ASOS hit the press this week with the news that it is shutting accounts of people who return too many items
Online shopping has transformed the way we buy goods and services. But we are paying a heavy price for the convenience of having our shopping dropped off at the door?
The online retailers have come to dominate the market, decimating the high street in the process. But now that they have taken over, they are starting to change the rules to their own advantage.
Many retailers are beginning to charge for returning goods. While none of the major online shops is charging for each return, many have suggested they are going to do so, only to backtrack after much outrage in the press.
Retailers make these announcements to “soften us up” – in effect scarring us with the prospect of charges that they aren’t going to apply just yet, so we are more willing to accept “some” charges. And these are already occurring.
ASOS hit the press this week with the news that it is shutting accounts of people who return too many items. This is off the back of the £3.95 charge the retailer has already introduced for people who are returning more goods than they would like.
While ASOS has received lots of publicity around these rule changes, they are certainly not the only business that is charging and barring people. So what’s going on here? And what can you do about it?
Why is ASOS in the news?
It’s been reported in the press this week that some ASOS customers have received emails telling them that their accounts are being closed. This is because the shoppers have apparently breached the retailer’s “fair use” policy.
Retailers can reserve the right to ditch you if they feel that you are misusing their services. This might include returning items that you’ve ordered, photographed yourself in on Instagram or TikTok then sent back.
There are a few isolated incidents where people have tried it on and had a night out in a nice frock with the tags on then shipped the clothes back! *Spoilers* retailers will know you’ve done this.
But this is pretty rare. Looking at returns policies for the main online retailers, a cardinal sin is ‘returning too many items’.
ASOS hit the headlines last year when it began charging a £3.95 return fee per parcel when people returned an excessive number of items.
It has now confirmed that a small number of customers have had their accounts closed for breaching this policy where there has been “unusual or suspicious activity”. The ASOS website sets out their fair use policy in which it explains:
For the small group of customers who consistently take actions that make providing them with free returns unsustainable, we deduct and retain £3.95 per returned parcel from their refund to help cover the cost of getting the goods back to us.
When deciding whether to make this deduction from your future refunds, we apply an objective formula based on your shopping behaviour, taking into account whether you have made particularly excessive returns well beyond the average ASOS customer’s returns, as well as the number and value of orders made by you.
If you fall into this group, you will still enjoy free returns when:
- You keep £40 or more of any order and are a non-Premier customer; or
- You keep £15 or more of any order and are a Premier customer.
Can retailers charge me or bar me if I return too many items?
Yes they can. No business can be compelled to have you as a customer. As long as they are not discriminating against you because of a ‘protected characteristic’ then they are not breaking the law.
The problem with these policies is they very rarely explain how many returns is too many – or how this is being quantified. For example, if you order an item of clothing in three sizes to see which one fits best, you’ll regularly be returning two items even if you decide to keep one.
If you do this once a month, that’s a minimum of 24 returns over a year. Will that mark your card as a prolific returner? We simply don’t know.
There’s no ombudsman or dispute resolution scheme for the entire retail industry, so the courts are the only option for people who feel they’ve been unfairly treated. In the vast majority of cases, this is not an effective solution for most people.
What about damaged or faulty goods?
Your legal rights remain the same when it comes to faulty or misrepresented goods that you buy online. You have 30 days to return these items and you are entitled to a full refund – including postage costs – under these circumstances.
If the goods break or turn out to be faulty within the first six months, you must give the retailer one opportunity to repair or replace the item, then if there’s still a problem you can have a full refund.
I’ve noticed that some online retailers are making it very difficult to return items within the six month timeframe – including one very big online retailer indeed. Don’t give up if you need to send back faulty goods. The law is on your side.
Most of the retailer’s terms of use say they will not penalise you for returning broken or damaged goods.
Is this fair?
The reason why returning items and charging or barring people is so contentious is because we have to send back large numbers of clothes we buy online because we can’t try them on before purchase.
Online retailers created this ‘try and return’ market, killing off some of the leading high street retailers in the process. They were able to operate with vastly reduced costs because they didn’t have the bills that come with running an actual shop in towns and cities across the land.
So their only losses came from the cost of postage and returning outfits. So it seems deeply unfair that these retailers – who have profiteered at the expense of the high street shops – are now wanting to charge us for returns after driving countless businesses out of business.
In addition, I’m infuriated that many online retailers don’t even have customer service telephone lines for you to contact if something goes wrong.
So I’d encourage anyone who is unhappy with these charges and lack of customer service to ditch the worst offenders and return to the high street. After all, you don’t get charged for leaving items that don’t fit in a changing room!
- Martyn James is a leading consumer rights campaigner, TV and radio broadcaster and journalist