ASOS - Refusing to refund - No returns label attached but still received by ASOS

gedkirkham

I visited a shop to drop off the parcel for return. The lady there tried to scan the returns label barcode on my phone, but an error kept appearing. She then scanned the barcode on the bag and claimed it had "worked," giving me a paper receipt. Later, I discovered that she did not attach a returns label and should have never scanned the bag's barcode in the first place.

Despite this mistake, I managed to track the parcel, and it shows that it has arrived at the ASOS returns depot. However, ASOS support is refusing to refund me because the tracking ID I provided is not the correct one they require. They need the return tracking number, which I don’t have due to the error made by the store attendant. The tracking number I have used to track it to ASOS is the one on the receipt the lady gave me from the store.

Has anyone else experienced a similar issue? What can I do to resolve this and get my refund? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Ms_Chocaholic

Contact your credit card company.

RefluentBeans

Hmm it’s a tricky one - it’s likely the parcel was returned to sender from the original barcode as it shouldn’t have been in the couriers system (which if Evri, they did more than they normally do of removing it from the system and ‘sin binning’ the parcel). However, you didn’t return the parcel through the correct means. Evri uses the tracked parcel to determine when it arrives and then refunds when it is returned. For them, that parcel hasn’t been delivered yet and so to them can’t be refunded. 

If it has ended up back at Evri (how do you know this by the way? Is the original tracking you had showing this?) then it’ll be processed but given it’ll require human intervention; it’ll take longer than the automated process. Unfortunately, as you effectively Returned to Sender’d the item I’m not sure how that changes liability. 

The options are (in my opinion):
1) keep pushing with customer services.
2) wait and hope that you’ll get a refund at some point. 

3) speak to your payment provider (unlikely each item over £100 so S75 protection won’t apply unless items were over £100 each) but you may still go for a chargeback/open an appeal on PayPal. This isn’t guaranteed and if ASOS says they haven’t received the product and the return postage still remains deactivated; I think the chargeback will fail. Even if it succeeds, ASOS may still consider this debt owed and shut down your account and refer to the debt collection process. 

4) proceed via SCC - but this can be a laboured process and depends how much is owed. If it’s less than £100 total, I personally don’t think it’s worth it and wouldn’t pursue it as it’s not worth the time investment. But it’s up to you - this is also the last thing you should try so don’t jump straight to here.