Marks and Spencer refused refund with receipt!!

hollydays

The "look beyond the label" apparently has been introduced this year,in relation to fairtrade products,not quite sure how this supports the quality arguament though.

toomanybills

In my time have had problems with the wearing of shoes I can remember 15/20 years ago having a similar argument with Saxone about a pair of my shoes that had lasted 5 mins.

When my son was younger he had a pair of shoes with raised stitching around the front and the stitching went after a few weeks - we had an awful row with the shoe shop about exchange the start- rite shoes- they kept saying he ahd played football in them. Possibly at break yes, what boy doesn't.

It is a hard one with shoes. M&S quality hasn't been good for 15 + yrs . My husband had a waxed coat that wore very badly from M&S a long time ago.

Contains_Mild_Peril

M&S have changed everything that used to set them apart from other retailers. The reasons I used to buy M&S:
Clothes which last (more than 8 weeks, even footwear!)
Consistent sizing, so I could buy for myself or family with no need to try on first.
Clothes compatible with sensible washing - all but necessarily delicate fabrics were machine washable and NONE ever required me to "wash dark colours separately".
Their unparallelled refund policy, which allowed goods to be returned with or without receipt for any reason even months later.
These are the reasons they were once so popular, and now they wonder why their profits have taken a tumble in recent years. It's not rocket science!

On the subject of shoes, I've never tried returning a pair more than a month old, but I did once get a no-quibble refund for a pair I bought my DS from a shoe shop which started falling apart after only 2 days of wear!

hollydays

Agree with everything contains mild peril says,apart from the refund policy.To be fair,if you take goods back without a receipt they will exchange or give gift vouchers in reasonable circumstances,i think in this day and age thats as reasonable on that front as they can be.

looby75

Nenen wrote:

I bought my dh a plain coloured shirt in M&S last year for £25 (hardly 'cheap') and after him wearing it once and washing it for the first time I noticed a lighter spot on the front of the collar which I assumed was a dye fault. I took it back only to be told that I must have washed it incorrectly. When I insisted I had followed the instructions on the label and had also washed it with several other shirts, none of which had developed the same problem, the sales assistant rudely insisted that it was my fault, an excess of powder was to blame, etc etc etc. I asked to see the manager and got kept waiting ages until eventually a senior assistant came and refused my exchange when the first assistant told her (in front of a queue of people) she thought I had washed it more than once and not correctly (effectively calling me a liar). I pointed out that I had only bought the shirt 10 days previously (as could be seen on the receipt) hardly had time for my dh to wash and wear it the many times she was suggesting but they both stood their ground and looked at me as if I was something nasty on the bottom of their shoe, at which point I was so embarrassed and humiliated I gave up. I really felt like I was treated as a criminal but guilty until proven innocent!

My MIL had a similar problem with a t-shirt she bought for herself, when washed it went really baggy and out of shape, everything else in the wash was fine it was only the M&S t-shirt that didn't wash well. She had been a faithful M&S customer for many many years, bought all her kids school uniforms there when they were growing up, and pretty much all of her and my FIL clothes from them. She used to say it was false economy to buy elsewhere as the cs and quality were so much better for just a few quid more.

That all changed when she was spoken to like a piece of dirt by the deputy manager of the M&S she tried to return the t-shirt too. He actually suggested that because she was getting on a bit (his words!) she might have been confused what temp she washed the t-shirt on, and every time she tried to talk he kept cutting her off and interrupting her with some stupid company policy speech (sound familiar?? lol) In the end I started warning people in the queue not to buy M&S products because if they were faulty they wouldn't get a refund. (Up until that point the manager didn't realise I was with my MIL as I had been looking at some baby stuff while MIL went to the customers services desk :rotfl: ) He even went as far to threaten us with being removed by security staff when MIL and I refused to leave until she got a refund....I was 6 months pregnant at that time, which didn't go down well with other customers who were listening intently by that point.

Guess who ended up getting a full refund "as a good will gesture", and who will never ever shop at M&S again. This was 6 years ago, so the decline has been going on for a while now I think.

elljay20

taken a good while to read through all of this, here's my thoughts for what they're worth.
ok 8 weeks five days a week equals 40 days wear - no? take off five days for half term - is it a week? leaves 35 days wear our of a £17 pair of shoes is quite appaling inho. it works out at 56 pence per wear. i think you sholuld send them back to m and s stating how many times she's worn them.
basically those shoes have lasted just over 1 month of wear and i personally wouldn't want to buy my daughter a new pair of shoes after she's only worn them 35 times. Stick to your guns girl.
oh - and the person who works for m and s - i'm glad your not my employee

alex2796

As I recall, the standard policy for this situation (faulty goods) is that the advisor should give an alternative pair or refund in credit vouchers but also fill in a complaint form with customer's details which will get send to HO for investigation...

phil_c - I understand why you are defending M&S so much as it is my job to dealt with dodgy serial refunders everyday. But from what I have read so far (although I would like to see the quality of the product, e.g was velcro strap split cause by deliberate cutting, careless use etc), I think the OP's case do seems to be genuine and should be offer the refund she deserved...

trickytrolleys

I bought my daughter a pair of leather boots a year ago from NEXT for £40 - they are as good today as they were then, NEXT are fantastic whenever there is a problem so I would recommend them. Ive never bought M&S shoes but I do buy her skirts and pinafores from there and I cant say Ive had a reason to complain but in my experience if you want customer service and quality then go to NEXT!! (and I dont work for them).

kuohu

phil_c wrote:

Secondly - apologies on behalf on M&S for the alledged poor service that you received...

With the greatest respect, as a student working for M&S at weekends, are you sure that you can speak on behalf of M&S? Some of the points which you made caused people some further concern, and they should not really be left with the impression that your post is some kind of formal response from M&S. I too thought that you perhaps worked for M&S central customer services, before checking your prior posts.

gingerdad

phil_c wrote:

OP- Firstly, and apologies if you have already mentioned this, but may I ask which store refused the refund?

Secondly - apologies on behalf on M&S for the alledged poor service that you received, what you describe is certainly not what our service style is about; which reminds me - with reference to service going down - yes I am not saying things are perfect, but a lot of money has been invested into this area and big improvements have/are being made. In my opinion there are not many other retailers in the same league as M&S than even come close to providing the high level of service that we do.

A quick one to all the posters who claim the quality is not there anymore - think back to the ' look behind the label campaign' - I think this silences the criticisms regarding quality and living off past memories. Being the experts at criticising M&S that some of appear to be I'm sure you will know what this campaign is about...

Thirdly - Refunds are refused for reasons.

what a load of tosh, we stopped buying from M&S a couple of years ago, went in recently still the same crap and expensive at that. The best thing when service is bad and prices high is vote with your feet...

There are very few high street retailers who offer any level of service at all. but hey why is the internet doing so well.....

GD