Help Greatly Appreciated with Consumer Rights Disaster

UK2004

I have had a terrible experience with a retailer that I feel has got to the stage that I need to take some advice and possible legal action. The year before last I purchased a Rain Mac from Pal Zileri store at Bicester Village and within months it started to develop small holes in the fabric, I emailed them to ask what they could do and rang and didn't get a response for several months. Eventually they emailed saying to send it back to them and they would look and try and offer a replacement, I sent the coat back promtply and then had repeated emails ignored before they said that the correct member of staff was not in and when they were they would look at it. It took three months for the correct member of staff to be in at which point they suddenly emailed me saying the holes must have been caused by chemical spillage or being in a fire.

Now clearly I would know if I spilled chemicals and there would be marking around all these little holes which there were not and I would know if I had been in a fire which I hadn't. I explained this to them and they simply said we don't care we are not exchanging it. I sent them a picture of multiple items I had purchased from them and said you are prepared to treat a loyal customer in this way and don't care if you lose their business and any family members or friends who they relay this experience to, response was can give you 25% discount but nothing more. I said that in view of how young the coat was and how bad the fault with the garment is I should just have a replacement or at least 50% discount to which they said no.

I contacted a member of staff at Value Retail who said that they do not want Bicester Village customers being treated badly and would investigate, he then went quiet.

Can somebody advise please? Taking nearly 9 months from someone complaining about a faulty garment to receiving it and then coming up with a response in my view is awful added to the fact that the garment is faulty, my other purchases have been fine so I wuld have no reason to complain if it wasn't a clear fault with the garment, less than a year's use to me does not deem a garment should have loads of little holes popping up in the fabric.

They now refuse to answer my emails and have had my coat for a year and a half nearly in total.

wealdroam

You need to be more specific with timescales.

You say "within months it started to develop small holes in the fabric".
Within how many months?
You go on to say "less than a year's use...".

If it was over six months from purchase that you reported the problem to them, then you will need to prove that the product was inherently faulty.

Have you read MSE's Consumer Rights guide yet?

You will find their How to Complain document useful too.

I have to say that allowing the issue to drag on for this length of time is not in your favour.

How much are we talking about here?
What was the purchase price?

arcon5

You say you purchased it the year before last - so it's at least 19 months old?

You can ask for it back but would need to prove the fault is inherent (thus not damaged by you as they state).

meer53

I've had small holes appear in things before, usually my daughters stuff. I worked out that they were caused when she was at a bonfire. Splashes of bleach have had the same effect on one of my tops too.

It doesn't sound like a manufacturing defect really.

UK2004

The purchase price was £475 and I've had similar macs before so would know the difference between wear and tear and a manufacturer default, there certainly had not been any chemical spillage etc or catching on anything. There conduct was appalling and not what I've come to expect from Italian clothing companies. I see no way without going to court of forcing them to be fare so just hope this gives a message to anyone reading to think twice before putting money in their till as they literally have no concept of customer service and you have no rights as soon as you purchase a product there.

wealdroam

UK2004 wrote: »

The purchase price was £475 and I've had similar macs before so would know the difference between wear and tear and a manufacturer default, there certainly had not been any chemical spillage etc or catching on anything. There conduct was appalling and not what I've come to expect from Italian clothing companies. I see no way without going to court of forcing them to be fare so just hope this gives a message to anyone reading to think twice before putting money in their till as they literally have no concept of customer service and you have no rights as soon as you purchase a product there.

It is two months since your last post where you asked for advice on what to do, and were given some suggestions.

What progress have you made in that period?
What specifically have you done?
What has been the responses of the retailer?

You seem reluctant to take the court route. Why is that?

As I mentioned in July, you appear to be allowing things to drag on.
Will it be the end of November before your next reply?

UK2004

To be honest I just got to the point where I had enough of them. I told them if they were not willing to be fair I would not be shopping there ever again and would advise my friends and family to do the same. I don't have the time that I perceive would be required to go the court route and by naming and shaming on here I hope I have warned a couple of others to avoid the same for them.

One thing I will do now is write a letter to one of the board that manage Bicester Village to tell them how their employee after emailing promising to help went on to completely ignore me.

societys_child

UK2004 wrote: »

The purchase price was £475 :eek: . . .

. . . just hope this gives a message to anyone reading to think twice before putting money in their till.

It certainly does . . .