written by LondonTiger on 01/01/2012
I ordered some items online, but one of the items [a tshirt] was ill fitting so I had to return it.
I paid for it online, I wanted to pay with my mastercard, but changed my mind and paid with the visa, but i already selecting mastercard and left it on mastercard and put in my visa card details in the rest of the form.
I got the item delivered in a few days times, I quickly tried everything on but the tshirt was unsuitable, i drove down to the store the same day and tried to get a refund but the girl at the cashier didn't let me, i asked the manager to come down, she wouldn't let me either. The receipted said Mastercard instead of Visa and that was too much of a discrepancy, despite the fact that the last 4 digits [only visible ones] and the expirey date matched, they still couldnt give me a refund because the card type was wrong.
I even offered to show my driving license which had my name and address on, [i had a postal receipt from republic, which had my name and address too], they wouldnt even budge on that, all for a poxy £30 tshirt
You know what the worse thing was, i don't think the cashier would have noticed, i noticed the mistake while i was queing up and getting my cards ready. then saw the mistake on the receipt. So as soon as I went to the cashier I notified her of the problem, and reassured her that it's just a mistake with the card type. I guess honesty isnt always the best policy, and if I just stayed shut up I would have got my rightfully deserved refund there and then. Most cashiers probably just match the card numbers and dont bother to look at all the other bits of info.
I then phoned head office after i left the store, and complained, she reiterated that the manager wasn't "comfortable" with this and was in her right to refuse to refund a T-SHIRT. The head office said since I bought online I should return it to the warehose via post, and they'll refund it directly to the card that was used originally to pay with, they sent me a freepost envelop.. great/
weeks later no refund, then one day the T-shirt lands back into my letterbox.. I find out later that republic forgot to pay their RMA BILLLS!!! so the courier refused to deliver the items to republic and bouched it back to the customers.
I was fuming, phoned up republic to get an answer. But in true republic fashion, no gesture of good will for the inconvenience and stress caused to me, just a lame apology [that they probably said to hundreds of other customers who had their packages bouce back] and sent me a new return envelope, and then after 6 weeks since originally purchasing a TSHIRT and requesting refund, i finally got it.
I haven't been back since to republic. I used to spend £500-£1000 a year in their stores mainly buying gstar clothes, now i just go straight to the gstar boutique in department stores or gstar stores themselves in large shopping malls.
way to go republic some way to lose a customer
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