Argos Selling used items as new

shjo558

A few years ago I bought a coffee maker from Argos that was intended to be a birthday present (the recipient had said she wanted it a couple of days earlier).

I was just about to wrap it up and for some reason I decided to open it and have a wee nosey first only to find a "congratulations on you wedding" card inside.

Must have originally been bought as a wedding present and the happy couple had left the card in the box when it was returned.

What really annoyed me was if I hadn't have spotted it my friend would have thought I was giving her a second hand present.

I demanded petrol money when I returned it and was refused, had to complain to the manager who gave me a £5 Argos voucher. Funnily enough my local petrol station wouldn't accept it............

pendulum

I saw a news story recently where some people were buying up pallets of faulty Argos stock from clearance wholesalers, visiting Argos to buy a new matching item, swapping it for the faulty one, then resealing the box and either taking it back under the 30 day guarantee or claiming they'd bought a faulty product. In the latter example the goods shouldn't find their way back for resale (although mistakes will always happen), but in the first case you can see how some items can slip through the net.

This isn't something I would get very worked up over, because I can see that these things inevitably happen from time to time.

Amistoso_2

pulliptears wrote: »

Could have been an Atomic Bomb as well but it wasn't

As was said before, mistakes happen, it's hardly worth getting worked up over is it? A quick email to CS usually solves these things.

Unless of course you think there is a conspiracy of Argos employees purposely putting returns back into circulation in some evil revenge against the customer?

jdturk wrote: »

Your point was one I would agree with but as I said mistakes happen and for you to think that mistakes of this manner do not happen would make me question which planet you were living on!

ah well, that makes everything OK then, just e-mail customer service and they will tell you to take it back to the store for a refund, wow result, telling you to do exactly what you would have done anyway!!!
hardly a conspiracy, but certainly isn't the first time I've heard of this happening at Argos. I personally just don't find that kind of thing acceptable but hey my standards are probably just a bit higher that yours...

Colin2511

I also had this week, but was more annoyed by the staffs attitude than the fact the item was 2nd hand. as I understand this can happen sometimes. It should not have happened, but it did,

I put my pressure washer back in the box, (no easy feat when you are a shorty and its a big box), into the car and back to town..I explained it was 2nd hand, and that I did not want to use it, as I did not know why it was returned..please could I have a replacement (same item)

I got lots of "we don't sell 2nd hand stuff", "its not our fault", I never accused anyone, just politely asked for a new one as I had paid for (It never even entered my head to ask for petrol money, I must be slipping :rotfl:)

She went round the houses about how the plastic wire/tape was sealed and they cannot reseal them in the store, so could not have been opened (then I explained that this had nothing to do with it, as they were strapped the wrong way and only there to help carry the box, not to stop it being opened), that they could be factory tested with water..fair enough, but not with washing detergent section full and the wheels all grubby ...eventually she said they had none left in store, and would not order me that one to come to their store, I had to go 15 miles to the store to pick it up. So I would have to have an alternative..bit annoyed as I had chosen the one I wanted, but picked the same price one, and found it was in a sale (the one I chose was not in the sale), so got some money back :j

Becles

They are really strict with returns in my local store.

I bought some cordless telephones and they were faulty so I took them back for an exchange. The sales assistant opened the box and noticed that the phones had been used, so an exchange was refused. I explained that they had been used which is why I realised they were broken, but she refused to budge, saying they could not exchange used goods.

Had to ask for the manageress who came out, and she apoligised and put the exchange through without any problem. She put faulty stickers on the box straight away and put it to one side. She said she would retrain the assistant on the returns policy on faulty goods.

Then had to wait for the new phones to come out while getting dagger looks from the original assistant

Amistoso_2

Becles wrote: »

They are really strict with returns in my local store.

I bought some cordless telephones and they were faulty so I took them back for an exchange. The sales assistant opened the box and noticed that the phones had been used, so an exchange was refused. I explained that they had been used which is why I realised they were broken, but she refused to budge, saying they could not exchange used goods.

Had to ask for the manageress who came out, and she apoligised and put the exchange through without any problem. She put faulty stickers on the box straight away and put it to one side. She said she would retrain the assistant on the returns policy on faulty goods.

Then had to wait for the new phones to come out while getting dagger looks from the original assistant

That's not being "strict" it's just crap customer service from someone who doesn't know how to do their job properly!!!

roddydogs

Could someone who works in Argos explain...goods returned under the 30 day rule are they put for resale or not? can Argos afford to put all these to one side and not try to sell them?

jdturk

roddydogs wrote: »

Could someone who works in Argos explain...goods returned under the 30 day rule are they put for resale or not? can Argos afford to put all these to one side and not try to sell them?

I would have thought goods can only be returned if unused and as such probably put back out for resale

jdturk

Amistoso wrote: »

ah well, that makes everything OK then, just e-mail customer service and they will tell you to take it back to the store for a refund, wow result, telling you to do exactly what you would have done anyway!!!
hardly a conspiracy, but certainly isn't the first time I've heard of this happening at Argos. I personally just don't find that kind of thing acceptable but hey my standards are probably just a bit higher that yours...

This type of thing happens at practically every retail store, it's not good but it happens and the reaon why Argos get alot of complaints about it is purely because of the number of customers that go through their stores is larger than most others.

I wouldn't accept used second hand products, however I wouldn't exactly be moaning like nobodys business

pulliptears

Amistoso wrote: »

ah well, that makes everything OK then, just e-mail customer service and they will tell you to take it back to the store for a refund, wow result, telling you to do exactly what you would have done anyway!!!
hardly a conspiracy, but certainly isn't the first time I've heard of this happening at Argos. I personally just don't find that kind of thing acceptable but hey my standards are probably just a bit higher that yours...

Nothing wrong with my standards, just getting bent out of shape over something that was an accident isn't really productive for me. But hey, my blood pressure is probably a bit lower than yours...