refused refund in irish store even though i had receipt!!

Betsy18

Hi, i bought an item from a well know irish owned store 2 weeks ago. i realised when i brought it home it did not suit. i went to the store today with my item in packaging and undamaged and produced my reciept. because i had paid with my debit card the salesperson asked me to produce another receipt with my card details on it. i only had one receipt and there was on this receipt in my bag from the store. i explained this to the salesperson who said they cannot issue a refund to me because they needed the card receipt. i asked to speak to the manager who also informed me of this, i explained to him that i was only given one receipt which was the one in front off him. he more or less accused me of lying and said they will not refund me as i paid by debit card and as i had not this receipt they would only offer me an exchange. i explained that i did not need anything in the store today and could they offer me a credit note at least. he refused and said i can only be offered the exchange on the day i return the item so he more or less bullied me into buying other items in his store today! i was very upset about this and felt i was within my rights to be entitled to a refund as i was within the number of days in their returns policy and i also had my receipt. i managed to get a few items that i did not need and was 50 cent less the amount and was told they would not refund even the remaining 50 cent so i had to go and purchase another item for over 2 euro which was the cheapest item in the store!

i felt this is completely unjust and was not pleased with the attitude of the manager. Just looking for some advice and is there some authority that i can complain to about the way i was treated.

thx!

Welease

As the item was not faulty, legally the shop are under no obligation to refund or swap the item for you (unless you gave them specific requirements for the item which were not met). Anything offered by the shop is a sign of goodwill rather than a legal requirement.

In this case, you will just need to chalk it down to experience if they will not swap the item.


http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/consumer_affairs/consumer_protection/consumer_rights/consumers_and_the_law_in_ireland.html
You have no grounds for redress if

You were told about the defect before you bought the item (for example, if the goods were marked 'shopsoiled')
You examined the item before you bought it and should have seen the defect
You bought the item knowing that it wasn’t fit for what you wanted it to do
You broke or damaged the product
You made a mistake when buying the item (for example, if you bought an item of clothing thinking it was black when it is actually navy)
You change your mind

Retailers are not obliged to give refunds or credit notes under the above circumstances even if you show proof of purchase

rameire

in short, No.

Pacing Mule

You have absolutely no entitlement to a refund just because the product didn't suit you. The store were within their rights to refuse it. In fact they were under no obligation to exchange the item either. As such here is no authority to complain to.

Betsy18

thanks for your responses!

Procrastastudy

I know the default position is you aren't entitled to a refund but that's not actually the case.

If the store has sold you an item with a promise in addition to your statutory rights then they are bound by that promise. You need to get a copy of their T&Cs and have a read.

ScouseMouse

What made you think you were entitled to your money back?

Under these circumstances, you can only hope for a goodwill gesture or nice shop policy.

In this case, you have no right to return the goods.

theteal

Betsy18 wrote: »

i was very upset about this and felt i was within my rights to be entitled to a refund as i was within the number of days in their returns policy and i also had my receipt.

really we would have to know the details of this return policy. generally, as has been pointed out, change of mind returns (i.e. not faulty/mis-sold etc.) are dealt with at the goodwill of the retailer, they're not obliged to refund/repair/replace but some(most) will if the item is deemed in perfect unopened condition and can be resold.

wmpdd3

go in with your statement, that should do instead of the cc part of your receipt.

the groutch

for security reasons, most stores will only refund via the same method used to pay, ie. you paid by card, so it had to be refunded back onto the same card.
this would be a comany-wide policy (largely influenced by the banks, due to increased CC/Laser fraud), so even the manager wouldnt have the authority to give a cash refund

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

I know the default position is you aren't entitled to a refund but that's not actually the case.

If the store has sold you an item with a promise in addition to your statutory rights then they are bound by that promise. You need to get a copy of their T&Cs and have a read.

:rolleyes:There are generally no T&Cs on a retail sale, unless the shop assistant made some commitment to a refund. The Op has made to reference to any promise. RED HERRING.

The OP has no case.

Procrastastudy

Milo Angry Fleece wrote: »

:rolleyes:There are generally no T&Cs on a retail sale, unless the shop assistant made some commitment to a refund. The Op has made to reference to any promise. RED HERRING.

The OP has no case.

What you've said there doesn't make much sense in several ways. One being grammatically which I assume is you just missing out the word 'not'.

