Problems with Debenhams

bauctu

PinkTwirl wrote: »

You could cut it in half and wrap them around both of your feet

:rotfl: A friend suggested that!!

lovethymini

Sounds to me like they're going to the wall :think:

I bought some Denby china online and it arrived smashed to smithereens - it was hardly wrapped up at all!

What REALLY annoyed me though, was a recent trip to my local store, bought some non-sale stuff and realised they're STILL CHARGING 17.5% VAT :mad:

Their excuse was their promotions give a bigger discount anyway...

Funny how good old Marks and Spencer manage to have a sale and charge the correct VAT. I know it's just a small reduction but I think it's more to do with the principle.

Anyway - I'm never shopping at Debenhams now - plenty of other stores sell what they do so I'm voting with my feet.

suzi_69

zenseeker wrote: »

These websites are having to deal with hundreds of transactions every second, so it isn't surprising that it cannot update instantly upon the sale of the last item of stock of a particular item, it is possible that you placed your order at near enough the exact same time as someone else, and the website wouldn't have had time to react, hence the ordering confusion. This happens a lot this time of year, it isn't isolated to Debenhams, so there isn't any point getting needlessly uppety about it.

Sorry, but I have to disagree with this - if you read my earlier posting, items I placed orders for have been showing as "in stock" & were allowing me to add them to my order THREE WEEKS after they told me they had no stock at all. And I was adding lots to the basket each time, to check to see whether it would tell me the stock level (eg, if I ordered 10 & they had 7, it would say that) & it let me order the maximum amount every time, not even showing low stock levels. I had several conversations with disinterested CS staff, who just shrugged off my request to send me my item - I kept ringing to check if they had had a new delivery so I could re-order, but they just kept saying they didn't have ANY, so why didn't they remove the item from the website! Just think how many other unhappy people this situation creates, allowing more & more orders to be placed. I pointed this out on numerous occasions to the CS saff, but no-one was bothered.

Its the same with Harrods, I have been looking for the Marc Jacobs Daisy gift set that Boots were selling before Xmas - less than an hour after the Boots online sale started, I logged on & they had sold out of it, then someone posted on here last week that Harrods were doing them at the same price. I placed an order as soon as I saw the post, at approx 6.30am on Tuesday morning & haven't received anything from them yet apart from the initial confirmation email, but another MSE'er, who ordered hers on Monday afternoon, had an email on Wednesday saying that they don't have any left in stock - so I'm just waiting to get the same email, as I didn't order till approx 12hrs later, so I'm sure its just a matter of time! If they didn't have any stock when "Nimi" ordered on Monday, they sure didn't have any when I ordered on Tuesday!! Hardly a case of people ordering at the same time!

They need to invest some of their profits that those "hundreds of transactions every second" generate in an "online realtime" stock system! Other places manage to do it!! Its just pathetic that they send emails with disclaimers on, stating they are not accepting your order until they can confirm its despatch, then leave you waiting for days, not knowing if you are going to get anything!!

I don't think its being "needlessly uppity" either! Their customer "care" stinks, they make no apology for their mistakes & don't even bother to inform you when something isn't in stock, its always up to you to ring them when there are items missing from the delivery.

If I treated my "customers" in this way in my line of work, I wouldn't have a job!

CelticStar

I have had a lot of problems with Debenhams this year and it's interesting to see that other people have also had negative experiences.

My first problem came about when I placed an order for a coat and used a (perfectly legal) discount code, which reduced the item by £14. The confirmation email showed the discount, so I was satisfied it had gone through and a few days later the coat turned up. I then checked my bank account, only to find that they had charged the full amount prior to discount. After a protracted wait on the telephone (clocking up charges) I managed to speak to someone in Customer Services who took some persuading that I had paid with the debit card I paid with as they couldn't find it on some sort of search - cue more waiting. When they finally found the transaction they then informed me that they couldn't issue the refund and I would have to phone another department myself to get the refund, which I duly did. Two working days later and the refund had not arrived so I emailed Debenhams enquiring where it was, only to receive no reply. About a week later I received a letter from Debenhams saying they had refunded the money, but it was still about two more days before the money hit my bank account.

