Herschel Return Nightmare

PennyPinchPro

Hi everyone,

First time poster as I've run out of options.

Summary:

• Purchased a Coat
• Bought early April 2025 (delivered a few days later)
• Bought via the official Herschel website
• Paid via Credit Card
• The coat didn't fit and wanted to return for a refund
• Had to pay postage to send back to supplier, unbeknownst to me, was to the Netherlands
• Package got stopped at Dutch customs as Import Taxes were owed
• Herschel failed to pay the fees
• Was returned to me and arrived this week (May 2025)

Further details:

Firstly, yes, I'm stupid and never read the returns policy, where it clearly states that returns go back to the Netherlands, but followed the process exactly as set out by them, returning the item via Royal Mail to the tune of approx. £14.00. Whilst tracking the item, it transpired that import tax/ fees needed to be paid. I contacted customer services (there was a lot of back and forth to identify my order and it's progress) who assured me that they would pay the taxes, at which point they had a weeks' notice to do so. Unfortunately, they failed to pay the fees in time and I got a notification that the item was being returned to me. I flagged this with Herschel and the last email I received was stating that they were "investigating" the issue in order to resolve it.

I've tried extremely hard to keep all emotion out of this post to state the facts, but in reality I'm absolutely furious. I've come here to see if there is anything that I can do in terms of ensuring I get my money back. The whole process (even if I'd read the returns policy) has been appalling.

Can anybody share knowledge that might be able to help me? Now I have the item back in my possession, I'm literally back to square one, and I'm reluctant to follow their returns process again. Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks

Emmia

PennyPinchPro said:

Hi everyone,

First time poster as I've run out of options.

Summary:

• Purchased a Coat
• Bought early April 2025 (delivered a few days later)
• Bought via the official Herschel website
• Paid via Credit Card
• The coat didn't fit and wanted to return for a refund
• Had to pay postage to send back to supplier, unbeknownst to me, was to the Netherlands
• Package got stopped at Dutch customs as Import Taxes were owed
• Herschel failed to pay the fees
• Was returned to me and arrived this week (May 2025)

Further details:

Firstly, yes, I'm stupid and never read the returns policy, where it clearly states that returns go back to the Netherlands, but followed the process exactly as set out by them, returning the item via Royal Mail to the tune of approx. £14.00. Whilst tracking the item, it transpired that import tax/ fees needed to be paid. I contacted customer services (there was a lot of back and forth to identify my order and it's progress) who assured me that they would pay the taxes, at which point they had a weeks' notice to do so. Unfortunately, they failed to pay the fees in time and I got a notification that the item was being returned to me. I flagged this with Herschel and the last email I received was stating that they were "investigating" the issue in order to resolve it.

I've tried extremely hard to keep all emotion out of this post to state the facts, but in reality I'm absolutely furious. I've come here to see if there is anything that I can do in terms of ensuring I get my money back. The whole process (even if I'd read the returns policy) has been appalling.

Can anybody share knowledge that might be able to help me? Now I have the item back in my possession, I'm literally back to square one, and I'm reluctant to follow their returns process again. Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks

I'm not sure you've got another option if you want to return, the alternative is selling the coat via Vinted/eBay etc. which will probably lose you more money. 

Exodi

£14 isn't a particularly exorbitant amount to spend returning a coat, I'd say that indicates a cheap service was used given it is an international shipment for a relatively large item.

As it is a change of mind, you would are responsible for ensuring the item is returned to them (and that doesn't mean you've fulfilled your obligations by popping it in the post, you are responsible for ensuring it makes it all the way into their hands) - to this end I'm not clear on why they offered to pay the duty, that might have been a mistake by the customer service agent (but I guess you can make a point about it now they've said it).

Really, you should have sent this on a service that allows you to prepay the duty (using a site like Parcel2Go you can find several couriers that allow this). It's not unlikely the duty is similar or more than the postage you paid.