April 1st, 2024Just sayin’…
by Donna Kelly
I love a cautionary tale. But not as much as I love a deserved refund. And I have two down and one to go. So feeling pretty happy.
The first one is from a furniture retailer. A big one. OK, Early Settler. I love this franchise. Really nice, interesting stuff. Great staff. But not so good at refunds.
A while back I bought some big, gold, clunky lights. I thought they would look great in the school. They cost a bit but I don’t spend much so, you know, why not?
Anyway, I got them home and then a few weeks went by and a sparky came to install them. But he just looked and told me I would need to reinforce the roof. Now that was a step too far, so I called the store and said I would return them. That was fine but because it was a big item I would lose 20 per cent and also could only have a voucher not a refund.
I must have been off my game because I agreed but recently I started thinking about them and if they were actually fit for purpose. So I called, and called and called. No answer. Then I emailed, and emailed and emailed. And finally someone called back. I told them the lights were not fit for purpose because under the pub test no one would buy lights thinking they needed to reinforce their roof.
They agreed, sort of, but said because they were big items they couldn’t do anything about the 20 per cent loss. (This is a furniture retailer, it’s all pretty much big stuff.) Then they said because I had taken too long I couldn’t get a refund, just the voucher. I finally cut and pasted something from the ACCC about the customer being able to choose a repair, replacement or a refund.
Suddenly the emails started coming thick and fast with the title “ACCC action pending”, which is not what I wrote, and I got the full refund within days. Noice.
The second was with the Bendigo Bank. Not the local branch, more operations. We asked for a credit card to be cancelled, I think it was misplaced, and instead they cancelled a totally different card which we never use. Something to do with the trading account.
Anyway, it meant we stopped earning Frequent Flyer points, which was annoying, but it also meant we got hit with a biggish subscription from a company for a service which we no longer wanted, and were not using, but had not got around to cancelling because we thought the card was cancelled.
So we called the Daylesford branch and the manager assured us all would be rectified but after a lot of argy bargy we only got the points back and were told by operations the bill was our problem, not theirs.
I even got an email saying, very oddly, “unfortunately we do not have a valid chargeback right to be able to dispute this transaction on your behalf as you have not provided any supporting documentation to validate your claim that you will be receiving a refund from the merchant”.
The whole point was that we were NOT receiving a refund. I wrote back with that and finally the money came through.
Last one is with Myer. Again, great store. Working there got me through high school and university. Anyway, I bought some very funky black cutlery, and because it was so nice, I also bought it in gold.
Only thing is that the colour wears off. So instead of lasting a few yearss, my colourful purchase is already a pretty boring grey.
Myer was a bit better but wrote “once the return reaches our store, our returns team will inspect it for any faults, and if needed, the product will undergo a repair process. If it cannot be repaired, we will proceed with your preference of a refund or replacement”.
I wrote back “my choice is a refund – check with the ACCC”.
The refund is on its way. Just sayin’…
