Simply Home Entertainment - exactly how long to process a refund?

wigmaster

Has anyone else had dealings or complaints with this company? If I had known Simply Home Entertainment had apparently risen from the ashes of a company which had previously gone out of business, I might have been more wary of placing an order - still, surely ordering two DVDs can't be complicated - can it?

I'll try and keep this brief - here goes:

1/4 - ordered two DVDs
2/4 - Bank account debited for the full amount

A few days later, I received the DVDs - miraculously they arrived at my address despite an extra fictional address line being inserted on the label, apparently belonging to a different customer. Anyway, one DVD was incorrect. I contacted customer services for the first time - they could not send the correct DVD until they had received the incorrect one back, so..

7/4 - Sent DVD back, proof of postage obtained

15/4 - All gone quiet- rang customer services again. They explained I was in process for a refund for the value of the incorrect DVD - I explained I had requested the correct DVD - not a refund. However, by this time I was rapidly losing faith in the company so settled for a refund.


18/4 - Still nothing. Rang customer services again, spoke to a different adviser who could not find any record of my refund. Advised me she was processing a new refund for me.

24/4 - Guess what? Nothing! This time adviser told me the refund had gone to accounts on the 22nd

28/4 - Supervisor told me refund would take 5-7 working days, was imminent and confirmed it had been processed on 22nd.

6/5 - Spoke to another adviser who contacted me back later in the day - refund will take 5 working days from now ... believe me I'll be speaking to a supervisor tomorrow but not on the 0844 number 'pay to complain' number they've given me!

So that's it so far - next stage I'm obviously thinking of reporting to Trading Standards, contacting my bank to dispute the original transaction - obviously the refund isn't for a huge amount but on principle I'm determined to see this through. I also thought I'd post this as a warning that just because a company produces expensive looking catalogue inserts for TV magazines, it doesn't necessarily mean they're any good. I'll keep you posted (if you can bear any more) ...

wigmaster

Well, following three extra phone calls and two further conversations with a supervisor, I finally wrote a letter to the Head of Customer Relations, pointing out some apparently serious communication problems between customer services and the accounts department - and threatened them with Watchdog and Trading Standards. After yet another conversation with the supervisor, I finally received my refund on the 19th May.

Incidentally, despite writing a fairly polite but firm letter, I never did receive the courtesy of a reply from the Head of Customer Relations, but at least I finally got my money back. I'm off for a lie down ..