Refunds on items purchased in a BOGOF promo

[mdj101]

Hi All.

After a bit of advice please.

We sell products Buy One Get One Free which to me is essentially both items at half price.

As I understand it, if one of the items is faulty then both have to be returned for a refund. However I have the following scenario.

A customer has purchased two items on a BOGOF promotion.

One of the items didn't work properly and the other one did, they are single use items. The customer claims that the item that didn't work was the PAID for item and the item that did work was the free item. (I can confirm this so no argument there)

As he cannot return the second half / free item I believe he is only entitled to HALF the value as a refund. He says he's entitled to the FULL value, even though he's used the second item.

Thanks in advance.

 

[MBE2017]

IMO your customer is correct. Buy one get one free is not the same as getting both items at half price.

Slightly different but along a similar vein, many years ago I was selling a particular mobile phone from my market business, and had bought over 100 cash up front for the Xmas rush.

I worked at the edge of the market, with a large Boots store. Low and behold, they put the same phone up for sale on a BOGOF offer, at the same price I was selling for just one. I visited the store and bought the whole stock, 15 BOGOF deals, explained I wanted to issue my female workers with a cheap phone for safety.

Later that week I returned them for credit, none opened, due to not being happy with the T&C’s of the PAYG mobiles. I was asked for the other free mobiles but explained I had given them away as gifts.

Their manager laughed and explained he couldn’t allow that, and I pointed out that meant they were not free, as per huge posters in his window. He checked with his HQ, gave the money back and tore down the posters, never did that same deal after that.

You have to be careful with your wording. Just credit and move on with life.

 

[HFE Signs]

Write a paragraph in your T&C’s to cover this scenario. As a buyer, I’d be quite disappointed if the faulty item wasn’t covered though, can’t you just replace the faulty item?

 

[WaveJumper]

My son had an issue with a customer yesterday, dealt with the problem immediately after I mentioned its a good idea to try and turn these times into a positive .......... asked him how it went over lunch, great dad I even picked up another 4.5k order from him.

Can not add to the good advice from others here, and not teaching anyone to suck eggs, but looking after your customers and bitting the bullet can pay dividends in the long game.

 

[antropy]

As he cannot return the second half / free item I believe he is only entitled to HALF the value as a refund. He says he's entitled to the FULL value, even though he's used the second item.

Why not just send a working item?

Paul.

 

[mdj101]

An update for you. I refunded the customer in full as a gesture of goodwill, but here it is from a legal standpoint. This information is from Trading Standards. If you're not part of the Buy With Confidence Scheme it's worth it sometimes for clarity on things like this.

I have been passed your query regards the issue you have with a Buy One Get One Free (BOGOF) sale. This is an unusual situation but would be down to reasonableness to achieve a satisfactory outcome.

Under normal circumstances a BOGOF sale to a customer if in whole or in part be defective or has been misleadingly sold; should be returned complete (both items) for a refund or credit. The value of the two items are not deemed to be valued 50/50 initially, but for a full refund both items should be returned as it is deemed as one sale / provision.

However, in a scenario like this it would be reasonable for both parties to be able to compromise. The customer has had 50% use / enjoyment from the purchase and should receive a reasonable settlement, i.e. 50% refund. I understand that this is basically the same as you stated, both items in the sale being valued 50/50, but again, under normal circumstances it is one sale and both items should be returned; but in cases like these they clearly cant, so a fair compromise has to be made.


The customer is not obliged to be put in a position of betterment. If the customer decided to take the issue to court for a full refund; a court would base an outcome on Quantum Meruit, which basically means ‘based on the use the customer didn’t get’.


You didn’t quote a value for the products purchased, but a court would frown upon a potential low value claim getting that far if the retailer had offered a fair and reasonable refund or credit.

 

[MBE2017]

An update for you. I refunded the customer in full as a gesture of goodwill....

Good on yourself, best solution IMO.

What value were you talking about for the non working item total cost of goods?