Moan for the Day – Refunds

So should a faulty garment, product, item mean an automatic refund?

In the eyes of the law, and under consumer rights, the answer is yes. I think so too. Then why doesn’t the fashion shop Select?

I recently bought some cheap, diamanté shoes in a branch in Maidstone. I tried the shoes on, on the floor, and didn’t realise they were missing stones until I got them out to show my daughter.

Disappointed I asked my husband to take them back to the branch of Select in Portsmouth – as we were only visiting Maidstone – when he went to work on the Monday. Ideally I wanted an exchange but unfortunately, the Portsmouth branch didn’t have the shoes in stock. So hubby asked for a refund. This is where the fun began…..not!

Apparently, Select’s company policy is to return the product – in this case my shoes – to Head Office. I know, seriously? There is no doubt they are faulty. Only a fool would say it wasn’t. This really frustrated my husband, which I’m sure you can understand, so he asked for the Head Office address.

So that evening, my daughter composed a letter for me – a little too polite for my liking – and I added the photos of the faulty shoes.

Last night I received an email back from Select saying:

“Regarding your query, as you have expressed that your item is at fault, (didn’t express, I sent photo evidence) we advise that you take the item back in store, your item will be sent off to Head Office by the store staff. When your item is received at Head Office it will be reviewed by our Garment Technologist (seriously, who employs, on a wage obviously, a Garment Technologist?). If your item is found to have a general manufacturing fault and is deemed faulty we will be happy to assist you with a refund.

Just to let you know this process can take up to 14 working days to inspect and contact you with an outcome.”

Who else thinks this is a load of bullocks? Seriously, have you ever heard of such insanity? It’s not even a well-written email. I’ve changed commas to full stops, but I haven’t bothered changing their grammar mistakes. I have talked to Trading Standards and they believe the company is stretching the rules. Hopefully, I will hear from them again tomorrow to see whether anything can be done to claim a refund in store rather than needlessly sending it to the Head Office.

Can’t believe they are allowed to get away with this. So, needless to say, I won’t be shopping in Select ever again. Will you?

My moan for the day – Ring the Goddam buzzer!

Queues! I mean seriously! You stand in a queue behind people with a basket full of stuff, or two in my case, and the cashier attends both of those people before deciding to ring the bell to get assistance. It was my go next fgs! How did I get through the queue any quicker by you ringing the bell? I was only buying a loaf of bread. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do in a local convenience store? Not £30 worth.

So please, cashier, if you see more than two people in the queue, quickly gauge their purchases and RING THE GODDAM BUZZER earlier!

An update to this post. We’ve recently had an Aldi open nearby. When the queues start to build a tannoy automatically goes out to tell customers that a new till is opening. This in turn alerts staff that someone needs to go on to the cashdesk. If Aldi can have this technology why can’t others?