Boden

I used to buy a lot of Boden, both for myself, DH and the DGDs. Having to pay for returns was annoying. Also they kept stressing their Britishness when most of the clothes were manufactured over seas. Bangladesh I think.

This is very timely for me! I have bought quite a lot from Boden over the years, but any returns must have been in an offer period (free return), as I've never been charged before. I was yesterday (£5) when returning a couple of jackets I bought for the grandsons to try (I ordered a variety of sizes and kept the three that fit). As the stuff I kept cost nearly £150, I wasn't best pleased - I can't think of any other firm that would have charged. So I fired off a disgruntled email and they came straight back to me to say they'd refunded the cost of the return and the original delivery cost to my account. I'll make sure I look for that "free returns" flag next time though!

I too have bought a lot from Boden over the years,but recently I have found the sizing weird and the quality poorer. Have to admit that I wait till there's a 20% off and free postage and returns! After not buying anything for some time,they've emailed me a £10 off voucher.

I too have bought quite a few dresses from Boden but haven't seen anything lately I would like as their prices have risen sharply. I have never paid for returns and usually wait for an offer code anyway.

I love Boden - or did. My enthusiasm is waning somewhat as the prices are increasing. Also I've become more and more aware of the youth of the models; obviously their target market. Yet some of their clothes suit older people too [or am I mutton dress as lamb perhaps?] and it would be good to see models in their prime+. I have to admit that their clothes seem to last, but low necks are no longer appropriate for me now so the charity shop has become the lucky recipient. I do enjoy their catalogue though.

I have only once bought anything from Boden, a quite expensive coat that only lasted one winter because the fabric pilled so badly. I had had it too long to complain and, cynically, I a sure they would have found a reason to say it was my fault because of something I had done, carrying shopping or pushing a trolley round a supermarket or something.

I think they still give you a year to return items you're not completely happy with, M0nica, so it might have been worth a try.

Too late!!

Did anyone see the Martin Lewis money programme the other night. One of the questions he asked, just before the break was, "if you return an on line purchase, what do you get back?"
1/. The price of the purchase
2/ The price of the purchase, plus postage
3/. The price of the purchase, plus postage, plus cost of return

The answer was. 2

I'm sure this is correct, but please correct me if I am wrong. It is late and I shouldn't be on my Ipad before going to sleep.

I thought it was 3. You are meant to be left, after the return, in the same position as you would have been had you not purchased the product at all

However ML is the expert, but I am surprised.

I'm not sure it's reasonable to expect free returns.
If you go shopping in town you have to spend time driving there and then
pay for parking. Unless you use your bus pass and spend even more time getting to the shops.
There's no guarantee you will see anything you like and may come home empty handed and have to have another shopping trip another day.
To me the cost of returning something I've bought online that isn't right for me is minor in comparison.
There is certainly a cost to the online supplier in dealing with returns. If they don't apply it to the individuals who return items, then they have to apply it across the board to all the things they sell, which makes things more expensive for everyone.

I don't agree. When you buy something online you have no idea of the quality or fit of the clothes you have purchased and frequently the colour, as shown online is not reliable.

I rarely buy online for just those reasons. When I have bought online I have frequently returned the clothes because what has arrived with me is not the garment I thought I was buying. I do buy trousers from one online store and recently I ordered, what online, presented as a pair of butterscotch brown trousers. When they arrived they were a bright turmeric yellow, they had sent the colour I ordered, but the online photo had been misleading. I think it is quite reasonable to expect them to pay return postage.

I do not like clothes shopping and rarely go shopping just to buy clothes, so overall the cost of a shopping trip is irrelevant. But if a clothes shop was a catalogue shop and I chose what I wanted and it was given to me in a sealed wrapper that I could not open and try on until I got home, I would expect the company to pay my travel costs if I had to make a special journey to return it.

