quid in returns recently though, on shoes for my dd whose feet are proving a nightmare. That's on top of the same amount or even more in postage charges. That is a lot of money to toss into the ether.

mrsrisotto - I'm afraid you're mistaken. It is not the law for the retailer to pay for the cost of returns. They are only obligated to refund your original postage costs:

www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/general/oft913.pdf

Can I just get this right? If I buy something and don't like it, and return it within 7 working days, I can get the postage back? Is this right?

So the crappy shoes I got from crappy Next online, which I returned the next day in store, means they should have refunded the delivery costs?

Prefer to pay a set charge for delivery rather than an unknown amount for returns. Really annoyed me when I ordered something from kaliko (free delivery) but then it arrived in a huge cardboard box and then I had to pay 7quid to send back and wait three weeks for my account to be credited.

Much prefer being able to do store returns or send back for free (Gap are great at this).

Shit. You do!! I never knew. Bastarding next.

Is that new ?

Do they? I hate Next anyway, but this has confirmed it. It's definitely a new thing then

The cheeky fucking bastards! They never used to. You now have to pay for the honour of retuning their crap. So you could be paying 8 quid extra for one item. The cheapskates. What has happened to that shop. It used to be so good and with good customer service, and now it is so so shite

I also thought they had to notify you in writing if they were changing their terms, and they never did.