[Article][UK] Guardian: My refund nightmare

sceptre

UK article obviously but interesting reading nonetheless.

Link

Snippets - go read the full article for nowt

(...)
More humdrum cases abound, adding up to what Phil Davis, the principal policy adviser for the Consumers' Association, calls a "huge, hidden economy" where the consumer is not so much king as downtrodden subject. One hesitates to offer a personal example: consumer horror stories are like tales of travel nightmares, fascinating to the victim and dull to everyone else. But I hope this little instance of consumer torment sheds some wider light.

(...)
You can see that it is difficult even to talk about this subject without sounding like Victor Meldrew. But here is my point: even my dogged, conscientious attempt to assert my consumer rights had failed. I am used to finding things out and presenting a written argument; I had also become a man obsessed, hunting down the name of UPS's UK managing director. But what about sane, normal people - what chance would they have? I had a clear-cut case too, buttressed by the admission of a UPS manager that the handling of my package had been a "catalogue of errors". Yet I had failed to get any material satisfaction; the company's own rules were sovereign. They had kept my money when I did not want to pay it.

(...)
Gas, electricity and telecom companies are masters of this black art. If a CD is too expensive, you can try the shop next door but, says Phil Davis, utilities deliberately "construct the market to make it so confusing, no one can be bothered to move". At the end of the working day, people haven't the strength to comb through a bill and decipher charges. So they just pay it. And in the era of direct debit, the companies' advantage is even greater: they can just suck money out of our bank accounts with only the most eagle-eyed aware that they are doing it.

(...)
Second, we may have to give up those delusions about individual customer might. Consumers do have power, but only when we act in numbers. We have forced brands, from Marks & Spencer to Sunny Delight, to change their ways, simply by walking away en masse from their products. In the right context, a boycott can also be mightily effective. This is how we have power, the way human beings always work best - together.

Genghis

Interesting article, his points about the 'cost of hassle' are well made. They also mirror an experience I had just last weekend. I went to a 'clearout' sale which was being set up in a warehouse, and was selling stock from a number of shops across a particular chain of sports stores - stock which had been on sale a number of times before in a number of shops, but was now being 'centrally sold' to clear it out.

I selected a pair of runners, found my size, etc. There were about 15/16 of these on display, all marked with their (same) original price - approx €85. Some of these had other prices - one was half the original price, another was about €30 off, and there was one 'display' shoe, out of its box and marked with a different price again - obviously individual stores had discounted differently.

When I went to the til the guy tried to charge me full price, less 30% - a price which corresponded to none of the others, and which was second most expensive of all. I pointed this out but was told that regardless of whatever was marked, it was his job to take 30% off the original price. I asked if there was a manager (he's not here), when will he be back (I'm not sure), have you got a number for him (no). I tried following it up with two of the stores, but while sympathetic, they couldn't help me identify or track down the manager - in fact they couldn't even pass my message along to the right person.

I was fuming at first, and promised to write to the managing director / head office, go back there another day and cause a fuss, stop others going in and making sure they knew - but in the end I surrendered to the hassle.

While the small price difference was enough for me to walk away on principle, it would not be nearly enough to compensate me for the effort to claim it.