H&M distance selling - returned an item and yet no refund nearly a month on

pippaaaaaaa

long story short - i returned an item i purchased from h&m online, having tried to cancel the order under the distance selling regs (which their customer service advisors were completely clueless about!) and being told i couldn't as it had already left their warehouse. because i kicked up a giant fuss, they agreed to refund the delivery charge and that they would refund the item when they received it. they state they received the item on the 27th of september. i have the delivery charge refunded to my account but not the amount for the item - i've been locked in an email battle with their (quite frankly appalling) customer service team for a month now, ever since i first tried to cancel an order, and they're categorically stating it was refunded to me on the 29th september and i am not owed any money by them. yet i've gone through my online statements repeatedly and there is NO refund from them for the £25 they owe me.

can anyone advise me on where i should officially complain about the fact they have taken back the item, logged it as received, but not refunded me? i refuse to throw away £25 and i have repeatedly asked for them to provide me with contact information for a manager to no avail.

neilmcl

Well it depends on how far you want to take it. If you've followed the terms of the DSRs then the retailer must refund you within 30 days. This is unconditional btw and not dependant on receipt of the goods. Next step would be to send them a letter before action and then ultimately to a small claims action, should you wish to go this far.

brightonman123

http://twitter.com/hmunitedkingdom

http://twitter.com/hm

might be worth flagging problem up on twitter, first-
nothing travels faster than bad publicity!

pippaaaaaaa

cheers guys.

thank you, i've blasted them a bit on twitter already but have now named and shamed with their @ tags - here's hoping that'll help SOMEHOW although god only knows, they're not so twitter-prominent as asos (who really know how to work the social networking)

aside from that, i figure i can send letters to head office by recorded delivery... i resent that i should have to pay for that though! all i want is my £25 back - how should it be this hard?

neilmcl, thank you - very interesting to hear it should be within 30 days (is that from the return of the item, the receipt of the item, the request to cancel under the DSRs or the order of the item)? i don't really want to do small claims because it's over £25 - i really can't afford not to have that £25, so i even further can't afford to pay the various fees associated with it that i would never get back, even if i won - i'd be even worse out of pocket!

the only other thing i can think of is bbc watchdog because h&m is such a giant company.

does anyone have any other ideas? it seems ridiculous - they've essentially pocketed my £25 (and even if i get it back, interest on it too which i resent in principle) and yet nearly every way to try and get it back is going to cost me

neilmcl

pippaaaaaaa wrote: »

neilmcl, thank you - very interesting to hear it should be within 30 days (is that from the return of the item, the receipt of the item, the request to cancel under the DSRs or the order of the item)? i don't really want to do small claims because it's over £25 - i really can't afford not to have that £25, so i even further can't afford to pay the various fees associated with it that i would never get back, even if i won - i'd be even worse out of pocket!

It's 30 days from the notification of cancellation.

derrick

pippaaaaaaa wrote: »

i don't really want to do small claims because it's over £25 - i really can't afford not to have that £25, so i even further can't afford to pay the various fees associated with it that i would never get back, even if i won - i'd be even worse out of pocket!

If you win you will get the court fees back, and possibly some expenses as well depending how the judge feels on the day, I cannot see H&M letting it get that far, the letter before action should be far enough, and don't forget to ask them for the postage/RD costs as well, because if they had not messed you about these costs would not have been incurred.




.

brightonman123

which celeb (if any?) modles stuff or does ads for H&M? may be worth letting them know via twitter too..?

Zandoni

Have you tried phoning them? So much better than emails in situations like this as they can't ignore your questions.

unholyangel

Just as an added note for future reference, you can cancel before you have received the goods and you can even refuse to accept delivery of them.......and they cannot treat this as breach of contract.

Techhead_2

I notice in your first post that you say they are categorically stating you were refunded on the 29th September.

Is it possible that your bank have made an error? Its certainly worth checking before taking things too far.

When you next speak to H&M, ask them for the reference number on the refund. If you give this to your bank they can trace it. Although it will take a few days.