Secondly every large retailer has a set of T&Cs which attach to various promises they make in addition to your statutory rights. You are correct if you believe this is an assumption on my part that this was a large Irish retailer. However;

betsy18 wrote:

Hi, i bought an item from a well know Irish owned store 2 weeks ago.

Next it's fairly obvious that that shop operates some sort of return policy from the OPs story.

betsy18 wrote:

because i had paid with my debit card the salesperson asked me to produce another receipt with my card details on it. i only had one receipt and there was on this receipt in my bag from the store. i explained this to the salesperson who said they cannot issue a refund to me because they needed the card receipt. i asked to speak to the manager who also informed me of this, i explained to him that i was only given one receipt which was the one in front off him.

Why would they go to this amount of trouble if they did not, in the normal course of business, offer refunds?

@OP is this a large retail chain or a one or two shop effort. If its a large chain get on to the head office to sort it out. The best method to use is polite and understanding why they have these policies (to prevent fraud) but be firm at the same time. If that doesn't work send in a letter.

The situation has been complicated, somewhat, by the exchange you have carried out. Did you retain the original receipt for the goods you had prior to the exchange?

wmpdd3

True, its usually just an exchange on an exchange, no chance of a refund.

Bullrush

That happened to me as well - I appealed to their decency though. And they still refused. I just told them I wouldn't be spending any more money in their shop. They can make their decisions and I can make mine.

Corruptedmorals

It's quite possible that you weren't given the second part of the receipt by accident. Dunnes used to operate this but I'm not sure they still do as the number of receipts issued changed in the last year. Anyway, it wasn't physically possible to do the refund without the second part and judging by your description, this is the store in question as the policy is identical and they do still operate like this. Appealing to a manager is never going to change how a till is set up. Refunds are all monitored, checked, signed by the staff member and a manager. They don't have any leeway to bypass their own procedures and risk censure for it.

They don't do credit notes and never have done. Offering 28 day goodwill refunds and exchanges means there's no need for them and they are well within their rights not to do them.

The policy is as follows, if this is the company, which I'm almost certain it is. Very very few stores are Irish owned, and very few small stores offer goodwill refunds so it has to be a chain.

28 days goodwill refunds
28 days exchange (can be any drapery item or homeware, CANNOT be grocery. exchanges are usually allowed to go beyond the time limit but refunds never are)
No refund on sale items, but there is an exchange
Faulty items get refunds beyond the time limit

It's well above and beyond what they have to offer, though it's very unfortunate about the receipt. Try contacting head office, they might allow it or just give you vouchers to the value. It would be unlikely if you have lost the second part of the receipt that you had the main part, it's fairly likely somebody forgot to give it to you or it was dropped or something.

Faolchu

with respect to refunds to cards, if you pay by card most stores can only refund to card and not cash. not sure if that's just a general policy or not, but any time i paid with a card and sought a refund it was always put back on the card and not paid in cash.

as everyone has said if its not broken the its the good will of the store to offer a refund

Melendez

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wmpdd3

The code on the 2nd receipt is used to process the refund.

Welease

Melendez wrote: »

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But you can't apply only the part of the returns policy that suits.. If the policy states you have X days to return the item along with BOTH receipts.. Then thats the policy. You don't have the right to extend the dates or change the requirement for receipts.

Melendez

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Welease

Melendez wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

It does seem extra tough on the OP as they claim they were only given one receipt initially. The problem lies in proving that! That will likely be impossible unless the store were willing to help or extend further goodwill in that direction (which it already sounds like they won't).

As you said earlier, it really is a decision on whether is worth just letting it go at this stage.

Procrastastudy

Any retail manager worth a damn will have the merchant copy of the PDQ receipt somewhere he can get at with relative ease. If it was any shop I ran I could have found it inside five minutes - maybe fifteen at Xmas.

Also it wouldn't be the first time a retail manager has turned away a refund because he was close to target and deadline.

OP did you manage to get a copy of the retailers T&Cs of sale yet?

Corruptedmorals

If this is Dunnes they no longer produce a merchant copy of credit card transactions. They can be accessed via the cash office though, and seeing as the original receipt will state date, time, operator number, till number and transaction number it wouldn't be too difficult. But they are very unwilling to do this for customers and they don't have to, as the policy is clearly stated anyway. It really is best off going above their heads to head office. Stores ARE extremely restricted in bending policy BY head office, but head office themselves when directly applied to generally hand out vouchers hand over fist.