Louise, 30, was taken by surprise when an email landed in her inbox from PrettyLittleThing (PLT) last Friday, banning her from using its services. The fast-fashion chain claimed it had found “unusual high returns activity” on her account.
“This will mean you cannot place any further orders. We’re sorry if this causes you any inconvenience,” it said.
Louise told i she is a “very regular” PLT customer who buys most of her outfits from the store, and was “upset” when she received the email.
She is one of many customers that have complained about the online fashion giant after it deactivated the accounts of shoppers it accused of having an “extremely high returns rate”.
Angry customers left comments on PLT’s social media accounts, calling it a “joke” and arguing that many of their returns were due to incorrect sizing.
Some also complained they had already paid a £9.99 fee giving them unlimited next day delivery for a year, something they are now arguing should be refunded.
Louise said she doesn’t make an unusually high amount of returns, but she does have to send items back sometimes because either the material “doesn’t look as advertised” or the sizing is “inconsistent”.
For example, she said she could be anything from a size 10 to a size 16 in PrettyLittleThing’s clothing, so would often order in a few sizes to get the right fit.
“I’m no influencer – I don’t buy hundreds of outfits to return. I don’t return good stuff that fits,” she said.
Louise also pointed out that one of the options for returns on the website includes when the product doesn’t look as advertised, saying: “I don’t see how they can penalise customers for that.”
Even if her account is reinstated, Louise said she would only return to PLT to buy accessories and things she wouldn’t have to try on as she couldn’t trust them again, adding it was “nasty of them” not only to introduce a return fee but to close accounts as well.
A spokesperson for PLT said: “Where we notice unusual patterns of activity on customer accounts, we do investigate. In some incidences, this results in us applying our terms and conditions and this type of action would only affect a tiny percentage of our customer base.”
It added it will refund the royalty fee and any outstanding gift cards and store credit.
The brand appears to be taking steps to reduce returns, having already implemented a return fee this month. Anyone who wants to return items, including royalty members, will have £1.99 deducted from their refund.
Retail payment specialists Dojo have suggested the move may have been introduced to tackle the rise in wardrobing, which is when customers make big orders of clothes to try on or wear clothes once before returning them afterward.
A survey by Checkpoint Systems in 2019 found one-fifth of shoppers admitted to buying items with the intention of wearing and returning them, with the figure rising to 43 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds.
But some customers affected by the PLT account closures say they often need to make returns because of sizing issues or items not arriving as advertised – both problems especially when buying clothing online.
A social media user called Charlotte wrote on X: “‘Inconsistent behaviours’ sort out your inconsistent sizing before punishing your customer base.”
Another wrote: “I’m sorry @OfficialPLT I can’t help your clothes sizes are a joke and are awful quality!”
Meanwhile another said: “Are PLT kidding??? You can’t deactivate an account because I return items that DO NOT FIT !!! @OfficialPLT this is outrageous.”
Clamping down on ‘repeat refunders’
PLT is not the only clothing giant stepping up efforts to reduce returns. In May, online retailer Oh Polly introduced a new returns policy that it said would clamp down on “repeat refunders”.
Under the new policy, customers will be charged based on their return rate. If they want to return up to 50 per cent of their order, they will be charged £2.99 to send it back. Those wanting to return more than 90 per cent will be charged £8.99.
Oh Polly previously had a flat fee of £2.99 for all returns.
It said: “Customers with high return rates increase the cost of the business, and we can either alter prices collectively for all, or only for those who fall into the high returner category.”
Sent to the dumpster
A survey by Retail Week this year found 90 per cent of shoppers do not think it is reasonable to pay a fee to return an item bought online.
But research also suggests many of the clothing items returned to online retailers end up in landfills.
Environmental journalist Adria Vasil, who has reported on the issue, told CBC’s The Current: “It actually costs a lot of companies more money to put somebody on the product, to visually eyeball it and say, is this up to standard, is it up to code? Is this going to get us sued? Did somebody tamper with this box in some way? And is this returnable?
“If it’s clothing, it has to be re-pressed and put back in a nice packaging. And for a lot of companies, it’s just not worth it. So they will literally just incinerate it, or send it to the dumpster.”