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Wiggle refund policy - part refunding with a voucher
Having a dispute with Wiggle at the moment, has anyone else experienced this?
Bought some shoes and as per usual ordered 3 sizes to work out best fit. Total cost around £260. Paid for them partly via credit card and the rest with a £50 voucher.
Kept one pair of shoes, price of these was £85.
Returned other two pairs (value £170). Wiggle have refunded £120 to my credit card and £50 in vouchers and are refusing to apply the voucher to the goods I've kept.
Now I can understand that if I returned the whole order, or the retained goods cost less than £50, that I'd need to have a refund in vouchers to the appropriate value, but that isn't the case here - I've kept goods costing £85.
Flat out refusing to refund me entirely to the credit card. Not particularly bothered because I'll just do a chargeback via Paypal/Amex but surely this policy is incorrect? I've effectively ended up paying £85 for a pair of shoes I was expecting to pay £35 for.
If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.
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26 comments
Wiggle probably applied the £50 voucher to one specific pair of shoes in your original order. Their system may be set up so that your original order was actually detailed as 3 seperate orders and the voucher was applied to the first order. When you cancelled that order, by returning the shoes (to which the voucher had been applied), then they refunded the voucher that had been used to purchase them.
That's the joy of on-line shopping. You say your LBS/Halfords didn't stock the shoes/sizes you wanted but I'd be very surprised if they wouldn't order them in for you on a sale or return basis if you were an established customer of theirs. My LBS has ordered non-stocked items for me several times. Shimano are a brand-leader in cycling shoes too so it is not as if you are requesting something obscure or exotic. Your LBS will almost certainly have an account with Shimano or their UK distributor so the shoes would probably have been available for you to try on in the shop within a day or two.
So you paid for three shoes with cash and a £50 voucher.
You kept one pair and they refunded the other two and gave you your voucher back.
I don't see the problem.
I had a similar issue with Wiggle a while ago. I'd ordered a couple of things in different sizes with an offer something like £10 off a £50 spend on clothing. For some reason the invoice listed the deduction taken off one item, not off the whole order. That wasn't a gift voucher, that was a special offer code on their front page and I was keeping enough things to still qualify for the minimum spend for the offer.
Of course, the item they deducted it from was one of the things I returned for being the wrong size and it took a long time to get them to give me the full refund. I came close to just returning everything and making a new order, but they saw sense eventually.
Looking at the invoice that's exactly what they've done in my case - one of the pairs of shoes is listed as costing £35. Will open another case with customer services seeing as they've closed the original one.
Not sure why there is an assumption that the system worked in the way intended...
Wiggle are an online retailer, if they can't recognise in their model that people might need to order more than one item to get a fit, then the model needs revising.
But that model works ... they haven't stopped the return being made. The issue is that the customer feels that having part-paid using a voucher, the voucher should have been applied against the goods that they kept rather than being returned as part of the refund.
As far as I can see, the only issue is that the OP believes he has been hard done by because he has spent £85 in cash where he believes he should have spent £35 in cash and £50 from the voucher which would leave him more cash to spend in the store of his choice rather than being forced to spend that additional £50 with Wiggle.
My only question would be ... what, if anything, do the T&Cs of the voucher itself say about a situation where the voucher is used as part payment for an order which ends up being part-refunded?
There seem 2 different strands here, one whether it is ok to order 3 sizes and see which fits and two how the voucher should be handled. When I say model I mean the idea that you order more that one item and return one that does not fit.
As to the voucher, I not convinced that just because the outcome is as it is, that this is what should have happened. I've used enough systems to know that things don't always work correctly or work only if you do things in a certain order.
Last interaction with Wiggle was to send a light back that had developed a fault. I had one bloke in one dept telling my to print off a label and send it back to him, so he could get the manufacturer to look at it. Then I get "refunds department" telling me my refund will be issued tomorrow. Then I get the refund on the card and the next day the first bloke telling me they don't have that light in stock and he will put a credit on my account so I can get another light sent to me! I don't think that was was Wiggle intended!
When I was looking at new shoes I spoke to Wiggle customer services a number of times and they actively encouraged me to order as many pairs in different sizes as I liked and return all those I didn’t want once I’d tried them on..
I don't think that vouchers can be exchanged for cash and any refunds must be issued in the same way they were paid. A voucher in this case.
Agreed, but the point is I kept goods costing £85, so they should have applied the voucher and charged £35 to my credit card. That's what they would have done if I'd just ordered the one pair of shoes and not had to do a return. Its sharp practice on their part and means they're guaranteed a further purchase from me - so they'll end up selling goods worth £135. I've lost my freedom to make my next purchase from the retailer of my choosing. Crazy thing is, if I'd sent back all three pairs and re-ordered one pair I wouldn't be in this situation. They weren't even the cheapest for the shoes, the only reason I bought from them was the free delivery and free returns.
Why should they have done that?
It's not a sharp practice, it might be considered sharper than you practice, but it isn't sharp practice.
You haven't lost any freedom, stop being so melodramatic.
You tried to work the system in your favour and got burnt.
It's put it down to experience time.
Surely at some point in the next four years you will need soemthing else from Wiggle that you can spend the voucher on? If they give you the cash instead and you then spend £50 later on, how are you any worse off?
Does that mean you can clear the shelves the return the ones you don't want? They should tidy that one up, unless they have got huge levels of stock. But you're diverting the thread from the real problem of having the voucher returned, which they're fully justified in doing.
