Refund of return postage costs when wrong item was delivered

alanhassall

At the end of October I purchased a jacket online from Millets. The jacket which arrived was not the colour of the jacket I ordered. I followed the returns process and had to pay £3.99 for a Collect+ label to be created and printed. I did this and the jacket was returned. Sometime later Millets refunded me only the cost of the jacket. I contacted them via email and pointed out that as it was their error in sending me the wrong colour jacket that they were required to not only refund me in full for the cost of the jacket, but also for the postage costs I paid for them to send it to me, PLUS the £3.99 return postage I had to pay Collect+ to have it returned. Millets then make  refund but it is only for the postage costs I had paid for them to send the jacket to me. Since then, there has been a huge email trail about this. Each email is responded to by a different customer services rep and it is quite clear that none of them read the email trail, because they ask the same questions.

I have telephoned a number of times and the CS reps I have spoken to are unable to issue the refund as they are not authorised to do so. This apparently, has to be done by a 'special' customer services team. This team are so special in fact, that the normal, everyday customer service reps are unable to transfer my call through to them. They have to contact them by some other secret means and the 'special' team then have to contact me and speak to me first! No one can explain as to why they must speak to me in order to issue a returns postage refund. I did forewarn them that due to the nature of my job I can be on and off the phone at random times so unless we agreed when it was best for me then their calls would likely go unanswered. I gave them a bunch of daytime slots, e.g. Monday 10-11, Tuesday 1400 -1530 etc. So Monday 10-11 passes and I am on an important work call and I see that someone on a Leeds area number is trying to call me at 1300. So, the call goes unanswered. The Leeds area number does not accept incoming calls, so I can't ring them directly. This behaviour continues. I ring, the people who answer cannot help. I can't be put through, I give dates and times when I can be contacted which means I am having to book time out of my diary to ensure I am free, only for them to call outside of the time slots I have agreed to

This is completely and utterly nonsensical and it is so annoying and frustrating. Judging by what is happening to me, this must be a tactic employed by Millers (and probably their wider group which I believe includes Blacks and JD sport) to avoid refunding what they are obliged to. I also suspect that as it is only £3.99 then I am more than likely going to drop it due to their time wasting actions. I wonder how much this is saving them each year? Surely, in examples such as this, there should be a method to also claim back the costs of my wasted time in emails and phone calls, which could quite easily wipe out the cost of the jacket many times over.

Is my only next action to go to the Ombudsman to have this rectified? If Millets know the law and their obligations then why do I find myself if this ridiculous situation, or are the totally ignorant? I am guessing the latter, and if they are ignorant, then how can I get them to believe what I am saying if they believe it to be untrue? Because if they know it is true then they are deliberately avoiding paying refunds correctly

 

Ergates

Normally, your next action would be a letter before action.   But, as the value is less than £4 I really cant see how this is worth your while.

Whilst this is clearly annoying and their fault, it's also not likely to be intentional on their part.   Even at minimum wage (I have no idea how much Millets office staff earn - probably more than minimum tbh), dealing with your case will have cost them more that £4 in wages.  It's just a mistake, that's all - overworked, imperfect people dealing with an unwieldy system that isn't set up to cover all eventualities.

Your best action now is to drop it and forget about it.  Even if you manage to get the £4 back, you'll never get the time you've spent back.

theonlywayisup

For £4 there does need to be a certain amount of 'is it worth pursuing' mentality.

If you have social media you could try a quick message to each of their platforms but otherwise it isn't worth the effort.

mobileron

The good thing is you have informed us all to ask for a prepaid return label.

alanhassall

Thanks everyone for taking the time to comment - I understand that my time is more valuable than what I would be refunded but there is a principal in all of this. We have to see the wider picture. Plus, if Millets and the rest of their group are doing this on a regular basis then they are ripping off an awful lot of people, whether they are doing in knowingly or not. The sad fact is that they should know what they are responsible for and this should not be reflective as to how much their rate of pay is. I just think that when a company behaves in this manner they should also be made to refund the cost of the time spent by the customer chasing it, so it is not a matter of £4 but an awful lot more and this way they will be forced to change their behaviour and practices.....reaches for the rose tinted specs

Sandtree

alanhassall said:

Is my only next action to go to the Ombudsman to have this rectified? If Millets know the law and their obligations then why do I find myself if this ridiculous situation, or are the totally ignorant? I am guessing the latter, and if they are ignorant, then how can I get them to believe what I am saying if they believe it to be untrue? Because if they know it is true then they are deliberately avoiding paying refunds correctly 

There is no ombudsman for jackets, historically there was the self claimed Retail Ombudsman but they were stripped of the name when they left the Ombudsman Association and was found not to meet the standards required by the group (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Retail_Ombudsman_(United_Kingdom)

There are alternative dispute resolution services out there, which the retail ombudsman became, but it depends on which, if any, Millets subscribes to.

How did you pay the £3.99? Assuming it was by card then a chargeback may be a better route forward

pinkshoes

For £3.99, then I think I would leave some poor online reviews stating how they sent the wrong thing then refused to pay the postage for item to be returned.

Hopefully the poor reviews will cost them far more than £3.99!

Moe_The_Bartender

I have much the same situation with Woolovers who sent me an item that was faulty and one that was the wrong size. They expect me to pay to return the items and I see no reason why I should.

The amount involved is trifling but the principle is not. I will return the goods and ask them to refund the postage. If they don’t, I will do a chargeback. It may or may not succeed but it will give them some hassle and perhaps cause them to rethink. There are lots of complaints about them on Trustpilot which they must be aware of.

it surprises me that there is no legal protection for customers for this sort of ripoff.

Manxman_in_exile

I agree with @alanhassall and @Moe_The_Bartender.

This sort of behaviour by quite large companies who ought to know better (and if they don't they should have it drilled into them by someone) is the sort of low level ignoring of apparently trivial consumer rights that tends to put people off pursuing their more important rights.  "What's the point of me trying to get XYZ to do abc when nobody can get them to do something basic like paying return postage that they're meant to pay?"

Unfortunately, in most cases that "someone" ends up being Trading Standards, who seem to prefer to spend their time finding ways to avoid members of the public rather than bothering to engage with them.

Yes - a trader not paying return postage when it's their responsibility to do so because of an error on their part is not the end of the world, but it does encourage them and others to think that laws protecting consumer rights are easy to ignore - which, unfortunately, they are.

If staff in these companies behave like this because they haven't been trained properly, that is no excuse for the companies not correcting the problem.  If it's part of a deliberate company policy then it's fraud, even if it's only £3.99 a shot.

Unfortunately all the OP can do is leave as many unfavourable - but accurate and truthful - reviews as they can, or write to Mike Ashley (if Milletts are part of Sports Direct) or complain to Trading standards via CAB.  But I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for any of those to produce a result...