Frasers refund

Jojomissy

I would be grateful for some help please.

I purchased some birkenstock sandals from House of Fraser online which split after 5 days wear. I contacted on live chat and was advised to return to be inspected. They stated the returns portal they use was having technical issues but if I returned at my expense they would refund me for the return. I took a screenshot of the live chat.

The returns page on their website took me to their returns partner called ZigZag but it had house of Fraser on the confirmation. The payment of £4.99 was taken by ZigZag.

I have received an email refunding for the original order but not the return I paid for. I have contacted on X to be told as I paid for the return there is no way to refund me, they offered a £10 voucher which I declined as I will never shop with  the company again.

I have sent them a copy of the live chat but they are stating as Zigzag is a third party they are applying their T&C’s. 

Can anybody advise please, I know it is only £4.99 but feel they are not acting correctly.

Many thanks

Aylesbury_Duck

They're not acting correctly, but is the £10 voucher still available?  If so, I'd take it.  It's better than what might end up a lengthy and fruitless rigmarole to retrieve £4.99.  

There must be something among their vast stocklist that you need, even if it's just a load of socks!

Jojomissy

I understand the £10 voucher is more but would prefer never to deal with a company who act in such a way. Also I would only shop online and they charge £4.99 for delivery.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

As above OP take the voucher, buy some socks 🙂

HOF is Sports Direct who aren’t known for their CS, I understand the principle but, in terms of time and actually getting anywhere, accepting the voucher is the most pragmatic option.

Aylesbury_Duck

Jojomissy said:

I understand the £10 voucher is more but would prefer never to deal with a company who act in such a way. Also I would only shop online and they charge £4.99 for delivery.

Fair enough.  It's not a retail empire I use any more, either.

I guess the voucher (sort of) puts you back where you were, i.e. it's refunding your return postage and covering the postage of anything you order with the voucher.  But you might get caught in a never-ending cycle if there was a problem with the new order!

Okell

Jojomissy said:

I understand the £10 voucher is more but would prefer never to deal with a company who act in such a way. Also I would only shop online and they charge £4.99 for delivery.

It won't make any difference to HoF if you never deal with them again.  Better to accept the £10 voucher and make the best of it.  Even if you shop online you'll be 2p better off!

If you don't want to use it online and you can't visit a physical store, can't you find a family member or friend who could use it?

Otherwise you are letting HoF get away with poor customer service.

Grumpy_chap

Other than principle (which will hurt the OP more than HoF), taking the voucher and buying something suitably innocuous seems like the best solution here.  The concerns about the mail-order service can be avoided if the voucher is spent in store - there does seem to be an abundance of HoF-group stores in many towns and retail parks so there is quite likely a store near to somewhere that the OP will be in any case.  One assumes the voucher will have a long enough validity that the OP won't need to make a special trip.

It is a challenge between the customer service levels and the best price.  I wonder how much the OP paid for the sandals they purchased versus the prevailing prices.  I ask because I am currently in the market for a pair of trainers (£135 everywhere or £109 at Sports Direct) and a pair of sandals (£45 everywhere or £37 at Frasers).  For those bargain basement price points (same product), something has to give...

Ergates

Jojomissy said:

I understand the £10 voucher is more but would prefer never to deal with a company who act in such a way. Also I would only shop online and they charge £4.99 for delivery.

Fundamentally this comes down to:   How much of your own personal time and effort are you willing to spend for the sake of £5 ?   Think of it as an hourly wage, then consider if you'd be willing to put that amount of effort in for *someone else* if they were only paying you £5.

The common response to such a question is: "It's not the money, it's the principal".  Here's the thing though:  HoF don't care either way.  Neither option hurts them in any measurable way, nothing you do here will result in them feeling chastised, they won't even notice.