Unable to return an unused horse riding hat bought 24 hrs ago

RJRock

Morning.
My wife bought a riding hat for our daughter from an equine centre yesterday on the basis that her current hat was too small.

It turns out the hat bought was the same size as her existig one - mistake made.

Hat is unused and still has all the tags attached etc.
Wife rang to ask for a return and was flatly refused - they do not accept returns for hats.

Their online Ts and Cs and retruns policy do not state any of this. When I spoke with the lady 'in charge' she said the assistant would have told my wife that no returns are accepted for hats. My wife says she was not told this.

'It could have been dropped' was the reason they do not accept returns, i stated that they sell hats online. She said they have never sold one online. I tried to buy one just now online and was successful to the point of purchase.

I reiterated hat has not been used and still no joy - in fact the lady had an appalling attitude.

We bought using cash - daughter's christmas money - but have the receipt. What, if anything can we do?

shaun_from_Africa

I'm afraid that the retailer is totally in the right here.

As the hat was bought in a face to face sale, they don't have to accept any goods back unless they are faulty or not as described and there is no requirement for this to be stated before the purchase is made.
By default, there is generally no obligation for any shop to accept returns (unless the purchase was made at a distance) so you should always take this to be the case unless you have been told otherwise.

RJRock

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

I'm afraid that the retailer is totally in the right here.

As the hat was bought in a face to face sale, they don't have to accept any goods back unless they are faulty or not as described and there is no requirement for this to be stated before the purchase is made.
By default, there is generally no obligation for any shop to accept returns (unless the purchase was made at a distance) so you should always take this to be the case unless you have been told otherwise.

COuld we not insist on an exchange for a bigger size?

deanos

You can ask but they dont have to

MamaMoo_2

Does the shop have their returns policy printed on the receipt or similar?

peachyprice

RJRock wrote: »

COuld we not insist on an exchange for a bigger size?

No, unless the item is faulty you don't have any right to insist, unless their published returns policy states otherwise. It was your mistake buying the wrong size and there is no legal recourse for customer error or change of mind.

maninthestreet

RJRock wrote: »

We bought using cash - daughter's christmas money - but have the receipt. What, if anything can we do?

Sell it on Ebay???

pmduk

You might want to read the consumer rights section of this site. There's nothing there to solve your current problem, but forewarned is forermed.

ThumbRemote

You can also name the company on here, as refusing to even exchange is very poor customer service - you might save someone else a mistake in future.

System

In fairness they have a point. You have to be careful with things like this.

Its not always obvious to tell that something like this hasn't been damaged and you can't really take any chances with safety.

Still no need for them to be rude.

halibut2209

Some might suggest that you buy the bigger hat online, then claim that they sent the wrong size and return it for a full refund under DSRs. But that would be dishonest