Just tried to return a drill I bought from Aldi 7 months ago. I know I’m not entitled to a refund, only repair or replace. They sent me home saying I have to ring a helpline who will sort it out for me.

Not happy as the store should sort this out for me as I bought it from there but I agreed to do what they ask (no discussion about it helped).

Has anyone else gone through this? Any ideas as to whether I’ll have to post it off anywhere? It’d be bonkers to post it as postage would cost half the price of the drill at a PO and I can’t wait in for a courier pick up as I work full time. It’s a huge SDS drill which weighs a ton!

Online searches have revealed many similar issues with Aldi not complying with SOGA, which I can attest to after I saw another customer being properly lied to a few weeks ago about a return he was trying to do.

Aldi have a responsibility but that doesn’t mean it has to be your local store. They are perfectly entitled to ask you to go through another part of the same company. If all else fails then arrange to have it picked up from your local store.

Online searches have revealed many similar issues with Aldi not complying with SOGA,

The internet is full of people that don’t know that the SOGA doesn’t exist anymore. And even if it did, by asking you to deal directly with a returns department they are complying with the law as it was under the SOGA, and also the current law.

You’ll find with Aldi that you’ll ring the helpline and they’ll get you sorted out- its just the way they do it.

You’ll be fine.

I returned a petrol chainsaw to Aldi, it was about 18 months old and had become a bitch to start.

They just processed the refund and put a credit on my card.

Most Aldi stuff has a 3-year warranty, have you just asked for your money back?

As Cody says, ring the helpline. You’ll probably have to scan your receipt and email it to them. 9/10 times they will just send you a new one and you dispose of the old one.

Never had to use the warranty but I did have a couple of gears go on a big 6kg SDS drill well out of warranty. Called the freephone number to germany and the lady emailed me a parts diagram so I can select which bits I needed. £16 later and a whole armature and the gear it mates to were on their way and it lasted a couple more years of renovation.

i was going to replace it with a nice Bosch or Makita 2kg SDS but opted for a £30 parkside one and it’s been pretty good too.

Pretty sure it’s aldi things that have a three year warranty and I’m sure the assistant has pointed out at some point that up to 60 days it’s dealt with in store but beyond that it would be call centre when I’ve bought something.

Had exactly the same issue with a nutri ninja thing.

No customer service so went to the till. Woman on the till didn’t really know what to do but mentioned sending it back to the manufacturer. She got the supervisor over who said the same. I mentioned I was surprised as I had bought from them so thought they should sort it. They didn’t like it when I said in a proper shop I could just bring it back and that had I bought the real thing from Rackhams or Tesco they would just refund me.

At that point they said ‘ ah, you want a refund not replacement?’, to which I said ‘of course, why would I want another? I want a refund to put towards the genuine article ‘. They then gave a full refund. The huge queue behind me might have been a factor.

Forgot to mention that when they were saying I had to send it back I kept saying that was fine so to give me it back which they repeatedly failed to do!

They didn’t like it when I said in a proper shop I could just bring it back (etc etc)

To be fair it does sound like you were being a bit of a nob.

Maybe you failed the attitude test 😉

The returns policy is fairly simple really.

https://www.aldi.co.uk/customer-services/returns

They didn’t like it when I said in a proper shop I could just bring it back

So who are you blaming then? The shop or yourself for buying cheap and expecting the same customer service as when you pay ‘normal’ prices.

I’ve got an Aldi electric chainsaw and the bar tensioner broke recently. A new part cost £7 on eBay, not even worth the hassle of calling them for that 🙂

Any store that uses wheat not even suitable for bio fuel to make their baked goods, is no place to buy a tool worth a damn. Apart from the flowers and vegie isle, nowt worth spending my precious moneys on in there.

Care to expand on that one gears?

wheat not even suitable for bio fuel

Tastes ok, is cheap and I’m very sure not against any legislation so your problem is?

One of the nightmares that has me waking up covered in a cold sweat is being stuck behind a STW’er in a queue.

olo – Member

wheat not even suitable for bio fuel

Tastes ok, is cheap and I’m very sure not against any legislation so your problem is?
It tastes like like cheap, to me. Is that all right with you? That I don’t like something. You of course can eat what ever you want.
Saving money is not always worth compromising for me, is my point. Where does the legislation bit come from? I don’t see I made any implication there is any wrong doing.

