thomas
the tank engine
- Location
- Woking/Norwich
mickle said:
All wrong! Legally, if you buy an item from a (high-street) shop you are not entitled to any form of refund or exchange, unless the item is faulty, not fit for purpose, etc - even then the shop can insist on an exchange rather than refund! If you just decide you don't like the item, you have bought the wrong size (rather than it shrunk in the wash), etc, that is your problem. Shops can offer you a refund policy "in addition to your statutory rights" and in general most do. Even if the item is faulty, say you bought a pair of jeans and they shrunk in the wash after you wore them a few times, the shop could give you a pro-rata refund as you did benefit from the item (I can't imagine many shops would bother with this though). When you bought the item you entered into a contract. If a shop has a return policy this is part of your contact and you are entitled to a refund as according to the shops policy.
You are entitled to a 7 day return when buying online, mail order, etc, to check you actually like the product when you get it.
If you don't believe me read up on your statutory rights...don't just assume you're correct and be arsey with sales assistants in shops.
I looked it up as I actually wanted to be informed when getting people fuss about refunds at work, so if they made up pretend "refund laws" I could tell them otherwise. Most shops don't really inform staff that well on statutory rights laws.
Also, as many people probably don't understand why shops do this one, this is why:
You'll have to write down your name and address.
As you're benefiting from the additional rights the shop has given you, they can request this. The details are generally, only used for checking for fraud and won't be used for marketing purposes. With a name and address the shops can check the address to make sure staff aren't just refunding items to themselves (it doesn't stop it, just makes it harder).
The other thing to be aware of is when you can have a "refund of exchange". Generally if you choose to exchange it, you won't be entitled to another refund or exchange under the shop's policy as the exchange was done instead of the refund. This is why if you're not sure on the second item it can be better to refund it, then buy the other item (so you have a new full receipt, rather than an exchange receipt).
As for M&S:
There order system mucked up and meant I ordered a small item and paid £3 postage when It should have put the small item through and a pair of shoes (enough for free postage). I phoned them up saying I wanted the £3 postage refunding as I shouldn't of paid it as their system mucked up. The guy refunded it there and then - I don't think he could be bothered with any fuss that would of entailed
