Matalan online discount voucher warning

claircoult

Hi!

I'd like to warn people about shopping online with Matalan. If you use a discount voucher and any items are out of stock you may not get a full refund because of the way their system works.

I recently ordered some clothes from their website and used a £10 off when you spend £50 or more voucher code. One of the items, costing £10, was out of stock but they only refunded me £8.35.

I wasn't happy so I phoned them up. They explained because I used a voucher that was the price I paid so that is all they would refund. I argued that the item was listed for sale at £10 and appeared as costing £10 on my original invoice but they reiterated that I had paid £8.35 so that was all they could refund.

They explained that the £10 discount was spread across all the items I ordered, which included the out of stock item that they did not sell to me. I told them that this meant they had not honoured my discount voucher (even though the other items still qualified) because they had only discounted the price of the order by £8.35, not £10. They said they couldn't do anything about that, it was just how the system worked.

I complained further. They said they could not issue a partial refund of the £1.65 I believe they owed me. Instead they refunded another product of slightly greater value to resolve the issue.

I got my money back but the same thing could happen to other customers. So if you shop at Matalan online and use a discount voucher, please check your invoices carefully if anything is out of stock because you might get refunded less than you paid.

I have reported Matalan to Trading Standards and they are going to investigate the matter.

Clair

WTFH

Actually, I'd agree with them. Your £10 was not off one particular item, but an order level discount. The amount of money that came out of your account was £10 less (for the total order) than it should have been. If you had decided to return all the items for a refund, would you expect to get the £10 back as well?

So, let's say your total order was £70. You paid £60 for it, so every item cost you 6/7 of the original price. The refund to you would be based on how much you actually paid for the item.

claircoult

WTFH wrote: »

Actually, I'd agree with them. Your £10 was not off one particular item, but an order level discount. The amount of money that came out of your account was £10 less (for the total order) than it should have been. If you had decided to return all the items for a refund, would you expect to get the £10 back as well?

So, let's say your total order was £70. You paid £60 for it, so every item cost you 6/7 of the original price. The refund to you would be based on how much you actually paid for the item.

Trading standards didn't see it that way.

The voucher was for a set amount of money off the value of an order NOT a percentage discount off each item.

I didn't send back discounted goods. Matalan cancelled an item on the order because it was out of stock.

The the rest of my order still qualified for the set discount but because of how they processed the order the discount was reduced to £8.35.

If the voucher says £10 off that's what I expect, not £8.35 off.

For example if you buy 7 things costing £10 each and applied a £10 discount, your shop would cost £60.

7x£10=£70
£70-£10=£60

If 2 things are out of stock and your order is reduced to 5 items, what would you expect to pay?

5x£10=£50
£50-£10=£40

But the way Matalan work it out they would reduce each of the 7 items to £8.57, refund you £17.14 so your excepted £40 shop would cost you £42.86 and your £10 discount would only be worth £7.14 off the non-discounted price of your order.

Do you really think that is fair?

WTFH

OK, using your logic, if there were none of your goods in stock, you would expect Matalan to give you £70 refund, even though you only spent £60?

wealdroam

WTFH wrote: »

OK, using your logic, if there were none of your goods in stock, you would expect Matalan to give you £70 refund, even though you only spent £60?

I would expect the seller to refund £60 to the account where it came from, and return the £10 voucher (or re-validate the voucher code).

In the OP's scenario, perhaps the seller should've returned the £8.35 to where it came from, and issued a new voucher for £1.65.

claircoult

WTFH wrote: »

OK, using your logic, if there were none of your goods in stock, you would expect Matalan to give you £70 refund, even though you only spent £60?

No, of course not.

The discount should be applied to the total order value. It doesn't make the price of the items you buy cheaper, it's just like the retailer giving you £10 back.

If anything is out of stock the total order value needs to be recalculated before the discount is applied, then any refunds should be made to rectify the difference.

So if I buy £70 of goods and use a £10 voucher, the retailer charges me £60. If the retailer then discovers a £10 item is out of stock, they need to recalculate. The total price of the goods is now £60 and the voucher is applied making the bill £50. If I have already paid £60 then the retailer should refund the £10 because I given them £10 more than the bill.

If everything is out of stock the recalculated order value is £0. The order obviously does not qualify for the discount, the retailer can't send me any goods and they already have £60 of my money so they should refund £60.

The point here is the discount is applied to the TOTAL ORDER VALUE. My DH has written computer systems for retailers and he assures me this is standard practice.

Sooler

The discount is a fixed amount, £10 and nothing less.

Their refund is as a percentage discount off each item - not what the offer says.

As OP and TS have said.