Argos refund method.

freezin76

Last week I bought 2 Nintendo Switch games. Each game was £29.99, so the total was £59.98.

I used PayPal to pay and also used a £20 gift card.

I returned 1 of the games, unused, unopened and in perfect condition. I was issued a receipt in store for £29.99. When I got my PayPal refund notice it was for £9.99.

Taken aback I contacted Argos via Twitter Direct message. They said the refund was processed correctly and is credited to a gift card first. I refuted this as my transaction was above the gift card value therefore the value of the card should be used and I'm refunded as a £29.99 credit to PayPal .

I took it to Argos chat where Taylor 

Responded with:

2023-02-13 14:09:15 [A:Taylor] I can confirm the refund was issued correctly so you will be able to use this gift card again towards a future purchase

Then Taylor abruptly ended the chat without discussion.

Now if the goods had been £20 I can absolutely understand their point. However the issues I have are:

1) This refund method was never discussed in store. The chap sheepishly skulked off and came back with an A4 print out which showed £29.99 refund. 

2) More than the value of the gift card was already spent on the part of the order I kept.

3) Having returned the item I was clearly wanting money back - I can't pay my gas bill with an Argos gift card. 

4) I was never asked if I still had the gift card - who keeps them after they're spent?

5) Taylor never discussed anything - I got an answer then Taylor ended the chat.

Surely if I have already bought £29.99 worth of goods (£20 gift card and £9.99 PayPal) I'm entitled to a cash/credit refund to my payment method.

This can't be legal, surely... Do I just suck it up, that I now have a £20 credit (wherever it is) to spend in a store I no longer wish to deal with?

Aylesbury_Duck

It sounds entirely legal, why wouldn't it be? Have a look at the terms and conditions of their gift cards. There might be something in there that says it's always the primary destination for a refund, with the excess going back to the original payment method.

Otherwise, your buy-and-refund situation just looks like a deliberate way of quickly converting gift card funds to 'cash'.

I can't see that they've done anything wrong, you've had a proper refund for the returned game and are back in your original position.

Wonka_2

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Otherwise, your buy-and-refund situation just looks like a deliberate way of quickly converting gift card funds to 'cash'.

It's exactly this - easy way for a less than honest person to convert a gift card into cash. And because of this they're always likely to take gift cards as the first paid/first refunded element of the transaction. If I could be bothered to read through them I suspect it'd be buried deep in the small print to cover them.

Even if they'd not given it all back to the gift card the next option would have been to apportion the refund as per the original payment breakdown so you'd still have had £6.67 on your gift card

freezin76

Aylesbury_Duck said:

It sounds entirely legal, why wouldn't it be? Have a look at the terms and conditions of their gift cards. There might be something in there that says it's always the primary destination for a refund, with the excess going back to the original payment method.

Otherwise, your buy-and-refund situation just looks like a deliberate way of quickly converting gift card funds to 'cash'.

I can't see that they've done anything wrong, you've had a proper refund for the returned game and are back in your original position.

I could entirely understand that perspective if I hadn't bought goods to the value of the gift card but I have. 

I'm not defrauding them of the value of their gift voucher. Effectively I should be allowed to use the gift card and they retain £9.99 of the PayPal payment, resulting in a refund of £29.99.

If that isn't the case, I'd implore everyone in the future to make separate Argos orders. One as close to the value of the gift card as possible and a separate one for anything over and above that amount. That way there is less of a chance to be left with a gift card should you need to return any part of that order.

The CS has been shocking. Three occasions for them to make sure that the customer was informed and everything was in place for them (me) to access the refund in the form of a gift card. 

freezin76

Wonka_2 said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Otherwise, your buy-and-refund situation just looks like a deliberate way of quickly converting gift card funds to 'cash'.

It's exactly this - easy way for a less than honest person to convert a gift card into cash. And because of this they're always likely to take gift cards as the first paid/first refunded element of the transaction. If I could be bothered to read through them I suspect it'd be buried deep in the small print to cover them.

Even if they'd not given it all back to the gift card the next option would have been to apportion the refund as per the original payment breakdown so you'd still have had £6.67 on your gift card

I think you may have misunderstood.
I have actually bought (and kept) goods over the value of the gift card. 

