Problems with refund when using credit note

Surfing_Sahara

Can anyone help me out here?

I had a credit note from Seraphine (maternity clothes online shop) for £75 (from a faulty bag that was returned). I decided to buy 3 items with this, costing £42, £25 and £39 - £106 together. I paid the extra £31 by paypal.

This morning I had a message saying that the last item for £39 was out of stock for the foreseeable future and I was given a refund of £11.41 to paypal and a credit note for £27.59.

I phoned to discuss this as it didn't make much sense to me. It appears they applied the £75 credit proportionally across the 3 items, and they refunded in the same way they had applied the credit. They were adamant that this was the way they should apply my refund.

I am cross about this, because if I had known the item was out of stock, I wouldn't necessarily have spent the last £8 of my credit note as there wasn't really much I liked on their website. Or I might have chosen something small like a pair of tights.

I want to know why credit notes are not treated like cash in terms of refunds. Why have they kept nearly £20 of my paypal payment when I am now sitting with a £27 credit note?

Irritatingly, the item that was out of stock is very similar to one in a different shop which I would now like to buy, but obviously don't want to spend yet more cash as Seraphine are hanging on to my credit.

Does anyone know if it is okay for them to do this? Thanks!

unholyangel

Why not cancel the full order, then re-order just the 2 items and a small third item to use up the credit note?

Surfing_Sahara

Brilliant idea thank you! Clearly a bit too confusing for me to think of the straight forward solution.