the misfortune of experiencing until now. Their adamant, and sometimes aggressive, refusal to refund a purchase we had made and were trying to return well within their return policy's guidelines showed a complete failure to understand their own company's policies and an embarrassing lack of customer service skills.
Between the store's inadequate support staff and its hostile management, Burton turned what should have been a straightforward return into a stressful mess of mixed messages.
The issue in question lay with the store's policy that any goods purchased after 20 October 2019, whether purchased in-store or online, may be returned before 31 January 2020. A simple enough concept to grasp, right? Apparently not for the staff at Burton's Liverpool One branch.
Our first attempt at returning the goods started well - we explained to young man working on the till that we wished to return a purchase we had made in-store on 30 October 2019 and that Burton's policy (which we had helpfully printed out for ease of reference) allowed us to return the goods before 31 January 2020. We showed our receipt which the young man examined along with the policy. He was happy with both and proceeded with the refund - he just needed authority from a senior colleague. This is where the experience went downhill rapidly...
A lady who I can only assume to be an under-manager of some sort, took one glance at our receipt and leapt to the conclusion that we were "too late" to return the goods as we hadn't returned them within a month. We kindly showed her Burton's policy which contradicts this - assuming this had simply slipped her mind. Again, she took a quick glance at that and became rather defensive, claiming she'd "never seen that", "where did you get that from?" - We assured her that this was from the front page of Burton's returns policy page online. One might assume that staff would be familiar with their own store's policies - however it became clear that this wasn't the case for the staff at Burton's Liverpool One branch. After repeating that she couldn't refund the returned goods, "there was nothing [she] could do" and that she had "never seen" her own store's returns policy, she said that our only other option was to come back again and take this up with the store manager, Pete. We asked when he would be next in the store and she confirmed that he would be in all day the next day.
We left feeling let down by the staff but optimistic that Pete may have a better understanding, being the store's manager. Out of curiosity on the way home, we called Burton's customer services number to explain our circumstances - they confirmed we were definitely eligible for a refund and that if the store refused to refund us again, then we should get the store to call them and they would confirm. Again, quite straightforward. I wish it had been that simple.
Attempt number 2 was worse. We came to the shop at the same time as we had the day before expecting Pete as we had been told would be in the store all day. No sign of Pete. In hindsight, this was probably a blessing in disguise as we would later find out that Pete was confrontational enough over the phone. We dread to think what he would have been like in person - but more on that later. The staff had clearly been warned about our arrival today and seemed to be coached to say the same thing "Nothing we can do", "can't refund", "we've not seen that policy before", "Pete says no". Incompetence seems to be contagious...
So, we did as customer services had told us over the phone; we told the girl "assisting" us that she should call customer services for them to explain that we were indeed eligible for a refund. An unnecessarily high number of phone calls took place next: the shop assistant with customer services, the shop assistant with Pete (who had clocked off earlier we learned - so much for "all day"), ourselves with customer services and ourselves with Pete - this was a particularly nasty experience as Pete was rude, full of excuses and would often shout over us. At one point he said "I've been store manager for 15 years, I think I'd know my own policy". Yes, Pete. I would expect that of you too. We were in that shop for an hour. Eventually customer services managed to get through to the shop assistant that we were well within our rights to a refund. A message she then passed on to Pete over the phone and subsequently his approval was given for her to carry out the transaction. Even after this, Pete was giving instructions to the assistant to check for damage to the returned goods - which had already been done previously and I found highly disrespectful after what he had put us through. No apologies from Pete and no apologies from the shop assistants. In fact, there were more apologies from myself as I felt sorry for the shop assistant who was visibly distressed and anxious having spoken with her manager.
I won't be shopping there again. read more