Beware of buying from Fashion Conscience

[Dawn]

I don't want any vegans to lose money by buying from this online company Fashion Conscience. It is UK based and sells fair-trade, organic clothes and also vegan shoes and boots. But if you buy anything and try to return it and expect your money back you may not see it again!
I bought a pair of Novacas brand boots that cost over £115 (I love this Novacas brand, I already have some gorgeous vegan suede style boots that have lasted for ages!) from them but didn't like the style and returned them immediately unworn.
But 2 weeks later no refund so I e-mailed just to check it was in progress. Normally you don't wait as long as this. No response. I e-mailed again after 3 weeks. And tried calling. I realised that whatever time I called nobody picks up the phone and their voicemail box is full. So I e-mailed again and again in complaint. No response.
There is no customer service response at all.
I have written to them with proof of postage and a print-out of the order form but still no refund and it is now nearly 6 weeks ago since they should have received the boots back.
This company Fashion Conscience updates their website and their Facebook page and sends general e-mails about their products regularly so they are active. I posted on their Facebook asking nicely and politely for them to just give me a refund and citing the order number and they just deleted my post - twice.

I'm going to try and do credit card charge-back but it may take months and I feel robbed. I just don't want any other vegans to fall foul of this like I did. I wish I had known. A google search shows that other people have had problems with this very thing, someone even tweeted at them constantly in 2011 I think because they couldn't get their money back.

[lobsteriffic]

Is there an equivalent to the Better Business Bureau in the UK? If so, I would report them.

[Hiking Fox]

Take this up with Trading Standards; the company are breaking the law.

[Dawn]

Thanks! I'll definitely look into it. I'm also going to write to The Guardian money section and take them to the small claims court if necessary. But don't really need the stress. But don't want to let them get away with it, as if they've behaved like this towards other people too then they will carry on getting away with it and stealing from good people buying vegan, ethical stuff.

[Hiking Fox]

Also, you could always complain directly to the Director, Lianne Ludlow, via LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/lianne-ludlow/11/984/a2

You may be able to get a personal address for her via Companies House.

Her name doesn't come up as a serial company-dissolver in my short trawl, so it's possible that staff sloppiness, rather than Calculated Company Evil, is responsible for your problem. Doesn't excuse it, though.

Good move on the Guardian consumer complaint, as I bet the company gets a lot of business from Guardian-reader types.

[Dawn]

Thanks I sent a letter directly to her at the company address on the 2nd March which she signed for but still no response or refund. It's a lot of money and just the fact that the company does not reply or respond to anything makes me very unhappy. I can't even speak to anybody about it because nobody ever picks up on their customer services phone number.

I buy online all the time. I never usually have a problem. Maybe on one or two times something hasn't arrived or a company has been slow but no matter what they always answers the phone or responds to e-mails. I've never experienced this complete lack of response before.

[Dawn]

Hip hip hooray! I got a refund at last. What a relief.

But only because my friend kindly took it upon himself to take up my cause and politely bothered this company at the Brighton VegFest. I don't think I would have ever got my money back otherwise.

I can't believe it took such lengths and caused me a great deal of feeling very miserable and massively ripped off.

I sincerely hope this company doesn't do this again to its customers. As I said I've not been the only one. It's not fair. I hope they answer the phone and respond to e-mails and letters and Facebook posts and give people their money back when they return items like all other companies do. And then I will wish them well.

[ratfan]

I had a similar experince with a co. called Vegan Line - they are still around, so I hope it was a 1 off. I ordered a pair of shoes, they didn't fit, I sent them back and never heard from them again - no refund. I didn't have the time or energy to keep chasing them - they are also v poor at replying to emails and answering the phones. So I gave up and just won't buy from them again.

Sadly this sort of lack of care seems quite common in online retailing, esp vegan companies in my experience. People seem to think being vegan is enough - no need to bother with customer service as well!

Glad you got your refund Dawn, sounds like it was hard work.

[Lordmuppet]

I suspect a letter (from a lawyers office or at least with their letterhead) politely threatening legal action is the best way to get their attention in these cases

[Hiking Fox]

Trouble is, lawyers charge up to £500 to write you a letter.