Is this right? B&Q refund to credit note when part pay with Gift Card?

paulbeard

Hi, this doesn't seem right to me so I'm here to pick your expert brains.

A couple of weeks ago I spent a little over £80 in B&Q on paint & brushes, £30 of which was paid with a gift card. The remaining balance of just over £50 was paid on a visa debit card.

Painting job done, today I return to B&Q with one unused tin of paint and an unused brush to get a refund. No problem there, but the refund was issued as a credit note for approx £27 rather than a refund straight to my debit card. To add insult the credit note has a 1 year lifespan whereas I had 2-3 years left on my gift card.

This smells off to me. I'm sure B&Q are acting within the law as they're too big a company to fall foul of consumer law - at least I'd assume so. But how can it be right that B&Q can keep £27 of my money for up to a year, and even worse they keep it if I don't use the credit note in that time.

To be clear, if I'd spent £30 on paint thus paying by gift card for the full amount of goods purchased and returned £27 worth I would understand this system, though still wouldn't be that impressed with losing a year or so of my giftcard.

If I'd spent £45 or so ie the majority of the payment was by gift card I'd be non-plussed but again I'd accept it.

But in this case the vast majority of the purchase price was paid via debit card so I don't think its unreasonable to expect that the £27 should be refunded to me directly.

B&Q staff were pleasant but both the till assistant and the manager (who I asked to speak to) advised that they can not override the refund method and that where a gist card is used refunds will always be issued as a credit note up to the value of the gift card before money is refunded for the cash/debit part of the transaction.

To summarise:
- £30 B&Q Gift card bought by my sister & given to me as a present. This had 2-3 years left on it of the 5 year life duration.
- £80ish paid in total goods from B&Q
- £27ish good taken back unused for refund
- Credit note issued for £27ish with 1 year duration

I'll call customer service to complain on Monday but is there any advice on how to get this £27 returned to me as an actual refund rather than a credit note?

Fosterdog

Every shop I can think if would refund in the same way, as the change of mind policy is above and beyond your legal rights they can attach pretty much whatever terms they want to it in this case if a gift card was part of the purchase then any refund would use the gift card as the first method.

Some places even if you had paid the entire bill with cash or card would only issue a gift card/voucher for a change of mind return.

societys_child

Took a paintbrush back:rotfl:

paulbeard

Fosterdog wrote: »

Every shop I can think if would refund in the same way, as the change of mind policy is above and beyond your legal rights they can attach pretty much whatever terms they want to it in this case if a gift card was part of the purchase then any refund would use the gift card as the first method.

Some places even if you had paid the entire bill with cash or card would only issue a gift card/voucher for a change of mind return.

Its not so much a change of mind as much as buying more paint than we actually needed (to save us a 25 mile round trip to return to the store that afternoon if we had run out) and were returning the spare unused tin, which is something B&Q have promoted as a service in the past. But I take your point and had guessed as much, but as you never know its best to ask.

I still think its not very good service that we lose a year or two of the giftcard lifespan however.

paulbeard

societys_child wrote: »

Took a paintbrush back:rotfl:

Thanks, but not very helpful really :eek:...as I was taking back a large tin of paint anyway and it was a £7 brush I did think to return it tbh. This is moneysavingexpert isn't it? :cool:

SuperHan

A lot of places do this (unfortunately).


I've now taken to splitting transactions to use the gift card (and not much else) and then paying separately for things I am more likely to return so I have a separate receipt with no gift card spend on.

paulbeard

SuperHan wrote: »

A lot of places do this (unfortunately).


I've now taken to splitting transactions to use the gift card (and not much else) and then paying separately for things I am more likely to return so I have a separate receipt with no gift card spend on.

Yes, definitely the way to go for me in future, thanks!

AndyMc.....

paulbeard wrote: »

Its not so much a change of mind as much as buying more paint than we actually needed (to save us a 25 mile round trip to return to the store that afternoon if we had run out) and were returning the spare unused tin, which is something B&Q have promoted as a service in the past. But I take your point and had guessed as much, but as you never know its best to ask.

I still think its not very good service that we lose a year or two of the giftcard lifespan however.

It's brilliant service, you were allowed to return items bought in store as you no longer need them.

societys_child

paulbeard wrote: »

Thanks, but not very helpful really :eek:...as I was taking back a large tin of paint anyway and it was a £7 brush I did think to return it tbh. This is moneysavingexpert isn't it? :cool:

Sorry, just thought it funny taking a paintbrush back. Will you never paint anything again? The brush will have gone up when you need another, so not very money saving in the long run. just saying.

paulbeard

societys_child wrote: »

Sorry, just thought it funny taking a paintbrush back. Will you never paint anything again? The brush will have gone up when you need another, so not very money saving in the long run. just saying.

No worries:beer: and after returning from B&Q with the paint & brushes I discovered I still had an unused large fence painting brush (which is what I took back) in the shed from the last time I painted the outside woodwork :T

gener8or

This stinks. You should first get your cash returned and anything left on the gift card value is the last resort, exactly as amazon do.

Same thing happened to me.