Rosie L.

I ordered some nice looking tops from Dorothy Perkins and ended up spiralling into the most miserable customer service experience I have ever encountered. I do a lot of online shopping and normally you can tell from the photos roughly what kind of quality the clothes are. Not so with Dorothy Perkins who had edited their product photos so they looked completely different in reality. I received transparent t-shirt tops that were made from material so thin that I am amazed the tops didn't rip as I tried one on. After one try, I put the rest back, not even opened, and returned the lot on the SAME day as I received them, just 1 hour after the courier had been. I also explained on the returns note that they were such poor quality I was unlikely to order from DP again. Well they didn't keep my returns note and didn't count the number of tops returned correctly and tried to charge me for one of the tops.

That's when things started to go wrong. I wanted to call them to sort it out - I get unlimited free calls to geographic numbers. However, I discovered the only way of doing this is by calling their chargeable number - I wasn't prepared to pay to sort out their mistake so instead I emailed them and their Indian call centre reps picked up the issue. What followed was a series of emails where they didn't read my email properly and didn't answer my question. Eventually they understood and they insisted the only way of getting the refund was to provide proof of posting which I had lost. I told them all they had to do was to refer to my returns note and the issue would be sorted but they didn't even acknowledge this and kept repeating over several emails that there was only one solution. I decided that I wasn't getting anywhere so I called their chargeable number and spoke with a UK customer service rep who said that in cases like this, all I had to do was to wait 28 days and they'd refund the uncounted top. I reminded them that the tops were bought using Klarna's buy now pay later scheme and so they would have to adjust my account with Klarna. Also remember this top was only worth £8 and I work in retail supply and know the margins. DP would have paid no more than £1.50 for this top. I told them I was unhappy with their proposed solution but there was nothing more they were prepared to do (over a top that cost them less than £1.50) so I resigned to waiting the 28 days. After 34 days I asked them why they hadn't sorted out the refund and they continued to make things difficult by asking for when I returned the top even though they had a copy of their returns email that they sent to me. I provided this and the date I returned the top and but it still took 4 subsequent emails and I had to provide various bits of information that I had already given them or that they already had. Eventually they proved themselves to be winner of the WORST retail organisation in the UK by telling me they were giving me a refund and were not prepared to settle my Klarna account. How they even managed to give me a refund I have no idea since I've never even given them my card details. I told them that they should settle my Klarna account but they told me instead I had to contact Klarna to sort it out.

So they tried to charge me for a top I didn't keep that to them cost just £1.50 and made me spend 3 1/2 hours sorting out the problem and they've still not sorted out the problem...

Absolutely dire company - please take my warning and don't buy from them unless you're prepared to run the risk of this kind of experience.