Question What if I've bought something, can I change my mind? Because it doesn’t fit and there are no changing rooms
Many of us have bought something only to later decide it's unsuitable or unneeded. Yet shops are under no obligation to take your goods back, just because you've changed your mind, only when they're faulty.
The exceptions to this are when buying on the internet, mail order or financial agreements, when you often have cancellation rights.
But even when you don't have rights, plenty of companies do still give refunds. These are mainly high street stores with returns policies allowing you to simply take back whatever you want within a set timeframe.
These goodwill policies have encouraged more and more customers to expect this as a right, even though it doesn't always apply.
This doesn't mean you can't ask, though. Shops would rather keep customers happy than be sticklers for the rules. They consider all customers to be potential clients who will use their services or buy their products again and again.
If clothes and shoes don't match their description
Label sizes on clothes can cause problems because there is no legal definition for sizes or the terms 'small, medium or large'. If clothes described by size don't fit you have no legal right to take them back although many traders have returns policies. However, if clothes aren't correctly labelled then you do have a right to a refund. For example, a skirt with a label that describes it as having a length of 90 centimetres must measure 90 centimetres.
If you change your mind about what you buy
You may decide you want to take back what you bought because you’ve changed your mind. If you've bought the items in a shop, you may not have a right to get your money back but you may have other options such as an exchange or a credit note
So if Sports Direct in Stafford are sticklers for just stating the company policy it may be worth a letter to their head office to draw attention to them getting bad press on an informative and helpful forum site that are getting complaints from their customers.
