Wish are apparently banning consumers who return too many items from their customer support. Serial returner who receive a ban have little warning and reports say that in at least one case it was for a single return. It’s important to realise that a ban will prevent you accessing help for any other recent or pending orders once the goods arrive.
Serial returners are a problem across the entire retail sector but it’s an issue particularly pertinent to online as consumers have the right to examine goods once they receive them and the law states that they don’t need a reason to exercise their right to return.
The serial returners problem is perhaps exacerbated on the Wish marketplace due to some Wish sellers’ penchant for selling cheap goods at a knock down price, but often with a heavily inflated “Recommended Retail price”, – just about every product on Wish is advertised with a discount in the 70%s, 80%s or even the high 90%s. When attracted towards a “Was £165, now £7, 95% off” item (seen on Wish today) in what looks like the bargain of the century, it may not be surprising if a customer is left somewhat disappointed and wants to return the goods.
As with all marketplaces operating in the EU, customers have the customary 14 days from receipt to return products purchased on the Wish marketplace. However there is no guidance offered as to what too many returns looks like before the customer service ban is imposed.
You’re banned… but please carry on buying!
The interesting twist with Wish (they’re not the only marketplace to ban serial returners – Amazon do the same) is that a ban is only a customer support ban – consumers can carry on purchasing. In fact, Wish advises victims of the ban that the best way to resolve the issue is to make even more purchases to restore their Wish account reputation and when an unspecified number of purchases have been made access to customer support will be restored.
So if you shop on Wish, it would appear prudent to read descriptions carefully, don’t get sucked in by unrealisticaly high RRPs and expect to get £100 worth of product for a fiver and if you do get goods that are sub-par bear in mind that if you carry on buying similar products that you could get a customer service ban if you’re deemed to be a serial returner.