You sound wheat intolerant.

Did you phone them or not OP?

Seems you’re jumping to conclusions otherwise.

Sorry I meant consumer rights act nowadays…

One thing I did complain about in store was that the helpline I had to ring was 10p a minute on a landline. On a mobile it would be a lot more so I asked them to ring it for me (if I was on phone a long time I might end up with a phone bill more expensive than the drill was!). They then gave me a freephone number to use instead – clearly they are trying to make money off people who have faulty goods which is a bit sneaky.

Going to ring that this morning.

OH’s dad returned a well-used-but-still-under-guarantee drill via their helpline thinger and got a brand new plus spare brushes in the post a few days later.

gears_suck – Member
Any store that uses wheat not even suitable for bio fuel to make their baked goods

Got any evidence for that?

The free phone number is on their website.

To be fair it does sound like you were being a bit of a nob.

Maybe you failed the attitude test

To be fair I only started mentioning proper shops etc when I had exhausted being polite and when they had repeatedly failed to give me it back so I could send it away as they suggested.

So who are you blaming then? The shop or yourself for buying cheap and expecting the same customer service as when you pay ‘normal’ prices.

Daily Mail actually as their review prompted the mil to buy one for us. Don’t tend to shop there myself as it always seems to be full of people who don’t wash their hair, just like Asda in Harrogate.

Are folk this desperate to find the tiniest little fault and turn it into a national outrage when they shop at John Lewis or Waitrose?

Apparently yes.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/waitrose-facing-backlash-after-new-free-tea-and-coffee-rules-forces-customers-to-buy-items-first-a3495106.html

JY. I’m disappointed in your appreciation of my exquisitely subtle wit 🙁

Help is at hand:
https://www.tesco.com/direct/dry-night-trainer-bed-wetting-alarm/351-6831.prd?source=others

one does not do subtle 😳

gears_suck – Member

Any store that uses wheat not even suitable for bio fuel to make their baked goods, is no place to buy a tool worth a damn. Apart from the flowers and vegie isle, nowt worth spending my precious moneys on in there.

I’m pretty sure Aldi only buy in their baked goods, so unless they are importing baked goods from non EU countries that all pretty much adhere to the NABIM code of wheat testing then I suggest you are talking ballcocks. I can’t imagine any miller contaminating their flour mill with feed wheat let alone Bio grade wheat as they would be in major shite with any other customers if found out.

Aldi generally use local suppliers for their bakery goods as it cuts the supply chain distance down.
For example in many NW stores the baked goods come from Village Bakery if you would like to accuse them of buying flour not fit for human consumption then good luck.

I assume an ALDI lawyer is incoming as we speak.

then I suggest you are talking ballcocks

Just repeating #FAKENEWS.

It’s more popular these days to just repeat stuff that suits what you already think, without checking if it’s true.

#BREXIT #TRUMP

😆

Update – I am being sent a brand new drill. Not unhappy with this but a bit bemused. Why? I know the cost price of this drill probably isn’t loads but surely supplying 2 to me, including posting this second one to my house, is going to cost way more than the £40 I originally paid for it. The package will be be very very heavy!

Anyone want to buy a brand new SDS drill?? I bought a Makita to replace it!!

Update – I am being sent a brand new drill. Not unhappy with this but a bit bemused. Why? I know the cost price of this drill probably isn’t loads but surely supplying 2 to me, including posting this second one to my house, is going to cost way more than the £40 I originally paid for it. The package will be be very very heavy!

Because special buys change weekly, so stores don’t have things in stock to replace a special buy from 7 months ago.

So they have a very good system set up to deal with issues and sort things out.

I bought a Makita to replace it!!

Why ?

You said in the OP you wanted “repair or replace”

It’s only been four days.

Why did he buy a Makita? Well, because he’s my brother, I happen to know he’s spent the last 6 months doing a new house up from scratch and it’s still a building site, so, I’m guessing he needs one sharpish to get a job done. 🙂

I’m just surprised he needed an ALdi drill after spending half his life working in Homebase! 🙂

Well he’s got two now.

He should be able to finish the house twice as fast.