Obliged to give address to store?

morganflo

Hi
Am I obliged to give my address (ie postcode and then house number) to the cashier when returning goods within the period allowed by the store? Firstly I don't like announcing my details in public, secondly I would like to know what the store does with the information and thirdly, can they refuse to give me a refund if I refuse to give them the information? Or should I just make something up?

Just want to keep a curb on Big Brother!

Thanks for advice

neilmcl

Giving them the information allows the store to have a paper trail of the refund, otherwise it would be open to fraud by unscrupulous employees. I really don't see why people have a problem with this. They don't legally have to take back your return so yes they could in fact refuse to give you the refund if you don't comply with their terms and conditions.

morganflo

But if I made the purchase and obtained a refund on the same debit card? They still also have all my bank account details!

Techhead_2

You wouldn't accept a receipt from a store that didn't have their name and address on it. But you object to giving proper receipt of the refund?

chocdonuty

Simple solution: Lie! Why do you have to give them your real address? they do not ask for proof so how will they ever know?
Completely pointless exercise if you ask me as i'm guessing the fraudsters wil always give false details anyway!

malchish

You may be asked for your address - it will be a pain to refuse, but why cannot you make a mistake or misspelling for your address...
And some mistake in your postcode...
They have no entitlement to your details. End of story. It is easier not to fight. Forget and misspell, - mistakes are not crimes.

PopeSock

morganflo wrote: »

Hi
Am I obliged to give my address (ie postcode and then house number) to the cashier when returning goods within the period allowed by the store? Firstly I don't like announcing my details in public, secondly I would like to know what the store does with the information and thirdly, can they refuse to give me a refund if I refuse to give them the information? Or should I just make something up?

Just want to keep a curb on Big Brother!

Thanks for advice

If you're returning an item because you don't want it then yes, the store can ask for your address since they're not legally obliged to take it back.

If you're bringing it back as faulty then no, there's no legal obligation for you to give your details.

neilmcl

malchish wrote: »

You may be asked for your address - it will be a pain to refuse, but why cannot you make a mistake or misspelling for your address...
And some mistake in your postcode...
They have no entitlement to your details. End of story. It is easier not to fight. Forget and misspell, - mistakes are not crimes.

And the OP has no entitlement to return the item for a refund (assuming that it's not faulty) so if they want to get a refund then they must abide by the store's returns T&Cs.

Hintza

And folk wonder why the stores are tightening up on returns.

vyle

It's people like this that make my life a pain in the !!!!.

I spent an hour with a customer sorting out a return yesterday, and the customer I had was fine, but because of unscrupulous and awkward liars, I had to do so many work-arounds and leave such a watertight paper trail that it took ages.

All that needed to happen was the customer was bringing back an unwanted blu ray player and wanted to upgrade to the next model. All i needed to do was refund the blu ray player at 90% of its original value (because it was used) and sell the upgrade.

However, the customer didn't have it with them so I was going to set up one of my vans to collect the original and deliver a new one.

Not only did I have to cross reference everything between the original and new orders, I had to note everything I was doing, the various transaction numbers twice, had to leave notes to the drivers to NOT deliver the new item until they had the old one safe in the van, get a written confirmation from th customer that they understood that they needed to have the original blu ray player boxed and ready for the driver.

There was so much to do, all to cover my back. It used to be so simple, I could refund, set up a collection and go, but then customers would 'forget' that they ever had an original item or say it had already been sent back. Or they'd dispute they ever got a refund (because they 'lost' their receipt), or they would say they somehow expected a van driver to disconnect all their old equipment and set up the new equipment free of charge, when the van driver only knows how to drive vans.

People are becoming so dishonest that a paper trail is needed to avoid liability. I wouldn't be surprised if OP decides one day to make a claim against the shop for fraud because they accepted the wrong details (what if their CHILD had been using the card illegally? Would they sell them a KNIFE? Oh the humanity!!!).

There are so many threads asking why shops are so strict and won't give the benefit of the doubt. It's because of people like OP who expect to remain anonymous when receiving money from a shop.

sarahg1969

Vyle - OK, it's a pain for you, but the fact remains that if you return a faulty item to a shop, you have no legal obligation to provide any personal details. It's no good getting shirty because people get shirty about providing their information.