Lower logistical costs, and costs in general have an effect on quality and it's just a race to the bottom. Ultimately the consumer loses out, as do our fellow human beings. You should have seen the face on the shoe retailer I was talking to this morning about refusing to buy on-line. We chatted about product ranges, (lack of) quality of brands that do exclusive deals with big retailers and the subsequent drop of in quality, poor service and . He was so pleased that I will support High Street shops (my lbs recently closed toom so that's 3-4 people out of work).
What you have done is create an expensive and time-consuming exercise for Wiggle so I don't blame them at all. If you are a customer who not only regularly returns items but makes multiple orders with the express intention of returning most of them then it is highly likely the retailer will decide it is not in their interests to serve you any more.
Not Wiggle, or cycling for that matter, but quite a few years ago my daughter phoned in an order for a pair of shoes and wanted advice re sizing. The assistant recommended buying multiple sizes to get the right fit, as returns were free of charge.
It's a business model.
Only if they say so.
Which they do - homepage, third line down - free delivery, free returns, right alongside a price guarantee.
Pretty much every online retailer of clothing/footwear does it. Catalogues have done it for as long as I can remember (Freemans catalogue, early 80s for example). Then you had the famous Argos 14-day no quibble guarantee, admittedly that was a return to store.
It's basically a battle between the Sales Teams and Logistics Teams. Free returns increase sales, but increase logistics costs. Everything gets priced accordingly, which is why bigger the better wins in online sales - because they can negotiate the deep discounts with Collect+, DPD, Yodel, etc.
Yep, they're all set up to do returns, its the cost of not having a high-street storefront. I'm not a fan of the process but when it comes to shoes how else are you going to be able to get the right fit? Most of these shoes aren't in stock in LBS/Evans/Halfords - certainly the ones I wanted weren't. It's why they offer free returns in the first place - they were among the first to do it in online retail and its got them the market position they've got today.
Not sure I can return the other pair as I've worn them on rides and attached cleats.
The cost to me is £35 because the gift voucher was actually a gift - and now I've got an £85 charge on my credit card rather than £35. Maybe this is slightly odd but I also wanted to buy the shoes with the voucher because it was a leaving present from work and I wanted to have something a bit more permanent and personal than pissing it away on spares. Last pair of shoes lasted me 4 years and I expect these to do the same.
Yep, they're all set up to do returns, its the cost of not having a high-street storefront. I'm not a fan of the process but when it comes to shoes how else are you going to be able to get the right fit? Most of these shoes aren't in stock in LBS/Evans/Halfords - certainly the ones I wanted weren't. It's why they offer free returns in the first place - they were among the first to do it in online retail and its got them the market position they've got today.
Not sure I can return the other pair as I've worn them on rides and attached cleats.
The cost to me is £35 because the gift voucher was actually a gift - and now I've got an £85 charge on my credit card rather than £35. Maybe this is slightly odd but I also wanted to buy the shoes with the voucher because it was a leaving present from work and I wanted to have something a bit more permanent and personal than pissing it away on spares. Last pair of shoes lasted me 4 years and I expect these to do the same.
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I appreciate the problem with shoes. I have guessed right by trying the same brand in the shop first.
Depending on what you buy, Wiggle sends return stickers in the box and you can just drop off the items at Asda. It seems weird but I mean, how *are* they supposed to sell items with sizes online without comforting the customer?
As for shoes, buying online is wasting your own time. Bring your phone to a shop, check sizes on the spot and prices online. Rude but practical.
Return all three pairs.
Get a partial c.c. refund and £50 of vouchers.
Re-order the ones that fit.
Use v as part payment.
Otherwise Rule #5 and put it down to experience - which is what Don Simon said.
I can see why they did it this way, makes good business sense, although I can also see why you’re pi55ed off!
Can you return the 3rd pair of shoes, get a full refund, then buy them back with your £50 voucher?
It might be inconvenient but at least you’ll be giving it to the man!
I don't think they've done anything illegall, or indeed unethical. They want your money and that's the best way to ensure that you spend another £50 quid with them.
The retailer must pay you back in the way that you paid and that is exactly what they have done. I don't understand how you arrive at paying £35 as someone has paid £50 for the voucher. The shoes were £85.
I'm nowhere near siding with large retailers who rip people off, but here you would appear to be the one who wants to play the system to your advantage, both in ordering three sizes, then expecting to "only" pay £35.
As for chargeback! Are you kidding? Learn a lesson ffrom your mistakes and move on.
Next time I suggest you tell the retailer to apply the voucher to the shoes that you are keeping in advance or go to the fucking High Street and stop being a tight arse!
EDIT: If I were Wiggle I'd be charging you a premium of 50% for this service as you've taken stock out of there system for a few days which they can't sell and have lost income for.
Shoes weren't available on the High Street - checked all LBS round here and even checked a few shops when I was up in London last week.
Ordering multiple sizes in one go actually reduces their costs (because they offer free delivery/free returns) and when it comes to shoes/clothing there's really very little option but to do it. You've also got to factor in Shimano's esoteric approach to shoe sizing - usually need to go up a size in road shoes but that didn't apply here (SPD touring shoes) but had no way of knowing until I tried them.
Cost should be £35 to me because the voucher was actually a leaving gift from work.
Weird one that, and I'm struggling as well to see why they won't offer it as a refund.
I would guess either that some quirk of their order system means the voucher is already matched up with one pair of shoes (presumerably a returned pair), although that seems pretty simple to fix.
Alternatively you've done something to piss off a customer service guy?
I don't know too much about how simple the chargeback is, but it doesn't look like an easy win to me. What I would do in your shoes (geddit) is suggest to wiggle that you instead return the last pair, then spend the £50 voucher on a new identical order. That would only cost them two lots of delivery so hopefully might spur someone into action.
Or you could just start plotting your next upgrade