I've never been in a catalogue shop monica and if I'm imagining them
correctly from your description, it would seem that they offer the worst of both worlds - you have to travel to the shop and you don't have the facility to try them on before you get home
I use very few online clothes shops but I find the websites good in that you can enlarge images to see the detail of the fabric and usually there is plenty of information about sizing. Uniqlo for example give very detailed measurements of the actual garments, but just the bodies they are intended to fit.
Most helpful of all are the customer reviews, particularly the unfavourable ones. They will point up whether the colour is accurate, and whether the sizing runs small or large, or whether the fabric is uncomfortably prickly.
Using the website in conjunction with a printed catalogue usually gives me a very good idea of what I'm getting. Uniqlo doesn't do a printed catalogue though.

Jane I was using the possibility of buying clothes from a catalogue shop as the nearest equivalent to buying online. I am not suggesting any such clothes shop exists, In fact, I very much doubt it.

I am simply saying SUPPOSE you go into a shop and cannot have a good look at the clothes or try them on and are just given a wrapped package to open and try on at home. I would expect the shop concerned to cover the cost of travelling back to the shop to take them back if they did not fit/colour was wrong etc and I expect the same from an online retailer.

I have been shopping online for 20 years and I well know the advantage of reviews, but someone has to be the first to discover a colour is not true or sizing is big or small and even reviews cannot cover how it fits people of the same size, but different shapes. How colours come up can also be very dependent on your computer screen - and no-one can review that.

No need to shout, monica.
If I understand you correctly you're saying that the 'catalogue shops' you referred to don't actually exist, so they are hardly a valid comparison with online shopping

If you go back to M&S in the (very) olden days, e.g.my childhood, their policy of a no -quibble guaranteed return was based on the fact that they did not have changing rooms so nothing could be tried on. I think expecting them to pay ones bus fare to and from the shop might have been a bridge too far though.
My mother had a friend who went up to Edinburgh every Thursday afternoon from our home town in the Borders. Every week she bought something at "Marksies" and every week she took something back. They must have recognised her but never queried the refund.

I was trying to envisage a situation where a High Street purchase could be made to reflect an online purchase process to explain why I thought it was reasonable to expect the online retailer to pay for return postage.

Perhaps you could have a go drawing up a better parallel between the two processes as I have clearly failed.

Monica I was making a comparison between online shopping and retail shopping as we know it, and pointing out that if you leave home to go shopping, you incur costs which are probably equal to or greater than the costs of returning something you have bought online.
I wasn't comparing online shopping with retail outlets where you bought things unseen and then might want to return them. You were.

But Boden is an online business. And if they want to compete, they need to make shopping with them attractive. They're not the cheapest, and adding postal charges for both delivery and return, however much you spend, isn't going to encourage people to choose them over high street stores such as Gap or Next. I never go into town for just one item, nor to return just one item - I'd incorporate it into a shopping trip every couple of weeks, or combine it with other things such as lunch out, an event or the cinema. So the cost of returning an item to a store is negligible. And however much information is given online re sizing, it's not going to help when you're buying for children you may not see every day. I ended up keeping a 4/5 for one 3 year old, a 3/4 for another, and a 3/4 for the youngest, who's not 2 yet. Another 4/5 and the 2/3 went back.

I know the COL has risen dramatically but Bodens price rises are extortionate. I like their clothing, its well made and ordering is no hassle. However £140 for a dress and £90 for trousers.. I dont think so even with 20% off. Gone way over whats reasonable

This thread is 5 years old…

I’ve been reading these comments with interest. Here in NZ when you buy online and return the item for whatever reason the postage has pretty much always been at the expense of the purchaser. What I think is pretty tough, some sites and I’m thinking of a particular shoe site, state ‘no returns or exchanges’, on their sale shoes. This I feel is unreasonable as shoe fit can be quite random. Your choice of course whether you buy knowing those conditions.

I love Boden clothes but agree they are now expensive plus the expense of returns. John Lewis stock Boden so before ordering direct I check whether I could get the item in JL, click and collect and free return. JL obviously don’t stock many but worth a look first.

Try QVC online company ... you can keep and wear the garments for 2 months and then return them for a refund !!!! If the garment is damaged in any way they send you a pre paid label ... good eh ?