The second problem I had was when I tried to return some items from a different order to my local Debenhams. I read up on the website that I needed the confirmation email and the despatch note to do this so I took them both, along with the parcel, only to then be told that they needed another email with different information on to carry out the refund. When I said that the only other email I had received was exactly the same as the one that I had given them only with 'Order Despatched' on it they said they still couldn't return it but they would wrap it all up and fill in the returns details for me so that I could post it back to Debenhams at the Post Office across the road, which I did. Luckily, I also asked for proof of postage. About a week later, I was refunded for only two of the three items that were returned. I then emailed Debenhams and, of course, it took them about three days to even reply. In their reply they asked me to give them the exact details of the items that had gone astray even though I had already sent them all this in minute detail in the first email and they also asked me to send them proof of postage. I was getting quite annoyed by this time and sent them a copy of the original email and asked them with icy politeness what was the point in providing proof of postage when they had already refunded me for two items that were returned in the same parcel - proving without any doubt that something had been returned! I pointed out that it was obvious that whoever had opened the parcel hadn't checked that it was fully empty when they did the returns and that if they looked for the parcel they would find the remaining jumper in the bottom of it. About a week later I received a letter from Debenhams telling me my card had been refunded.

A week or so later I had another item to return to Debenhams so, bearing in mind my previous experience with returning items through the post, I took every email I had received pertaining to the item ordered as well as my despatch note to my local Debenhams, only to be told again that I needed an email that shows the card number that I bought it with. The trouble is that I never get an email like this when I place orders! So, at the moment, I am unable to return things to the local store because either the staff aren't trained properly or the computer system isn't set up correctly, and there is no way I will return things through the post again due to my previous experience - so Debenhams has now lost my custom. I am actually going to write to Head Office and explain to them my experiences because I am so cheesed off with the whole thing.

On top of that, their website is awful and badly needs an overhaul. They really should learn from Next who, in my experience, have an excellent delivery and returns system in place.

catch22

Shopping with them via the internet is not a task I'm going to rush into again, no matter how good a deal I think I may be getting.

jbro

I've just been in today to try to spend some vouchers I have had for a while. I saw a non-stick wok that had been reduced to £8 from £16. The price reduction was in huge letters on the item itself.

I took it to the counter and the supervisor put it through the till (asking me if I was interested in a Debenhams card while he was doing it. I wasn't!).

'Sixteen pounds' he says. 'But it's only £8', I say, pointing to the price. I then offered him a £25 gift voucher to pay for it. He then told me that he couldn't give me any change. I was puzzled, but he then went on to say that I couldn't have any cash back on it. 'That's fine', I said, 'I wasn't expecting cash, just vouchers or a gift card'. 'Not allowed to do that', he said. 'Strange', I said. 'They did that in the Leeds store, no problem.'

He then said, he might be able to possibly give me a gift card for the difference, but that it wasn't really allowed. 'OK', I said. 'Forget it. I won't bother having it. I'm in a hurry and don't have time to hang about.'

He couldn't have cared less. I left the store quite annoyed about it really.

funkyfreddy9k

CelticStar wrote: »

On top of that, their website is awful and badly needs an overhaul. They really should learn from Next who, in my experience, have an excellent delivery and returns system in place.

Next online shopping fulfilment is ran by a next subsidury called ventura. Rumour has it ventura WILL be running debenhams online fulfilment in the not too distant future. Currently its ran by another 3rd party company who seem to be causing most of the problems.

blue_monkey_2

I'll never shop with Debenhams online no matter who is running it as I was overcharged and it was major hassle to get the money back I had overpaid. And this was despite my order confirmation showing the correct price (same as celticstar). No matter what disacounts they are offering I'll never shop online with them again because of the hassle. they seem to take what they like from your card and you have to fight and fight to get it back.

cheapscate

I have sent an e-mail to Debenhams marked URGENT. They have debited my account for an order that they said was cancelled and that they assured me they would not be debiting my account for.:mad:
After the order was cancelled I went into Debenhams and got the stuff I had originally ordered on line (losing the online discount I would have got!:rolleyes: ), but they have now sent another e-mail detailing a different order number saying the goods have been dispatched! I have told them to credit my account with the amount they took out, straight away before I incur any bank charges and telephone me to confirm they have done so. I also told them I will not accept the goods when/if they attempt to deliver them as I do not want to be further inconvenienced by having to return them.
I'm not impressed and won't use them again.
On the freebies board there is a link to the Debenhams Design Team with the opportunity to tell Debenhams our views and ideas on how they can improve.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1319075&highlight=debenhams
God, I can't wait to tell them what I think!

suzi_69

cheapscate wrote: »

On the freebies board there is a link to the Debenhams Design Team with the opportunity to tell Debenhams our views and ideas on how they can improve.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1319075&highlight=debenhams
God, I can't wait to tell them what I think!

Thanks for the info! Have just signed up to it myself - I'll wait till I have a bit more time before I participate in the "What do you think of our website" forum!!