Cult beauty bad return

Cococat123

I ordered and led face mask for £238 after two months it stopped working so I posted it back. After two weeks of chasing them three times they told me it'll be sorted in 48 hours (it wasn't) I finally received an email saying it appears you sent back adidas trainers and the mask you "must've made a mistake"!!! Absolutely livid as I hadn't. I asked for warehouse records or photographic evidence as proof which of course they didn't have as there were no trainers. They said they sent them back out to me which of course they haven't! (As there were no trainers in the first place) they're refusing to refund me they keep stalling and are ignoring me at times or just saying it's with our finance department this has been going on since April 2nd. So now I'm left paying £238 for something I don't even have.

Aylesbury_Duck

Sports Direct? If not, which retailer?

How did you pay?

donnac2558

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81995248#Comment_81995248

She said Cult Beauty in the title. They are an online beauty retailer.

I haven't ordered from them in several years and never turned anything. Sorry can't help.

MattMattMattUK

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81995263#Comment_81995263

They are partially integrated with Frasers Group, with some returns being handled by Frasers.

born_again

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6667905/cult-beauty-bad-return

Did you contact them before returning & get approval to return?

Adding something that would tie up your return to the purchase?

visidigi

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6667905/cult-beauty-bad-return

Just to be clear - 'content swapping' is not that uncommon with couriers now - you may have returned the mask, but before it got to the retailer someone had swapped the mask for the trainers. I am not saying this absolutely happened, but the way your post is written implies the recipient must be lying because you didn't put trainers in the box.

Did you use the return label CB gave you, or did you return off your own back buying the return service yourself?

Aylesbury_Duck

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81995263#Comment_81995263

I thought it was an adjective to describe the product! 🤣

Ergates

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81995299#Comment_81995299

Seems more likely to be a screw up at the warehouse than an intentional swap - switching a broken facemask for a pair of trainers doesn't seem like an obvious gain for the swapper.

Exodi

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81995357#Comment_81995357

Agreed, though I also agree with @visidigi sentiment that the OP should consider that there are multiple possibilities for what has gone wrong, and not defaulting to the belief that the retailer must be lying. Cult Beauty is part of THG (The Hut Group), which contains THG Beauty - which includes three major online beauty retailers: LOOKFANTASTIC, Cult Beauty and Dermstore. All are very well known.

From looking at their strategic reports on companies house, the revenue of just THG Beauty alone was nearly £1.1 billion in 2024, derived from 16.1 million orders from 7.9m active customers (85% of revenue is from returning customers).

Against that backdrop, you can appreciate why it's a tad ridiculous to suggest "there were no trainers" and imply this is all just a ruse to scam the OP out of their money. They are far from a fly-by-night operation.

I think I make the point as it is a personal one for me. I work as a Sales Director for a business that sells consumer goods and turns over several million a year (though no-where near the scale of THG!) and I admit I scoff when customers start to make conspiracy theories when there is a rare issue with returns, implying that it's a ruse to keep their money. We don't need your £50 Susan.

For example with the OP, if you look at this through a neutral lens:

I finally received an email saying it appears you sent back adidas trainers and the mask you "must've made a mistake"!!!

So it sounds like the warehouse has a pair of trainers recorded against your return, so a mistake has clearly happened somewhere. At this point they don't know if it was you or them so they've messaged you. You can appreciate that it's not impossible for customers to return the wrong parcel, the suggestion shouldn't offend you.

Absolutely livid as I hadn't. I asked for warehouse records or photographic evidence as proof which of course they didn't have as there were no trainers.

I don't know why this would make you 'absolutely livid', you would just need to respond that you are certain that you returned the mask, and you did not have any adidas trainers to mistakenly swap them with. I'm not sure on what you expected to achieve asking for 'warehouse records or photographic evidence as proof'? Did you expect them to send you a picture of the mask? Or did you expect them to send you pictures of trainers, which you'd obviously respond with "they're not mine!". Their lack of response is inevitably due to your insistence you did not return trainers, rather than confirming your theory that there 'were no trainers'.

Likely they are investigating behind the scenes to understand whether the goods were swapped during carriage or at their returns facility. Also as they have a pair of trainers recorded against a return for a mask, whether they also have a mask recorded against a pair of trainers. Many couriers do record the weights of parcels shipping through their networks, so they could be investigating this.

They said they sent them back out to me which of course they haven't! (As there were no trainers in the first place) they're refusing to refund me they keep stalling and are ignoring me at times or just saying it's with our finance department this has been going on since April 2nd. So now I'm left paying £238 for something I don't even have.

Did they provide a tracking number for the parcel they sent back to you? What does the tracking say? Again, I'd stop this notion that 'there were no trainers'.

I suspect being more relatively level-headed in dealing with this would achieve a speedier resolution. I'd also encourage more positivity in your thinking, I know it can incredibly annoying dealing with a faulty item, but I know it also be exhausting dealing with customers who are going off the deep end in conspiracy theories. You must appreciate that while you know your case to be genuine, there are countless people who do commit return fraud and a relatively high value face mask is likely a good candidate for it.

While we can suggest what to say to their customer service team, I wonder if you have already burned your bridges with how you've constructed your responses to them - they "are ignoring me at times or just saying its with our finance department".

How did you pay for the goods?

visidigi

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81995357#Comment_81995357

Depends, they didnt say how worn the trainer are and the mask resale could be worth the swap :D

molerat

How did you return it, did you actually affix a fully addressed label or using just a barcode and dumping in a locker ?