Aldi - Not Keen on Refunds

Jennifer

We had bought two battery driven pepper/salt grinders in March for a present in June. One did not work at all and the other was sluggish.
We took the units back to Aldi and were told incorrectly that they were "out of the 60 day return period".
Twice I pointed out that they were being returned as defective and the store was responsible for a refund, (no replacement stock was available).
The manager was reluctant to refund and asked us to call the helpline for advice.
He was unable to provide the tel. no. so eventually got the refund.
20 minutes wasted in a very busy store.
Do they not know the Sale of Goods Act rules??
J

mattyprice4004

Did you have proof of postage?

ThumbRemote

mattyprice4004 wrote: »

Did you have proof of postage?

Do you mean purchase?

Takeaway_Addict

Jennifer wrote: »

We had bought two battery driven pepper/salt grinders in March for a present in June. One did not work at all and the other was sluggish.
We took the units back to Aldi and were told incorrectly that they were "out of the 60 day return period".
Twice I pointed out that they were being returned as defective and the store was responsible for a refund, (no replacement stock was available).
The manager was reluctant to refund and asked us to call the helpline for advice.
He was unable to provide the tel. no. so eventually got the refund.
20 minutes wasted in a very busy store.
Do they not know the Sale of Goods Act rules??
J

Do you not know it either? They could send it away for a repair as another alternative, they did NOT have to refund immediatly.

MamaMoo_2

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

Do you not know it either? They could send it away for a repair as another alternative, they did NOT have to refund immediatly.

Actually, looks like OP was rejecting the goods. Presumably, they were only tested once the gift was received, which seems reasonable IMO.

Jennifer

Purchase receipt was provided and a suitable result obtained eventually.
My point was that the retailer - Aldi - were trying to "pass the buck" onto a phone line which did not exist. A repair was not offered.
J

arcon5

MamaMoo wrote: »

Actually, looks like OP was rejecting the goods. Presumably, they were only tested once the gift was received, which seems reasonable IMO.

Op has no right to reject goods 1/4 year after purchase! Certainly not reasonable to expect such

MamaMoo_2

arcon5 wrote: »

Op has no right to reject goods 1/4 year after purchase! Certainly not reasonable to expect such

As they were bought as a gift, it seems reasonable to assume goods would not be tested until the date the gift was for.

Takeaway_Addict

MamaMoo wrote: »

As they were bought as a gift, it seems reasonable to assume goods would not be tested until the date the gift was for.

The time limit for reasonable testing starts from the day it was bought regardless of when it would actually be tested. By your theory you could return something x years later saying it was only tested recently.

ILW

They probably only cost a couple of quid.

Wywth

Jennifer wrote: »

We had bought two battery driven pepper/salt grinders in March for a present in June. One did not work at all and the other was sluggish.
We took the units back to Aldi and were told incorrectly that they were "out of the 60 day return period".
Twice I pointed out that they were being returned as defective and the store was responsible for a refund, (no replacement stock was available).
The manager was reluctant to refund and asked us to call the helpline for advice.
He was unable to provide the tel. no. so eventually got the refund.
20 minutes wasted in a very busy store.
Do they not know the Sale of Goods Act rules??
J

Yes, I'm sure they are fully aware of the requirements of SoGA. The question is, are you? The store is not responsible for anything, the retailer is

Their policy is, after the expiry of their no quibble returns period, you need to contact their helpline (or write to their head office)

I have never had any issue following this procedure. I'm sorry that the manager was not able to provide you with the details of how to do this. Sounds like more training is required. Perhaps you could have also brought this to the attention of their head office when you contacted them? They would probably have thanked you for the feedback and thown in a complimentary voucher too for your troubles!