M&S refund policy change?

robotwars

My elderly mother has just told me that she returned a bag to M&S (Grimsby store) the same day she bought it with receipt which cost £6, and she was given a refund of only £4.80. When she queried it, she was told that they had to take VAT off the refund.

I have searched M&S website and the internet in general and can find no mention of this policy and have never heard of this happening before. Anyway, VAT at 15% on a £6 item would be 90p not £1.20. Her refund receipt sheds no light on this.

I too would be keen to hear what this is all about as it has had no publicity. I plan to call M&S customer services tomorrow (0845 6090 200) to check this out, then will post their reply!

dmg24

What does her new receipt say in the description - does it give a reason for the deduction? Was the item sale stock?

MORPH3US

Sounds like poppycock to me.... will be interesting to hear what they say

williham

They will have refunded whatever she paid in the first place.
What they mean by taking the VAT off is the difference between 15% and 17.5% (12 or 13p on a £6 item) but this would have been taken off the original amount paid. It was probably on 20% off aswell taking it down to £4.80.

dmg24

williham wrote: »

They will have refunded whatever she paid in the first place.
What they mean by taking the VAT off is the difference between 15% and 17.5% (12 or 13p on a £6 item) but this would have been taken off the original amount paid. It was probably on 20% off aswell taking it down to £4.80.

The OP paid £6 for the item. The OP was given a refund for £4.80. Therefore she was not refunded whatever she paid in the first place! :rolleyes:

CG19a

Could it be possible that the vat thing they were referring to was the difference between the 15% and 17.5% which is roughly 12p, and they accidentally typed it in as £1.20?? The figures are very similar.

williham

dmg24 wrote: »

The OP paid £6 for the item. The OP was given a refund for £4.80. Therefore she was not refunded whatever she paid in the first place! :rolleyes:

What I'm saying is.. she might have thought she paid £6, maybe it was labelled at £6, but she will have paid whatever they refunded her. It's all done by the till so little room for error.

david39

OP says that her mother queried the difference at the time of the refund. If she had only paid £4.80 for it instead of £6 then they would have told her that was the reason at that point, while she and they had the original receipt in their hands.

Clearly, that was not the reason.

Sounds like a bodge up by the sales assistant to me - she should go back and ask for a proper explanation or get her £1.20 back.

xxhayley_hxx

VERY strange that they have taken off 20% I work in retail and there is no possible way they would take tax off an item being returned. I don't even need to know the policy, if the item was returned the next day, with a receipt you will get full money back.

I would seriously go back into the store, find the name of that person and report them to head office.

dmg24

williham wrote: »

What I'm saying is.. she might have thought she paid £6, maybe it was labelled at £6, but she will have paid whatever they refunded her. It's all done by the till so little room for error.

If I hand over a £5 note and a £1 coin I know that I have paid £6, not £4.80.

Are you suggesting that the OP is a bit stupid?

I do wonder if we will ever find out ...

gwen80

Don't even get me started on M&S at the moment. Anyway, I have no idea why they did that. Something similar happened to me a couple of months ago. I wasn't refunded what I'd paid for the item, but the difference was about 35p. I couldn't be bothered to query at the time, although it niggled me because of the 'principle'. No idea why that happened. I'll be writing to M&S Customer Services tomorrow about a different refund issue though and seriously reconsidering my shopping habits. Furious with them today!!

OP - Chase it up and give them what for. The customer service has gone totally downhill.