Aldi - Not Keen on Refunds

Wywth

Jennifer wrote: »

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

I can assure you the Aldi head office do exist.

Aldi refund policy is laid out here
https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/information/useful-information/refund-policy/

If you were advised to contact the manufacturers helpline, it sounds like the product was under the manufacturer's guarantee. These helplines do exist, and details are given on the product user guide/packaging.

To be honest, I have not found some of these helplines very helpful in the past, but a complaint into Aldi head office soon had the manufacturer contacting me to offer proper help and assistance

Wywth

I can't remember Aldi selling any electronic salt & pepper grinders in March this year? Perhaps it was old stock from December 2012?
(Again sometimes causes issues with the manufacturer, but Aldi head office will resolve it, especially if you have proof of purchase)

Here's the item they had on sale in December, along with the helpline number you say doesn't exist.
http://aldiwarranty.co.uk/search/search_results_detail.asp?id=1861

ThumbRemote

Wywth wrote: »

I
If you were advised to contact the manufacturers helpline, it sounds like the product was under the manufacturer's guarantee. These helplines do exist, and details are given on the product user guide/packaging.

The manufacturers warranty cannot replace your statutory rights, and it is an offence to attempt to deny these. If the manufacturers helpline was an option for the OP, the store manager could explain this option, but cannot insist the customer uses it.

Wywth wrote: »

Here's the item they had on sale in December, along with the helpline number you say doesn't exist.
http://aldiwarranty.co.uk/search/search_results_detail.asp?id=1861

I think the OPs point was that they returned the product to the store where they purchased it. At that point the store manager was both unwilling to help and unable to provide this phone number - so in effect was attempting to deny OP a remedy. "Go away and hunt for a phone number yourself" is not dealing with the problem.

In addition, that number is for the warranty, not their statutory rights.

Jennifer

I thank you all for your comments and rest assured, I am now more aware.

The grinders were in rigid plastic see through "boxes" and were in different colours - mine were black. Bought on 7th March 2013 £8.00.
J

fionajbanana

Aldi are useless with refunds. Purchased a mini chopper which I used twice and stopped working after 2 weeks after purchasing it. I returned it to the store and I was treated as an inconvenience!

Also Aldi seriously need to have a customer care line or/and an e-mail address as they lack these and they may become victims of their own success if they don't do something soon

vikingaero

Aldi stores are incredibly lean on staffing. The managers often do every job in the store from shelf stacking to cleaning the toilets. Their cashiers are logged on the amount they process through the tills - which is why you see them getting annoyed with slow customers and they routinely log off/on between customers to boost their stats. Because of this they don't want to spend time processing refunds and will bluff customers.

fionajbanana

Aldi also need to increase their staff per store as well, as along with the lack of customer service when things go wrong and if they continue to increase sales and profits like what they have experienced in the past 5-7 years for another 5 years - expect failure.

Customers don't want to be messed about if they have a faulty product.

My friend had purchased something which had a recall notice and still was treated like a piece if rubbish.

If Aldi invested in customer service helpline etc along with their cheap prices, then they have a better winning formula

rustyboy21

fionajbanana wrote: »

Aldi also need to increase their staff per store as well, as along with the lack of customer service when things go wrong and if they continue to increase sales and profits like what they have experienced in the past 5-7 years for another 5 years - expect failure.

Customers don't want to be messed about if they have a faulty product.

My friend had purchased something which had a recall notice and still was treated like a piece if rubbish.

If Aldi invested in customer service helpline etc along with their cheap prices, then they have a better winning formula

More staff means higher prices instore.

How do you think they keep the prices so low?

Money-Saving-King

rustyboy21 wrote: »

More staff means higher prices instore.

How do you think they keep the prices so low?

Exactly Aldi's model is low prices on fairly good food products. They do that very well. They will never increase the staff levels for the exact reasons you said.

This may mean if you purchase non food items, more often than not they're are weekly offers and something goes wrong then it may be a struggle.

Personally I see it this way. I shop at Aldi every week and for me it's very good value. I may buy their other items sometimes & so far I've never had a problem. If I did buy an item that went wrong knowing how their business works for me with the prices being low on food and the fact whatever I bought was cheap anyway I probably wouldn't bother trying to take it back.

DCFC79

fionajbanana wrote: »

Aldi also need to increase their staff per store as well, as along with the lack of customer service when things go wrong and if they continue to increase sales and profits like what they have experienced in the past 5-7 years for another 5 years - expect failure.

The plan of having minimal staff per store has been working for a number of years (for Aldi and Lidl) in the UK and much longer where it all started in germany.

It works quite well.

Ive never experienced " being treated like a piece if rubbish " nor did I treat customers this way when I worked there.