Warning re M&S Lingerie £5 discount with £30 spend

donquine

If the £14 bra had taken the OP to under £30, a percentage refund would have been bang on, but as she would have met the criteria without the bra being included in her original purchases, a full refund should have been due, with the receipt marked to show that one of the bras had been returned, so any subsequent returns would take her into percentage territory.

I've noticed several people arguing with M&S over shoes in my local store - I took back a pair that broke after a few hours of use and they initially wouldn't refund as it was apparently my fault. (Anyone else think shoes are only meant to have a two hour useful economic life? Thought not.)

I had to stand there for a good 15 minutes repeating "not fit for purpose", pointing out the date on the receipt and the date that day to illustrate how short a period of time I'd owned the shoes, until they gave up and gave me my cash back. Many people would have given up (the shoes weren't that expensive, it was the principle) so I wonder how much they're saving this way. It's really put me off recommending M&S - their customer service used to be better than that.

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

Its the fact they argue parrot fashion that gets me.
They don't seem to be able to take each situation as it comes.

Claros78

I had a similar situation at the weekend. Went shopping with MIL and she had a £5 voucher from Oxfam for donating MandS clothes. She bought 2 pairs of trousers at £19.50 each and a pair of jeans that were supposed to be in the sale. The terms of the voucher are that you have to spend over £35 to get the £5 off. I left her at the checkout but came back just as she was paying. Thought the amount seemed odd and got her to check how much she had paid for the jeans. Turns out they were not in the sale at all and that someone must have put them on the sale rail by mistake. She decided to return them immediately as she didnt want them at full price but the sales assistant said that she wouldnt get the full amount back because their system would automatically deduct some of the voucher price from the jeans. I pointed out that without the jeans she still qualified to spend the voucher but they said it didnt matter and their system didnt work like that. They also said they didnt understand how the system worked and it wouldnt be a third of the voucher price that was taken off the jeans but an unknown amount. Anyway she was prepared to accept a refund minus whatever the system requested but I stuck to my guns and said no why should you lose out, you are returning an item immediately and you shouldnt have to lose money on that. The sales assistants said there was nothing they could do but I refused to back down and made them refund the whole lot then rescan the 2 pairs of trousers and another oxfam voucher (they had a book of them by the till). I was fuming, one sa in particular was really rude and seemed to think I was being unreasonable by wanting a full refund on the jeans! grrr

smallblueplanet

It's quite obvious they have set up their computer system in error. It doesn't take into account that even after returning an item(s) the purchaser still qualifies for the £5 off £30 spend voucher. I imagine it would be too awkward to programme it for each different money off a certain spend voucher and so they just spread a percentage off the total purchase. I can understand this occuring when the total purchase drops below the qualifying spend, but in the case of the OP it is plainly wrong. It's time M&S sorted their systems and customer service out - pathetic the way they are slaves to what the computer tells them.

wolvesfan18

I think I can explain this one as I work there...


what we find is that far too many customers want a free £5 (turn the voucher into cash). Lets say you buy two bras that come to £30, and you get £5 off. SOME people genuinely want to return just the one, but if you got £15 back for it it means you only paid £10 for the other one (you would have paid £25 and got a £15 refund). Others will return both (usually separately) and think they are entitled to what price is on the bra itself, with this offer as the example, they try and get a £15 refund twice and get £30 back... but they only paid £25!!!! So the only fair way is to give it back pro rate (take a smaller percentage off each item when it is returned). that way, if you return all you get what you paid, but if you return one you lose a percentage of its original value and a portion is held with the items you are keeping.

The reason for this is too many people are becoming dishonest. Like 3 for 2 offers, you would be surprised at the amount of people who take 3 things, pay for 2 and come back to return 2 of the 3 genuinely expecting m&s to hand over the full amount for both (meaning they keep 1 item for nothing!!!). This is absolutely legal what m&s do whether you like it or not, and if you dont like it, they dont take vouchers if they are offered to you...bin them! people want it their way or no way all the time.

There is one way around this where you can actually use the voucher to profit but of course I cannot say :P

smallblueplanet

It's obvious why M&S have done it - I don't have to work there to know that. However when it is penalising customers in such a way then M&S might find that shoppers do indeed spend their money elsewhere. They did a similar thing with delivery charges, pro-rataing them if an item was returned. I haven't spent as much money with them since this was introduced - I shop online elsewhere, their loss.

Edit - there is nothing wrong with pro rata discount if the total spend drops below the qualifying spend - but this is not what is happening in these cases - the qualifying spend is still met!