Forced to give credit card details for faulty item replacement

disgruntled2024

Hello
I'd love any thoughts please. My daughter has a faulty bracelet from John Lewis. It was ordered online and I have been in touch for a replacement. I sent photos as requested and have an email from John Lewis customer service confirming they will send a replacement. I then however had a further email saying I needed to call customer services as they need information from me before they can send the replacement. I just called to be informed that I must give them my credit card information which they will store just in case I ever need a refund in the future.
I don't want a refund... I have been offered and have accepted a replacement. I do not want them to store my credit card information for the future. But I have been firmly told that I will not get my replacement if I do not do this.
Can they do this? Insist on you allowing them to store personal card information that is not needed for a replacement of a faulty item?
Thanks

DullGreyGuy

So who ordered the original?
Are you being asked to return the original? Has that already been done?

The likes of Amazon will at times send out the replacement before they receive the faulty item back and they also require card details to be on file but thats because if you kept the faulty one for whatever reason you have to agree to allow them to charge for the second one after 28 days; which to me isn't unreasonable. 

disgruntled2024

I ordered the original through my John Lewis account. I have sent photos and offered to return the faulty one but was told it was not necessary. The replacement would be sent to the same address as the original one was. I have offered to go into a store to exchange but they do not have this particular bracelet in their stores.
I am happy to have an account with them and have ordered several things successfully in the past but I do not let them hold my credit card information which they're now requesting I do.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Hello OP

Random thought, are you sure it's John Lewis, have you checked the phone number on the email against the one on their website?

If you are exercising your right to a replacement then no they can't insist upon such information. 

If it is John Lewis makes you wonder why they have such policies given the amount of online fraud. I'd be tempted to make a complaint to the ICO:

https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/data-protection-complaints/data-protection-complaints/

If you needed a refund in the future they could take your card details then rather than now.... 

That said path of least resistance might be pragmatic, do you have any cards that are going to expire shortly?  

disgruntled2024

I hadn't checked the number (I listened to a long recorded message offering various customer service options so assumed it was correct), but just have now and it is definitely them.
I didn't think they could make such demands. It feels like I'm being held to ransom - no replacement unless I offer them credit card info that they don't currently need. The customer service rep on the phone acknowledged that they just wanted to save this info in case needed in the future, it is not needed now.
Maybe I try to find a complaints dept in the first instance. I was just wondering if others found this to be acceptable. If all fails then yes ICO is a good idea.
Thank you

disgruntled2024

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

That said path of least resistance might be pragmatic, do you have any cards that are going to expire shortly?  

I thought about just buying her a new one online and then taken the faulty one into a store for a refund... it's not even an expensive bracelet but I have a disappointed child. Perhaps I am being stubborn but it's the principle!

DullGreyGuy

disgruntled2024 said:

Maybe I try to find a complaints dept in the first instance.

Good luck to you, I found their executive complaints team were better in the sense you got an allocated person so wasn't explaining the whole thing from the start again each contact but in terms of service/reasonableness the person I had was far worse than the standard call centre agents. Thankfully the lawyer assigned after I litigated was much more reasonable. 

screech_78

Unfortunately it’s the way the system is set up. It sounds like your original payment card has expired or you paid with PayPal or gift card. If they don’t have valid card details, they simply cannot put the exchange through. If your original payment method was still valid, there would be no issue. 

They can however refund you to an e-gift card instead so ask for this. It’ll be sent to your email address and you can use this to order a replacement.