Frustrating purchase from catalogue

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merryone

Registered Shopper
Joined
Jun 24, 2008
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6,223
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brighton
Now I'm normally full of praise for my catalogue, and I guess the experience I'm about to describe is one of those things/something they can't do anything about, but I'm seriously frustrated. I have mentioned in a previous thread that I wanted to buy a large xmas present that wouldn't be assembled until Christmas day or after, so I had to make sure that I waited until they could guarantee my getting a full refund/exchange should it turn out to have something wrong with it. That I did, it's an enormous heavy box and thankful I've fjound somewhere to store it without it being in the way - Hopefully it's ok. Browsing the website just a day after receiving it, (3 days after placing the order) and I notice that they've taken £30 off the price, not only that, the full price stated is £10 less than I paid for it. Ok, I didn't expect them to do anything for me, but as they say, if you don't ask, you don't get. I messaged them and asked whether there was anything they'd be prepared to do for me, and added "Please don't ask me to return the item and re-order as this isn't practical as it's a large heavy item" I also queried the full price. The reply was prompt but it simply said you need to request a return and re-order the item as we don't do price matches. I had to remind them that I'd also questioned the full price, so they asked me to send a screenshot of my order to show how much I'd been charged. Again I received a prompt response, saying thank you, we will look into this for you. I've just had another message saying that if I'm not happy with the price I've paid, then I should return the item and if I want the lower price I need to re-order!
My reply was this, I was hoping that as a goodwill gesture you might return the difference to my account, but you have stated that this isn't something that you do, and I expected this, however I have no intention of returning this item unless it turns out to be faulty and how a return in these circumstances would be a waste of time and resources as the outcome would be the same. Please continue to investigate my other query, many thanks. So, I might get a tenner back, better than nothing I guess. Had it been a smaller item that I could've re wrapped and popped back to the post office, then I'd have done so - Frustrating nonetheless. That's the thing, a bit like that Kim top I liked, you see it, snap it up quick just in case it sells out, then find it's half the price a few days later - I guess you have to take your chances. Hope they're kind enough at least to give me a tenner back - I'm not holding my breath. I shall also be keeping hold of the email of the original order just in case I do need to return it and they try and give me a refund for the sale price!
 
Now I'm normally full of praise for my catalogue, and I guess the experience I'm about to describe is one of those things/something they can't do anything about, but I'm seriously frustrated. I have mentioned in a previous thread that I wanted to buy a large xmas present that wouldn't be assembled until Christmas day or after, so I had to make sure that I waited until they could guarantee my getting a full refund/exchange should it turn out to have something wrong with it. That I did, it's an enormous heavy box and thankful I've fjound somewhere to store it without it being in the way - Hopefully it's ok. Browsing the website just a day after receiving it, (3 days after placing the order) and I notice that they've taken £30 off the price, not only that, the full price stated is £10 less than I paid for it. Ok, I didn't expect them to do anything for me, but as they say, if you don't ask, you don't get. I messaged them and asked whether there was anything they'd be prepared to do for me, and added "Please don't ask me to return the item and re-order as this isn't practical as it's a large heavy item" I also queried the full price. The reply was prompt but it simply said you need to request a return and re-order the item as we don't do price matches. I had to remind them that I'd also questioned the full price, so they asked me to send a screenshot of my order to show how much I'd been charged. Again I received a prompt response, saying thank you, we will look into this for you. I've just had another message saying that if I'm not happy with the price I've paid, then I should return the item and if I want the lower price I need to re-order!
My reply was this, I was hoping that as a goodwill gesture you might return the difference to my account, but you have stated that this isn't something that you do, and I expected this, however I have no intention of returning this item unless it turns out to be faulty and how a return in these circumstances would be a waste of time and resources as the outcome would be the same. Please continue to investigate my other query, many thanks. So, I might get a tenner back, better than nothing I guess. Had it been a smaller item that I could've re wrapped and popped back to the post office, then I'd have done so - Frustrating nonetheless. That's the thing, a bit like that Kim top I liked, you see it, snap it up quick just in case it sells out, then find it's half the price a few days later - I guess you have to take your chances. Hope they're kind enough at least to give me a tenner back - I'm not holding my breath. I shall also be keeping hold of the email of the original order just in case I do need to return it and they try and give me a refund for the sale price!
I've had the same with QVC and other on-line retailers such as Argos.

At least with Q if it is very heavy or bulky they will collect it for free.

My torch site refunded the difference when one of mine went down just after I'd bought it.
 
I've had the same with QVC and other on-line retailers such as Argos.

At least with Q if it is very heavy or bulky they will collect it for free.

My torch site refunded the difference when one of mine went down just after I'd bought it.
My catalogue wouldn't charge me to collect it, but to me it just sounds completely daft to get a courier out to collect something that's gonna be sent back to me in a couple of days time when they could easily rectify this by sending me a discretionary payment to cover the difference. Like I said it's luck of the draw when you find that the price of something you've been looking at has been reduced, however, it would be nice to get a bit of goodwill and common sense from a company I've been using for years and spent a lot of money with!
 
Back in the days when Debenhams was a bricks and mortar store, I'd ordered some Tripp luggage from them click and collect. Once in store I could see it had come down significantly in price... so I collected my purchase, went straight to customer services and returned it for a refund, without handing over the goods... and promptly bought it at the new reduced price. There's a lot to be said for the dreaded high street!

I hope your catalogue can exercise sensible judgement without you having to return the goods. Unfortunately often their customer services team are based overseas, lack the discretion of being able to do partial refunds, and the experience to see a practical and empathetic response will retain customer goodwill.
 
My catalogue wouldn't charge me to collect it, but to me it just sounds completely daft to get a courier out to collect something that's gonna be sent back to me in a couple of days time when they could easily rectify this by sending me a discretionary payment to cover the difference. Like I said it's luck of the draw when you find that the price of something you've been looking at has been reduced, however, it would be nice to get a bit of goodwill and common sense from a company I've been using for years and spent a lot of money with!
Another CS person may give you a different answer, they vary a lot on QVC.
 
Another CS person may give you a different answer, they vary a lot on QVC.
I never use their c/s phone line as it’s based overseas and not only does it takes ages to get through, when you do it’s difficult to understand one another, you usually get put on hold a few times until you get cut off. At the end of the day I was happy to pay the price I paid and thought it would be worth a try. I do think they ought to at least refund the £10. If I haven’t had a reply by Monday I’ll message them again.
 
Still going around in circles, of course they didn’t get back to me regarding the difference in price query, so I sent them a polite reminder to which I got a quick but confused response telling me yet again that they couldn’t let me have the item at the sale price unless I returned it and re-ordered - talk about bang your head against a brick wall! I explained (yet again) that I realised that and that I was questioning the original full price. They apologised and said they were still awaiting an answer on this but would ask the powers that be again and get back to me asap. This clearly isn’t going to happen, and I’ve decided it’s not worth getting my knickers in a twist over a tenner as frustrating as it is. I’m generally happy with them and will put it down as “one of those things”. One of the other things I bought, I did manage to catch at a much cheaper price so I can’t moan too much. Trouble is with these huge concerns, the employees don’t have free rein to use common sense, discretion or to take customer loyalty into account .
 

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