M&S bad returns customer service, anyone else?

[branumission]

Returned clothing items at our local Food Hall on 14th April.
M&S online say they have my return and my refund should be on 24th April.

24th April came around, no refund. I called customer service who did not investigate or help. They said “yeah, give it another week”.

They owe me over £400, they checked all of the items instore. Everything was unworn and had all of the tags on them. I had received the parcel on 9th April.
£400 + is a lot of money for me.

Despite the return on 14th, M&S tracking says that the parcel still hasn’t arrived at their main warehouse.

What can I do about this?
Has this happened to anyone else?

Why are you telling us that the tags were still on and then saying you know it’s because of the cyber attack and therefore nothing to do with tags being on the clothes?

I didn’t know that the staff weren’t being paid.

We've not been told that we're not being paid! I should have thought they'd have told us about something as serious as that!
They have been keep us updated and informed on at least a daily basis, sometimes multiple times a day.

My knickers were missing for about 6 weeks before I had my refund.

Ate you contracted to work a set number of hours? Then they will have to pay you.
Zero hours contracts maybe not but that's the nature of Zero hours.

If I can, though perhaps you can't in food stores, I always take my returns to the counter as in the old days as then the refund is immediate from the card machine, I never use the returns box.

I think OP is referring to agency workers that are not needed who are not being paid, because they are not needed

FWIW I feel angry on behalf of the staff who cannot work today and won’t be paid for it.
My lack of refund is insignificant when compared with those who cannot put food on their table today.

Why on earth wouldn’t they be paid?

You know M&S have IT problems - plus there’s been Easter. As you presumably have proof of your return you will get your money back

M&S uses some agency workers who have been told they aren't needed because they aren't sending any orders, agency work like this can't always be relied on anyway.

I placed a return recently and was really surprised that I was refunded almost instantly, I dropped the return back in store though.

Well let's hope the agency send them somewhere else then because that's what agencies do, they supply a number of clients it doesn't mean those workers can only work for M and S

This thread has just reminded me to double check I’ve actually been refunded for a recent M&S return…thankfully yes it was done around 3 days before the cyberattack issues started

My order was just over £300 but it was online and was a few dresses by Hobbs/Phase Eight, trying to smarten up for work and get a couple of nice summer dresses.

I only kept 1 dress in the end, the rest were too long/voluminous so I mainly looked like I was wearing a sack…back to hunting down some dresses that actually suit me!

I didn’t really chase it up as it’s showing as ‘refunded’ on my M&S app…can see the money on my online card account

Anyhow I trust M&S and if there were any issue I know they would get it sorted out, am hoping the cyberattack issues are resolved very soon, it must be tough working in the stores right now!

The items were returned directly to store.

There were reports that M&S did not need agency workers because of the cyber attack.
Those agency workers were not being paid.
You may not have any sympathy for them because they knew what they were doing when they took agency work, unfortunately people usually do agency work because they can’t find anything else and they are desperate.

That we are empty nesters means we are not spending money on children, our mortgage has nearly finished and we are established in our careers. We have more money now.
That said, I am in the early stages of a surprise pregnancy, I’m old, I have a Mirena which is still inside of me. It’s a very risky pregnancy.
I am trying to find clothes that cover my weight gain without giving the pregnancy away. We don’t want to tell anyone until we know whether everything is ok.
That’s why I ordered so much, I was not just ordering more clothes in my usual size I was shopping for clothes to cover me up.

Although the return is pending on my account it still hasn’t been refunded! It has been weeks.
M&S usually refund within a day or two.

Always been good for me

For goodness sake they are the victims of a huge Cyber Attack of which they are still navigating. I'm sure they are well aware that customers are being let down at the moment but there isn't much they can do. People need to have some compassion for the poor workers, from the ones in stores who are having to deal with the numpties who think they shouldn't be impacted by the attack, to the IT and incident management staff who have probably had the works 2 weeks of their careers. If you have a proof of return you will get your money but you might have to be patient.

M&S are victims of a crime. As a result of that crime, your refund is delayed. They will be doing everything they can to get operational again.

My OP did not express any frustration at the people working at M&S, it simply asked whether anyone else had experienced similar and whether there was anything I could do about it.

As my OP says; I returned the items on 14th April. In the past I have received a refund as quickly as the same day (as the return).
The cyber attack did not happen until the Easter weekend, M&S had my return for 4 days before that.

Late last year someone/a group I do not know managed to get into one of my online accounts to use my accrued points to buy something. They have also tried to apply for credit in my name and get into my bank accounts.
The ICO investigated, they wrote that I did nothing to cause this, they have taken legal measures in addition to their investigation and I received an apology and compensation from the business. This is another large company that many of you will have used recently.

Although my OP did not say this, I was nervous about the potential for further fraud.

If I had posted on the 17th, pre cyber attacks, everyone would have - correctly - told me to wait another week or so.
By the time I posted I had been waiting for two weeks and I am still waiting for a refund.

Of course I have sympathy for the people working at M&S for a small wage. In the past I have done that too.

Thinking about it now - and this was never my intention when starting this thread - M&S has a banking and insurance arm, they were affected too. Now I wonder to what extent their banking customers are vulnerable.

Your title is a bit goady as you are moaning about bad customer service.
I have never had a same day refund from them, bearing in mind it sounds like you had a large return and it's a busy period for them anyway there were delays. They had no idea what way coming around the corner. You have to stop the clock on how long you have been waiting, they can't access all their systems.
All customers of M&S should be changing their passwords and if you use that password for any other login should be changing that too.
My husband works in cyber security, luckily not for M&S but this is really bad, worse than most realise. Co-op and Harrods have been hit too but it sounds like they not to the same extent. If you have accounts with those, change your login details too.

I changed my M&S password, albeit a bit late probably and somehow managed in the Apple password manager to get it confused with M&S credit card password which Apple then overwrites with new store password. Oh dear, I had no clue what it was as it's very rarely used. I also removed my credit card from some other online shops as they may target others.

They have still isolated parts of their estate whilst they fix and recover from the cyber attack. There's no indication anyone's data is at risk, you will get a refund but no one can say when; the alternative was leaving all of their systems connected and letting it completely cripple everything. As for agency staff, the agency will have known this was possible as soon as the issues were reported, the reason they take a cut of the money companies pay for their staff is to manage situations like this- it isn't M&S' fault and it's likely they've secured other work.

Plenty of companies have had similar, most pay the hackers to make it go away. Fair play to M&S for not doing so and taking the huge hit financially instead of lining their pockets and making their company a less attractive target to re-hit. Their honesty is quite refreshing also.

M&S bank, they only have credit cards now, no debit cards, is part of HSBC, I have heard nothing about the bank being affected. I'm not sure about the insurance but that could be another company also.

The Caravan and Motorhome Club was targeted last year, similarly and took weeks to fix and you could only book sites by phone. I had some details stolen in that but no card details were stolen just name and address type stuff, my details have been stolen a few times now, also happened in Capita hack, its part of modern life unfortunately

This is what happened for me too. Immediate refund after weeks of waiting.