Next - how do they get away with this?

[Thinkivepulledsommat]

Am I going mad? Do they really charge 3.99 for delivery (no matter how much you spend) AND charge for returns?! Is this right? £3.99 for delivery and then another £2.00 for me to return an item? And the return collection is any time between 8am and 6pm, so I have to wait in all day for the privilege?

I’m utterly shocked at this system and amazed that anyone would shop like this. (We don’t live anywhere near a Next store btw).

Are they aware that most other retailers offer free delivery AND free returns, or at worst only charge for one?

Also, one of the items I ordered was faulty! The leg holes on the dungarees were so small that DD couldn’t even get them on (she is totally normal sized with smallish feet and the dungarees themselves looked the right size).

Does anyone actually do this?

Baffled.

I don't wait in for a return collection, our local shop is a Hermes drop-off point.
If an item is faulty I would ask Next to refund the charges, I've always found their customer service to be pretty good.

I recently discovered BURIED in their website, that you can print a return label and drop at the post office for free. It wasn’t obvious at all, the immediately available info was about collection or Hermes drop-off.

I rang them and asked them and they have removed the return charge. But the whole set up has put me off ever shopping with them again tbh. I queried the waiting in all day (not that we have anywhere much to go these days 😂) but she didn’t tell me I could drop it off at a Hermes point. She just said to leave it in the porch (we don’t have one).
Just rubbish.

@triplechoc Really?! That’s what I want to do as we have a PO up the road, but she implied it would be at my own cost.

This is so odd...I am in the UAE - Next deliver free and 5 pounds return!

Their £20 next day delivery pass for a year is good value if you use them regularly. Cant say I remember paying for returns with them, pretty sure I just drop it off at the nearest collect plus point?

There is an offer at the moment for half price on the unlimited deliveries for a year - so only £10 and as stated you can print a free post office returns label too

I don't know. When it's "free" you pay for it somewhere. At least this way you know what it will cost and you have control over the number of returns you pay for. When there's no extra charge, you're paying a share of the cost of all the serial returners. Charging for returns must limit that too, so reduces costs all round.

The ones I don't like are where you have to pay postage for returns so you don't know in advance what it will cost.

I believe though, unless it's changed recently, that Next only charge if you return your whole order?

@Thinkivepulledsommat Yes definitely free to return, I tried to attach a screenshot of the relevant bit of the page but I don’t know if it worked! You can print the label at home or take the QR code to certain POs and they will print for you and send.
This is the page it’s mentioned on: www.next.co.uk/returns

I think this works (disclosure I might have this wrong and I have a standard account so maybe only applies because of that)

But I order something to collect from the store - free delivery.

Then they give you 30mins to order something free delivery! So I order what I really need to be delivered free next day to the house.

Then if I don't collect the item from the store it just goes back to the warehouse and re-credited to my account = no delivery costs!

I pay a fortune in credit interest so I don't feel too guilty.

Most people collect from store and return to store for free , they will no doubt want to encourage this to reduce costs and encourage people in store to spend more . Obvs doesn't work at the mo ...next are doing very well financially so it works well as a business . I would recommend the yearLy delivery charge . I do this for next and ASOS as I can get everything from them .

They only charge for returns if you have their courier come and pick it up. If you take it to the shop or a drop off point like post office or coop then it's free.

They can only charge for either delivery or returns. Next have had their hands slapped for this before.

Home collection by a courier is a premium returns option that's why there is a charge.

There is an offer at the moment for half price on the unlimited deliveries for a year - so only £10

That's great value. I've been paying £20 for the year unlimited deliveries and free returns. Our courier always turns up around the same time so no waiting all day.

Most places don't do free delivery though. It will be free if you spend x amount like £50.

I have always had really great service from Next. I pay for the yearly delivery charge and either drop what u don't want at a shop, a Hermes collection point or the local delivery driver collects it. I have often contacted their customer service and have always found them really helpful.

I order from Next when I am ordering more than one thing and know for sure that I won't be returning everything, therefore the charge is okay because it's less than what I would have spent on driving and parking at the shops. Paying delivery does make me less inclined to order things I'm not 100% sure about because I would resent paying it and not keeping what I'd ordered.
After lockdown is finished I will prefer to go proper shopping to get things I'm not certain will fit/suit me.

Love Next, I think it’s a brilliant service. Never had a problem with it.

Also remember that if you are returning your FULL order, and it's within the standard returns dates (see below), you are entitled to a refund of the delivery costs you paid for the item(s) to be delivered to you in the first place. They only have to refund standard p&p charges so if you opted for an enhanced delivery, you'll only get part of that back.

It's part of the Consumer Contract Regulations 2014.

Other handy info that sometimes gets lost or not made clear by the seller is that you have 14 days from the moment you RECEIVE the items (and if they split the order, it is the date from receipt of the last package) to decide to cancel, and then a FURTHER 14 days to return it. So 28 days in al if you take it to the extreme.

www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-contracts-regulations

I also pay the yearly delivery pass, it's great value as I buy a lot from there, I generally just drop off at store if I am returning anyway. When I bought a sofa that was also included in the delivery pass so very good value.

They are also very good with returns as I have sometimes missed the return deadline by a month or two or possibly a bit longer and never had a problem with the online refund. In store you just get the 28 days and after that a credit voucher

Larsingsong you are a genius! Why haven’t I thought of this?

@gassylady

There is an offer at the moment for half price on the unlimited deliveries for a year - so only £10 and as stated you can print a free post office returns label too

Can you link to this because I can't find any reference to it.

@Larsingsong

I think this works (disclosure I might have this wrong and I have a standard account so maybe only applies because of that)

But I order something to collect from the store - free delivery.

Then they give you 30mins to order something free delivery! So I order what I really need to be delivered free next day to the house.

Then if I don't collect the item from the store it just goes back to the warehouse and re-credited to my account = no delivery costs!

I pay a fortune in credit interest so I don't feel too guilty.

I do this too!

I don't order from Next often. Does a split order sometimes take AGES for the 'last bit' to arrive?
I ordered 6 things in Jan and 5 came within a week. The 6th was crossed out and said to be 'on its way'. 5 weeks later and still no sign!
I called their customer line and they said 'yes it's still on the way' but it's showing on the website as 'available within 3-5 days' and still no sign?
Shall I chase them again or just wait?