Coast/Debenhams warning

[DeepfriedPizza]

I posted this on shopping and it was suggested I post it here too

I ordered many dresses from coast for a wedding. I tried to return them and on the returns portal it was only giving me an option to refund to gift card. I contacted customer services and their response was it was a system issue and they can't correct it. Now I am stuck with a £360 gift card for coast/debenhams. I am going to try to escalate it because it is ridiculous but just wanted to warn people.

Did you request the refund on the portal within 14 days? If you did then legally they HAVE to give you a full refund (you then have a further 14 days to actually return the goods. If it was after that time limit then you may have to accept the gift card.

Yes, ordered on 28th Oct. Received 4/11. Attempted return on portal 6/11 and contacted customer services straight away. I am fuming.

It doesn't help that I also had a return to Silk fred and now the've went into administration so I had dispute it with my credit card.

The high street is rubbish so you are forced to shop online then this carry on happens.

And after all this I still don't have a dress for the wedding

Oh that’s bad, yes you should be protected via distance selling. Have you asked for a supervisor to review this? I’d threaten them with trading standards I think.

There was a post recently about Debenhams. Sad but I wouldn’t order from them again.

In which case I would contact customer services again. Remind them of their responsibility under the Consumer Rights Act & the Consumer Contracts Regulations and your legal right to a full refund. If they don't comply then take it up with your credit card company and/or contact Trading Standards.

The only way to contact them is Facebook messenger or Whats'app. I am taking the stuff to the post office today so that I am doing my part within the time frames.

According to facebook messenger It has been passed to another agent and I don't need to send any further messages

That’s crazy, it’s akin to a physical high street shop saying sorry our till drawer is stuck so you’re going to have to have to take a store credit note instead and now be off with you.

Im glad you’re looking to escalate - please post an update if you can 🤞

There was an article on Radio 4 "You and yours" this week regarding Karen Millen also doing voucher refunds

These companies; Debenhams, Coast, Karen Millen went bust years ago and are just clinging on to some online presence. The should have closed completely if they can’t operate properly.

Debenhams are atrocious for customer service. When I had issues, someone on FB suggested emailing this address [email protected] as the online store is now owned by Boohoo. It worked, I got my money back.

That's really helpful

Thank you

I also had terrible problems getting money back after ordering clothes from a third party through the Debenhams website - over £200 worth. Returned the order within the time period but it took me nearly 6 months to get a refund. Really would avoid at all costs!

This is the exact reason why I ordered from the Coast website rather than the Debehams one. I thought it would be a little bit separated but no.

I have been on S&B for years, telling people that Debenhams is no longer an actual shop.

(And so many outraged responses claiming it’s the greatest place on earth for a contemporary wardrobe. . Maybe those posters are being paid.)

People should wise up. There are countless, countless other and better places to buy clothes.

I used to LOVE Debenhams. Almost my entire wardrobe came from there. But I won't buy from Boohoo whichis what it basically is now.

That's the issue in a nutshell – people see the name Debenhams and thinks it's a trustworthy brand because they remember when it was on the high street. That's why I got duped into ordering from it. But it's now part of an umbrella company called DBZ Marketplace Online Limited that operates loads of online stores for well-known brands, including Debenhams, Coast, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Oasis, and the customer service is shockingly bad across the board because it's all the same department. So don't order from any of those websites! The owner of DBZ is the Boohoo Group and complaining to Boohoo directly seems to get a better result.

A year or so ago I bought a load of stuff from Debenhams and returned most of it (I bought multiples of jeans/boots/trainers, and kept a couple of items, returned the rest) i had to do 3 separate returns for separate companies, which I had to pay for, but I was refunded pretty promptly, but reading this has put me off ordering anything else

Is Dorothy perkin owned by the same company? (Im guessing it probably is as was originally part of the arcadia group) Im really short and DP petite ranges is more petite than some others! (Some shops are modelled by someone 5'5 or 5'6 which imo isn't petite!)

Yep, now owned by Boohoo too and sold via DBZ.

I had a nightmare with Debenhams online ages ago and have never used them since. Shocking service.

Small, non update.

I e mailed the boohoo address up thread, no response.

I have an an e mail in response to my Whatsapp message stating that I selected gift card and tough shit.

I have sent a response with the screen shots from messenger stating it was a systems issue.
I've tracked the parcel and it's due to be delivered today.

We fight on.

Sorry, didn't mean to quote that pp

Hope you get this resolved @DeepfriedPizza. That's a lot of money to be stuck on a gift card!

Boohoo owns all these companies.
they are in financial trouble so I suspect they are trying to keep all the sales revenue they can.

did you get the money refunded yet? Threaten with small claims court if they are not following consumer law.

https://www.ajbell.co.uk/news/articles/boohoo-annual-loss-widens-plans-disposal-prettylittlething-brand#:~:text=Related%20news,3.0%25%20to%20%C2%A341.6%20million.

I had similar with Karen Milen. In the end I raised a case through PayPal who found in my favour within about 2 hours. They refunded me straight away. Did you order on a credit card or PayPal by any chance?