Company Not Acknowledging Returned Item

MGF505

Good evening all.

I apologise for the floundering nature of this post, but I am at my wits end and am not sure what I should be doing. Basically I made an order online for numerous items from a company called Soletrader, within which were two hats. I returned both of these but was only refunded for one. I phoned the company earlier today with regard to this and have just received the following e-mail.

Hello Matthew,

With regards to your return, I have spoken to the Returns team. The person who opened your parcel clearly remembers only one cap. Also, you had returned the multi-colour cap in the grey bag so we have just realised that you have not been refunded the full amount. The multi hat was £17.10 and the grey one £13.50. I have therefore issued a further refund of £3.60.

We have thoroughly checked our stock and this is correct so we are very sure that we only received one cap back from you. Maybe you still have the grey cap at home somewhere?

Also, we have a 30 day return period and you placed this order on the 31/12/18 so really our Returns team should not have accepted your return as you were very much past the returns period.

Kind regards,
Rayne

My concerns are firstly I am 100% sure that both items were returned (but sadly can not prove this), secondly that I am unhappy with this persons accusatory tone, thirdly that it’s very convenient for such a large company to remember my very return (but misquote my packaging) and finally that they seem to give numerous excuses at different points in their message (including that I missed the return date - which would mean that I should be able to at least collect the unwanted items, no?).

What I would like to ask all of you kind people, is that is there anything I can do here? My qualm is only for £13.50, which isn’t the end of the world, but I feel that it is more of a principal situation than it is financial. If I wanted to escalate this, surely it would simply become my word against theirs and I feel they would have more gravitas than I would.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I genuinely appreciate any advice anyone could give me.

Regards,
Matt.

Angus_Og

Decide what you can prove? Then take appropriate action.

But from what you say you can't prove you returned both so all you can do is never shop there again and perhaps leave a poor review. If they make a habit of this then it will start to tell in their sales.

Don't sweat the small stuff in life save it for times it really matters.

I had a fight with London Underground over a £20 penalty fare which I fought for months years ago, lots of letters and I still got nowhere that's when I decided I would only pick fights that that were worth the raised blood pressure.

MGF505

Thank you for your response.

It’s one of those situations where I had never thought to itemise what was in the box (or how I could prove it even if I wanted to). I was taught to get a ‘proof of postage’ receipt and that was it.

And you’re completely right, the monetary value means very little in the grand scheme of things, it’s just an annoyance that I felt I’ve been stolen from and that it’s then been turned on me; but as you said I should live and learn.

theonlywayisup

Does your certificate of posting show a weight and could that help prove both items were in the parcel?

MGF505

Unfortunately it does not, although admittedly I hadn’t even thought of that. Soletrader’s free returns use Collect+, who don’t seem to include any additional information.

I may just write a formal letter to the company’s head office complaining about both the situation and the tone of voice in their e-mail (again - it’s hard to believe that a company that turns over £40 million would remember my specific return over a fortnight ago), and then just accept whatever the outcome is.

Angus_Og

MGF505 wrote: »

(again - it’s hard to believe that a company that turns over £40 million would remember my specific return over a fortnight ago), and then just accept whatever the outcome is.

That's the bit I would be saying "Aye right!!!!"