refund from B & Q

[Hgrove]

On Tue. eve. I purchased a no. of small items from B & Q. On Wed.morning I took some of them back because they did not fit the purpose. The refunds cashier told me she could not refund some of the items I was returning because they were not on the receipt. I told them that I had bought them the night before, that was the receipt I was given, there is no other receipt as I had not been to B & Q for a while beforehand. It was not my fault the items seemed to have scanned incorrectly. They said I should have checked my receipt. I said whilst I check my receipt for amount/change, it is not practical to expect me to check every individual product code - you can image how the people in the queue would love me if I did that before leaving the till. After a while, they relented and refunded me. I am completely mystified as to how this could have happened: I saw the cashier scan the items, there is no possibility that I brought back the wrong receipt. Has this happened to anyone else? Are B & Q deliberately tampering with the tills so the wrong codes get printed so they can refuse refunds?

[Hgrove]

P.S. I meant to write a letter of complaint but my computer is not working. I am writing this from my local library. If I write a letter of complaint, I am worried they will think I was "trying it on". I am 100 per cent certain the receipt is the one the cashier had given me the night before.

[funnywebsite]

Did the items match the prices you paid? If they did maybe something went wrong with the bar codes. You got your money back, I shouldn't stress myself out anymore going on about it. Did the receipt state what the item was as well as a code, like the supermarkets do? If the item matched then fine. I wouldn't think that a large company like B&Q are fiddling customers, mistakes can happen accidentally. Forget it, but check the receipt in the future, obviously not so easy with bar codes but at least check the price was correct.

[stevie21]

If B & Q really were trying to refuse refunds then they would have said "legally you don't have a leg to stand on even with a receipt. It's not our fault that you bought the wrong items that didn't serve your purpose. Goodbye".

It's more likely to be some kind of honest (but as yet inexplicable) mistake.

[Buenchico]

I can't see why you're complaining. You never have any right to a refund just because you change your mind about wanting the goods. You only have a right to a refund if the goods are faulty (or if the firm you purchased them from specifically told you that they would meet your needs and they don't).

Any company which offers refunds on goods (other than in the above circumstances) is simply doing you a favour. They've got every right to decline to do you that favour.

Personally, I wish that all firms would be consistent and refuse to give refunds on goods which aren't faulty. (If I buy incorrect items I always accept that it's my own stupid fault. I'd rather bin the goods than seek a refund I'm not entitled to).

Chris

[stanleyman]

If they didn't scan then you probably didn't pay for them in the first place, how could you if they weren't on the receipt?

[ursula62]

perhaps they gave you the receipt of the person before you? Sometimes if people don't take their receipt in Sainsburys you end up with yours attached to the previous one.

[Hgrove]

Thanks for the replies. I believe B & Q offer a no quibble refunds guarantee so I would expect them to honour that and not exclude me arbitrarily especially as I brought the goods back promptly the next day. The amounts matched exactly. The only thing that did not match was the product code, the amounts were there alright as were the last 4 digits of my switch card. Everything matched except the product codes for those three packets. Something scanned wrong but I can't understand how! I used to work for a manufacturer. Our clients, the retailers, regularly sent us back goods that individuals had taken back to the shop, often for spurious reasons, like they had changed their minds. I used to get really annoyed about that. But where a shop offers no quibble refunds, I would expect them to honour that. Where it's a small independent one outlet retailer it's a different matter of course.