Can I return an M&S jacket and repurchase at the sale price?

[MarshaMarshaMarsha]

Bought a jacket from m&s on Tuesday (should be delivered tomorrow)… just seen it’s now gone in the sale at half price. Grrrr! Now out of stock in my size… but does anyone have any experience of taking it back to store for a refund, and buying it back at the sale price?! Bit cheeky possibly but very annoying!!

Gap used to have a policy of refunding the difference if an item went down within 30 days of purchase. You didn’t even need the item with you, just the receipt.

Ooh thanks will try and contact customer service instead then and see what they say!

I've done this a few times.

Best of all was when I'd bought online a load of their basic tshirts (buy 2 get one free) and then they dropped to 50% off so I bought some more online as they still had the colours/size. I then sorted out which I was going to keep (I probably had about 20 at that point) and took the excess back to the shop.

As I was returning them the woman working the til said "good thing you have the receipt because they've been reduced again and without the receipt I would have had to only refund the new lower price." I asked what the new price was and it was something like £1.50 each. I didn't have to ask because she saw me hesitate and said "I'll refund everything and then if there's any you decide you want you can buy them here as that would save me having to get things back on to hangers." So I took most the shirts back home with me!

I love the way in the UK we are conditioned to think this is Cf behaviour; in the US asking for a price adjustment was always totally normal and accepted in many stores when I lived there. But that may not help op.

Sales are to get rid of stock that couldn't be sold at the full price. That item in that size sold out at full price.

Your jacket isn’t in the sale. Just the other jackets in different sizes.

If you look at it like that, it makes zero difference to you that other unsuitable items went on sale after you bought yours.

I’ve done it with online stuff many times, just email with your information and ask, I’d bought quite a lot from fat face once and within 24 hours it was in the sale. I got the difference back. I’m not sure why I’d be embarrassed, why would I pay double? John Lewis are also good with this.

Do a chat with them online. I’ve had JL refund me the different for an item that went into a sale a couple of days after I bought. Told them it would save them and me time and effort rather than for me to return and rebuy.

Lands End did it for me. It's always worth asking, especially if you are a regular customer.

The won’t sell the same one back to you they keep it for 24 hours.

They will refund you if you have your receipt.

You’d have to find it online or try and get it in store.

They won’t sell the item straight back to you at the reduced price.

Well actually all sizes are saying sold out online now, and pretty sure the sale only started today (or worst case yesterday). And there is some available in store but just not near me.

Anyway I’ll wait til it arrives, decide if I want to keep it and then contact customer services to see what they say. Thanks all for the advice and past experiences :)

I once bought quite an expensive silk dress and a week later the price was reduced by 40%.
As I had not worn it yet, I bought it again in a different branch at the sale price and returned the first one to the original store for a refund.

This is the policy you can’t buy it straight back the sales person would get sacked plain and simple. I know because I’ve worked for them . Even damaged goods with no proof of purchase will be refused for a refund.

You could stay on the list for a return on your size. Then purchase and return your original. The thing is, often sales are for “leftovers” so once all of your size was sold, and probably others, and they had low stock of remaining sizes, they went to sale. The fact your size is out of stock shows that you couldn’t actually purchase what you did two days ago at the sale price.

Edited to say, sorry I just read more of the thread and realised I am just repeating someone else!

This happened to me with a bra at John Lewis. They happily refunded me the difference. Not sure about M&S. They always seem less flexible with returns etc.

I work in customer service. You can ask them via email or chat if you can have the difference refunded as a goodwill gesture. Sometimes they will.

I did it years ago in Debenhams. However I bought the reduced one on the same floor as the sale rack and then went upstairs and got a refund on the full price one.

It is quite an embarrasing thing to do really.

I returned something it Topshop many moons ago. It had gone in the sale so they would only return me the sale price!

I' d be inclined to buy the sale-price jacket, then return the previous purchase for a refund. They'd see that you paid the full price from the receipt.

I just noticed you haven’t received it yet. I would email M&S customer services to say how disappointed you are to see the item has now been reduced. Say that to save them the expense of you returning the item and then them having to send you it again would they kindly refund you the difference? I think I did this with next once, I had to let them know I was keeping the item and they refunded the difference. It’s good customer service. If you don’t shoot you don’t score.

It’s a non starter really if they don’t have your size in stock anymore.

Otherwise, you buy a second jacket on sale. And you return the first one that you’re going to receive.

Its annoying but tbh is a pretty common occurence when you’ve bought stuff a few days before the Sales.

Id just be happy I have the item I want tbh.

You can take the item back and if there is a sale item the same on the shop floor you could buy it but you can't buy back the same item you returned immediately.

Back in the day you could do this fairly easily.

On thr flip side, I bought school shorts a few years ago when it was 20% off, needed to change them and was told I would have to pay the extra as the offer had finished.

But if we want them to hold proper sales where items are genuinely reduced there will always be people who have bought something full price just before it goes on sale. It's just bad luck really. I don't think we can expect them to refund the difference

I’ve done exactly this @MarshaMarshaMarshaand didn’t feel at all embarrassed.
I simply said I would like to return this and rebuy it at the sale price. I can’t see how that would be a problem! It’s all pretty automatic in M&S now I think you show them the order number and the refund is just credited.
Its very annoying when that happens!