Argos had a surplus cash payment of £39.98

The refund I was expecting was £29.99.
Nobody told me how it would be refunded nor asked if I still had the gift card. The first I was aware of it was a refund of £9.99 from PayPal 

HillStreetBlues

If you can find the gift card or get Argos to sort it out  then you can buy another Nintendo Switch game with the gift card and return the other one, as the remainder of that will be in "cash"

freezin76

HillStreetBlues said:

If you can find the gift card or get Argos to sort it out  then you can buy another Nintendo Switch game with the gift card and return the other one, as the remainder of that will be in "cash"

That's not what's being said - until the gift card value is exhausted they'll keep refunding to the gift card first. 

So say for example I was to buy 3 items at £10 value and buy it with a £20 gift card and £10 cash, Id never see that £10 cash unless I took ALL 3 items back. 

Any combination of 1 or 2 items would result in a credit to a gift card of either £10 or £20.

HillStreetBlues

freezin76 said:

That's not what's being said - until the gift card value is exhausted they'll keep refunding to the gift card first. 

So say for example I was to buy 3 items at £10 value and buy it with a £20 gift card and £10 cash, Id never see that £10 cash unless I took ALL 3 items back. 

Any combination of 1 or 2 items would result in a credit to a gift card of either £10 or £20.

But if you return the other one of the two you bought, the gift card has already been refunded, the refund amount will be £29.99 to your PayPal account.

With the £20 gift card you now have, you go and buy the game again (with £9.99 added), and it's that one you keep.
But it does depend if the games are still the same price.

freezin76

HillStreetBlues said:

freezin76 said:

That's not what's being said - until the gift card value is exhausted they'll keep refunding to the gift card first. 

So say for example I was to buy 3 items at £10 value and buy it with a £20 gift card and £10 cash, Id never see that £10 cash unless I took ALL 3 items back. 

Any combination of 1 or 2 items would result in a credit to a gift card of either £10 or £20.

But if you return the other one of the two you bought, the gift card has already been refunded, the refund amount will be £29.99 to your PayPal account.

With the £20 gift card you now have, you go and buy the game again (with £9.99 added), and it's that one you keep.
But it does depend if the games are still the same price.

The other one has been opened - it's not an option. 

Robbo66

freezin76 said:

Wonka_2 said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Otherwise, your buy-and-refund situation just looks like a deliberate way of quickly converting gift card funds to 'cash'.

It's exactly this - easy way for a less than honest person to convert a gift card into cash. And because of this they're always likely to take gift cards as the first paid/first refunded element of the transaction. If I could be bothered to read through them I suspect it'd be buried deep in the small print to cover them.

Even if they'd not given it all back to the gift card the next option would have been to apportion the refund as per the original payment breakdown so you'd still have had £6.67 on your gift card

I think you may have misunderstood.
I have actually bought (and kept) goods over the value of the gift card. 

Argos had a surplus cash payment of £39.98

The refund I was expecting was £29.99.
Nobody told me how it would be refunded nor asked if I still had the gift card. The first I was aware of it was a refund of £9.99 from PayPal 

Which you got, £20 to the gift card and 9.99 to paypal., I'm sure if you speak to Argos and tell them you cant find the gift card they will send out as a digital one

freezin76

HillStreetBlues said:

freezin76 said:

That's not what's being said - until the gift card value is exhausted they'll keep refunding to the gift card first. 

So say for example I was to buy 3 items at £10 value and buy it with a £20 gift card and £10 cash, Id never see that £10 cash unless I took ALL 3 items back. 

Any combination of 1 or 2 items would result in a credit to a gift card of either £10 or £20.

But if you return the other one of the two you bought, the gift card has already been refunded, the refund amount will be £29.99 to your PayPal account.

With the £20 gift card you now have, you go and buy the game again (with £9.99 added), and it's that one you keep.
But it does depend if the games are still the same price.

Ah, do you mean independently buy a 2nd version (using the gift card) of the 1st game then take that game back on the same order that I returned the 2nd game on. 

For all intents and purposes it appears the entire 1st order has been returned. 

Very smart but a bit of a hassle.