Online fast fashion retailer Boohoo has faced backlash from disgruntled customers as they take to TikTok to air their refund troubles, citing “useless” AI chatbots and four-month long disputes
Boohoo has been hit with backlash from customers facing refund troubles, with many swearing they’ll never shop with the online fashion retailer again.
Countless customers have revealed a shared experience of applying for a refund and requesting for their money be returned to the original payment method, only to receive a gift card in return, while some have struggled to get any money back altogether.
One TikTok creator claimed she was “scammed” by the fast fashion brand, telling her followers that she’d been left over £100 out of pocket after they failed to send her refund to the original payment method.
Under her video that has over 216,000 views, fellow disgruntled Boohoo customers in the comments reveal they’re going through the same ordeal. “The same thing is happening to me right now, now [Boohoo] are silent and not replying to anything,” one wrote. A second added: “I’ve been in dispute with them for about nine months. It’s awful.”
Georgia, a 29-year-old content creator, is in the same boat. She’s been back and forth with Boohoo since September after applying for a refund from a recent order of clothes that didn’t fit her.
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She told The Mirror: “I made a purchase through Boohoo and used Klarna to pay, but I sent all the clothes back as none of them fit me. I got an email saying, ‘Thank you for your return. Your refund will go through.’ About a week later I had an email saying that about £50 (which is half of the order) has gone back to my original payment method which is Klarna, and then a few days after that I got a gift card for the other half of the order, which didn’t make any sense to me.”
‘They’re silent and not replying to anything’
Georgia insists that she requested the original payment method in return and claims she didn’t ask for a gift card or credit note when applying for her refund. She also claims she was ignored in her initial attempts to contact Boohoo.
“At that point I was having to deal with Klarna because the money hadn’t gone back to them,” she recalled. “Only half of it had gone back to them.”
Georgia says Klarna were able to delay her repayment by putting a pause in place and reassured her that they’d be able to sort the issue, but four months on, she’s concerned about the debt to her name.
“That happened in September, we’re now in January – there’s only a certain amount of times they can pause that payment. Now I’m getting late fees for not paying Klarna because Boohoo hasn’t refunded the other half of the order.”
When Boohoo finally got back to Georgia, they claimed that their evidence proves she requested a gift card, which she denies. “The gift card wasn’t even an option on their website when I did my refund. If they were giving me a gift card, why did they only give me half of it?”
So far, Georgia has only racked up a £5 late payment fee, but her fears of debt are persisting. Despite getting past Boohoo’s AI chatbot and emailing their customer service, the company gives the same response which Georgia believes is automated. The Mirror reached out to Boohoo regarding their customer service and AI chatbot service, but they declined to comment on this.
Failing to get to the bottom of her refund dispute, Georgia joined others on TikTok, demanding Boohoo “sort it out” in a video that has over 23,000 views. Robyn Gallager, 31, also used the power of TikTok to her advantage in a similar dispute, but she says Boohoo “doesn’t seem to care about it”.
Boohoo ‘doesn’t seem to care’
Robyn ordered six to eight pairs of jeans at the start of December in the hopes of finding the perfect pair. Keeping only one, she sent the rest back, following Boohoo’s online returns process. She told The Mirror she’s “99% certain” she requested the original payment method, adding that she’d “never pick a gift card.”
“I wouldn’t – especially not the value, £154 or something like that, I was owed,” she said. A week later she received her refund, but every penny had gone towards a gift card.
“I’m on maternity leave so money is tight for us. I’m lucky as I’ll be able to find the money, it’s not great but I will manage it, but there’s people out there this could be happening to that genuinely do not have that money and it really does cripple them. I think that’s one of the reasons why I wanted to post about it.”
Robyn went through Facebook Messenger and an AI chatbot in her attempts to contact Boohoo. She says the “scripted” responses from the bot were “useless” and, even after being transferred to an agent, she found the experience helpless and gave up contacting them that way.
“Thankfully I bought on a credit card so I went through my bank and raised a dispute that way, and then my husband managed to find CEO email, so I emailed them copying in a customer services email which was hidden down in the FAQs on their website. It’s not under their ‘contact us’ page.”
When Robyn finally heard back, Boohoo claimed she’d selected the gift card option – which she denies – and that she has 90 days to use her gift card. Her credit card company, American Express, is disputing the payment, but the gift card deadline leaves her in a tough spot.
“I’m in limbo,” she said. “I’ve also got £150 worth of gift cards that need to be used within 90 days, but my credit card dispute could take longer than that. If I do get stuck with the gift cards, I would rather buy stuff with them and make use out of them, but at the same time, I don’t want to spend them, I would rather have the money back.”
90-day gift card limit is ‘really strict’
A consumer expert tells the Mirror that 90 days to spend a gift card is “a really strict timeline” as it pressures the consumer into making a new purchase. From a legal point of view, there’s no set amount of time that a gift card should last, however, it’s considered good practice by businesses for gift cards to be viable at least 12-24 months after purchase.
It is legal for companies to offer gift cards for voluntary returns, the expert informs us, usually if you’ve changed your mind or the size is wrong. However, if this is the case, the policy should be stated clearly beforehand.
They say: “In Boohoo’s case, the terms and conditions mention that if a consumer wants a refund on their purchase, they will make any refunds by the method the consumer used for payment if they opt for a cash return. So if the consumer has specifically chosen cash return when making their return, they should receive the money directly back into their account, not a gift card.”
In response, a Boohoo spokesperson explained why the retailer offers a voluntary gift card option to customers. They said: “We offer customers a variety of refund options to provide greater flexibility and benefits for customers. When a customer chooses a gift card as their refund option, they also receive a 10% uplift in the refund.
“To take advantage of this offer, the gift card is valid for 90 days, which also reflects how often our customers typically shop with us. However, there is always the option to select a refund to the original payment method, which is clearly displayed throughout this process. We encourage customers to check their refund selection carefully to ensure it meets their needs.”
“Our customer service team are there to help, and we provide a number of different channels to help customers reach us easily,” the statement concluded.
‘I’m not giving up’
As per Consumer Rights Act 2015 and Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, retailers are required to process refunds within 14 days of receiving the returned goods.
In both Georgia and Robyn’s cases, where the refund hasn’t gone back to the payment option they claim to have requested, escalating the matter is the next best step, but what’s the best way to go about this? Our consumer expert suggests trying a chargeback, which is quicker than waiting for customer service emails, on their credit or debit card to try to recoup the money.
“If you paid with a credit card or debit card, the best way to get the money back is to contact your bank and ask for a chargeback citing non-receipt of funds,” the expert advised. “Make sure you don’t spend the gift card in the meantime and that you have any paper trail as proof such as screenshots of the website portal or emails.”
“If this fails, they can reference Citizens Advice for templates of letters that threaten legal action or visit Resolver, a free online tool to submit complaints.”
Robyn, who’s waited over a month for her situation to be resolved, finds the ordeal “draining” but is determined to keep trying to get her refund in return before it’s too late.
“It’s in the back of my head constantly. I’ve not shopped with Boohoo in ages and I would never go near them again. I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone,” she said.
Georgia, who’s been embroiled in her back and forth with Boohoo for four months, isn’t giving up either. “I’m not giving up. It’s not fair. The amount of people that it’s happened to, something needs to be done about it.”
