MATALAN REFUSE ME MY MONEY- is this correct?

rebl43

Right, this may turn out to be a bit long winded so bear with me please!

Before Christmas, I bought 7 items from Matalan which came to £26. I had a £5 voucher which I was given on a previous visit to Matalan. It was valid on anything, no minimum spend, but you had to use it between 3rd (I think) and 24th December. This went through fine, no problems, and so I paid £21.

Today I went back to Matalan to return 1 of the items as they were faulty. I still had my reciept so I expected a full refund of £6 (which was what I paid for this item).

The customer services woman said "I must warn you, as you used a £5 (I think she called it a 'redemption voucher') voucher, the till will divide £5 by the number of items you bought (7) and take a percentage off the refund".

So instead of getting a £6 refund, I was only going to get £4.29.:eek: I said how silly that was, as there was no minimum spend on the voucher, and the CS woman said she agreed, and said there had been a lot of complaints.

I said I would phone their Head Office and argue my point through them, and she said people have tried that but failed.

Has anyone had a similar experience? Any advice as to what my rights (if any) are?

Thanks!

olly300

While I think Matalan have played a nasty trick in not making their Terms and Conditions clear at the till, I think there is nothing you can do to get your money back. However you can report them to Trading Standards for not making their terms and conditions clear to customers.

The reasons there is likely nothing you can do to get your money back are:
1. Now when you buy something with gift vouchers, cash or on a debit/credit card in any store, if you return the item the refund is done in the same way. So if you paid with gift vouchers you get gift vouchers back.
2. If you buy an offer on 2 for 1 in most clothes shops, they clearly sign that if you return an item you have to return all the items brought on the offer to get the refund.
3. If you buy one item that is discounted with a voucher the refund will be for the exact amount you paid.

rebl43

The thing is, if I had paid for all of these items seperately, and used the voucher against 1 of them, this wouldn't have been a problem!

bryanb

It would have been a problem if you returned the one you used the voucher on!!!

rebl43

Yes, and I would have understood that, if I had only bought 1 thing with it.

alison99_2

You would get £5.29 not £4.29 refund, but I don't agree with this either. The very least Matalan could do is give you a credit note for the remaining 71p.

hollydays

Were you given the voucher free by the shop?

rebl43

alison99 wrote: »

You would get £5.29 not £4.29 refund, but I don't agree with this either. The very least Matalan could do is give you a credit note for the remaining 71p.

Yes, you are right, sorry.

rebl43

hollydays wrote: »

Were you given the voucher free by the shop?

Yes, I was . I think there was a minimum spend of £20 to get the voucher.

Poppy9

olly300 wrote: »

2. If you buy an offer on 2 for 1 in most clothes shops, they clearly sign that if you return an item you have to return all the items brought on the offer to get the refund..

I've never seen this sign. So if you buy two tops on BOGOF at £10 each so pay a total of £10 if one top develops a fault but the other is perfect, albeit worn, you have to return both? I can't see what the shops gains out of this as they cannot resell the worn top or the faulty one.

Andy_L

Olly's talking about refunds not replacement, otherwise you'd buy a BOGOF, return one & get a refund thus getting a top for free