Refund via gift card when item was wrong

Bex811711

Hi, 
I spent £128 with sports direct including  a £47 credit note. I kept one pair of trainers that were £60. The other pair (£68) were the wrong colour which meant they had sent the wrong item. I had to send them back and it was going to take at least 20 days to receive and then send replacement so I just asked a refund. They sent me my £47 credit note back as a gift card and then the rest refunded to my bank. 
I told them because they sent me wrong item I should get a full refund. They have no complaints procedure on their website and I keep getting told it is their policy. I told them but my rights are to get a refund as the item was wrong. Can anyone advise on this? I feel like I stand no chance against such a big company. Thanks 

mr_stripey

I think that is correct - you're back (if I'm following correctly) to where you were before - i.e. you have a £47 credit note and the rest of the refund in the bank

It is rare (maybe very rare) for any retailer to refund a credit note/gift card purchase in anything othter than another credit note

Exodi

Pretty much all retailers will suggest they can only refund to the original payment method - presumably due to AML.

That said, in your specific situation with two different methods of payment, it's a bit harsh that they've concluded that the '£47 credit note' portion should be allocated to the part you wanted a refund on...

HopeAndDriftWood

They can't refund you in a different manner to the one that you paid, it's against money laundering regulations. You paid £47 by gift card, so that amount is refunded to another gift card, and the rest should be returned in cash - exactly as you paid.

They have to do it this way, or people who were money laundering would always decide to have the "gift card" portion refunded to their bank account, and suddenly money is being cleaned all over the place... 

Alderbank

Bex811711 said:

Hi, 
I spent £128 with sports direct including  a £47 credit note. I kept one pair of trainers that were £60. The other pair (£68) were the wrong colour which meant they had sent the wrong item. I had to send them back and it was going to take at least 20 days to receive and then send replacement so I just asked a refund. They sent me my £47 credit note back as a gift card and then the rest refunded to my bank. 
I told them because they sent me wrong item I should get a full refund. They have no complaints procedure on their website and I keep getting told it is their policy. I told them but my rights are to get a refund as the item was wrong. Can anyone advise on this? I feel like I stand no chance against such a big company. Thanks 

Welcome to the forum.

You are entitled to a refund back to the same payment method(s) you used.

For example, had you used a credit card for the full payment, your refund should be entirely to the same credit card which you used. Also, consumer rights legislation says that if you paid partly with something other than money, you should be refunded that 'something' where it is possible to do so.

If you had returned the whole order you would have been refunded the £47 credit note back and the £81 balance to your bank.

Since you only returned part of the order you are not entitled to a full refund, only to a partial refund of £68. They have refunded your credit note back plus the balance of £13 to your bank account.

That sounds right to me.

Exodi

HopeAndDriftWood said:

They can't refund you in a different manner to the one that you paid, it's against money laundering regulations. You paid £47 by gift card, so that amount is refunded to another gift card, and the rest should be returned in cash - exactly as you paid.

They have to do it this way, or people who were money laundering would always decide to have the "gift card" portion refunded to their bank account, and suddenly money is being cleaned all over the place... 

The OP isn't asking to be refunded in a different manner to the one they paid. They just expected they'd be refunded the cash first, whereas Sports Direct clearly have a self interest in refunding the gift card first.

I'm not sure I follow how refunding the cash first would lead to money 'being cleaned all over the place'.

If I'm an underground crime lord and I want to wash a load of money (lets say I have stolen credit cards), if I buy gift cards and start buying things from Sports Direct in combination with cash, how does it help my money laundering efforts if they refund the cash portion first? They've given the cash I gave them back (or card payment back to the same card). I still have goods to the value of the gift-cards, I have not laundered the money.

To launder the money I'd need to buy gift-cards and get it refunded as cash/on a different card.

Right? Or am I missing something?

Alderbank

HopeAndDriftWood said:

They can't refund you in a different manner to the one that you paid, it's against money laundering regulations. 

They absolutely can refund you in any manner at all provided you and they both agree to it. s20(16) of the Consumer Rights Act says they could refund in Mongolian Tughriks if the consumer expressly agrees.

It's not enough here just to say 'it's against regulations'. Are you referring to the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017?
They do place duties on certain credit and financial institutions such as banks to develop a risk-based approach to limit money laundering but you need to tell us which of those regs applies to the retail sale of a pair of trainers.

cw8825

Bex811711 said:

Hi, 
I spent £128 with sports direct including  a £47 credit note. I kept one pair of trainers that were £60. The other pair (£68) were the wrong colour which meant they had sent the wrong item. I had to send them back and it was going to take at least 20 days to receive and then send replacement so I just asked a refund. They sent me my £47 credit note back as a gift card and then the rest refunded to my bank. 
I told them because they sent me wrong item I should get a full refund. They have no complaints procedure on their website and I keep getting told it is their policy. I told them but my rights are to get a refund as the item was wrong. Can anyone advise on this? I feel like I stand no chance against such a big company. Thanks 

The fact it was the wrong item doesn't entitle OP to a full refund. 

I think Sports direct are correct that OP is not due a full refund but the way they have applied it is wrong.
The fairest way would be OP to ask for 62%(£42.16) back on card
 barring that OP could return everything then buy again using the voucher and making up the difference, If i was pushing for a full refund that would be to process 

saajan_12

Could you just get everything refunded (to £121 cash + £47 gift card) and then rebuy the trainers you want to keep for the £13 cash + £47 gift card)?

Bex811711

Thank you for all of your help. It's saved me hours of trying to fight a lost cause, I will return all the goods then rebuy as suggested above which is a great idea!

savergrant

mr_stripey said:

I think that is correct - you're back (if I'm following correctly) to where you were before - i.e. you have a £47 credit note and the rest of the refund in the bank

It is rare (maybe very rare) for any retailer to refund a credit note/gift card purchase in anything othter than another credit note

The issue is that having kept part of the purchase the top up payment method should be refunded first, not the credit note. In this instance the simplest thing would be to get a refund on the whole order and then re-buy the items you want to keep using the gift card....