I recently purchased an item from Officeworks online, as our local store didn’t have any of this particular product in stock. I always prefer to use Paypal where available for any online purchases.
After receiving my order via courier it turned out to be a dud product which didn’t live up to the claims. So after looking up online how to handle a return process, I rocked up to our local store to return it for a full refund. The staff behind the registers had no idea how to go about issuing a refund for an online order that was paid for via Paypal so one of them asked the staff member who was greeting people at the entrance to the store what to do. She told them they’d have to contact head office to have them issue the refund for me.
Instead of calling head office and speaking to someone for me, they stood me next to their phone in the print dept, dialled the number then walked away to serve other customers while I waited on hold. Of course when I explained to the person on the other end of the phone line what had happened so far, she needed to speak with a team member from the store I was standing in to verify that I had actually returned the item. After a few minutes of waiting I finally managed to get someone from behind the print counter to talk to the head office person who then told the local bloke that they had processed the refund, at which point he took the item from me and then got about serving someone else.
When I’d gotten home I checked my Paypal balance and the refund had not been processed. By now Officeworks had closed for the day. It was a Friday so I waited until Monday to see if it would go in after being processed automatically over one of the weekend’s nights.
Monday morning, still no refund. So I went to the Officeworks website to get their contact details and a chat box popped up with an Officeworks rep asking if he could help. After explaining the situation, he verified my identity by matching personal details to my Officeworks account, looked up the order and told me that Head Office had processed my refund, but it hadn’t gone through because the local store that I returned it to didn’t actually log that the item had been returned into the system. He said he’d contact the local office to sort it out and that I’d get a phone call later that afternoon to let me know that everything had been sorted… Didn’t get my phone call.
Tuesday morning, back online to get their contact details and someone else popped up in a chatbox offering to help. They determined that everything had been processed and I should get my refund by the next night at the latest… Nup. Didn’t happen.
This morning, Thursday, I was on the chatbox with yet another person who contacted the dept responsible and said I should have received my refund and that I should check my Paypal balance again… Nothing. He then said he’d investigate and call me back. Unfortunately he called late in the afternoon when I was doing a school run, but failed to leave a message and never bothered to try calling back a second time, and STILL I don’t have my refund.
So tomorrow I get to speak with yet another person via the chatbox in the hopes I can eventually get my money back for an item that has already been returned. Nowhere can I find anything that states if you make an online purchase at Officeworks via Paypal that you’ll have to deal with head office staff over a phone or internet connection to organise your refund once you’ve taken the item back to a bricks and mortar store. It simply says that all online orders can be taken back to any store for a full refund where a refund is due.
Tomorrow will be a week since they took the item back and I’m still waiting for them to figure out how to give me my money back. I’ve opened a return case through Paypal, which is waiting on a response from Officeworks, and yes, they aren’t responding to Paypal’s requests for a response.
Hopefully Officeworks will sort themselves out eventually. It was an item that cost close to $250 plus the delivery price. I’ll have to make future purchases from them with my credit card at this rate so they can refund anything directly back into it at the store if I ever need to take any items back again. I use Paypal for the convenience and added security of not having to give my credit card details out for online purchases. Well, the convenience part’s now gone out the window.
Not a happy customer.
