To cut or not to cut: Wendy on the no tag, no return rule

Zaakir Adam of Durban North was certainly given the run-around because his sister did just that to a sheer black embroidered top she’d bought from Spanish brand ZARA’s Gateway store last November.

He took it back to the store on her behalf two weeks ago, pointing out that the stitching was unravelling on one sleeve and at the back.

He had the receipt, and was thus entitled to his choice of a refund, repair or replacement, in terms of the Consumer Protection Act’s six-month warranty.

But a ZARA employee spotted that the tags which had been sewn into the top had been cut off, and called the manager. He asked Zaakir for the receipt, entered the SKU (stockkeeping unit) into the computer, and said that in any event, the SKU number was reflecting as a jacket not a women’s top.

The tag issue took Zaakir by surprise, because firstly its removal had nothing to do with the unravelling stitching defect, and secondly because the tag itself actually instruct consumers to remove, it, by means of a dotted line and an image of a pair of scissors.

“Who would wear a sheer top with a tag that’s about 7cm long, and it’s not one, its about five or six attached together!” he said. “And plus, if it's aggravating you, you're going to remove it.”

Zaakir was asked to fill in a customer service form for ZARA’s head office in Jo’burg, and to send photos of the top and the receipt. 

When he’d heard nothing for three days, he emailed me.

What's the buyer's right?

So what is the legal position? Does cutting out a tag mean you have no recourse if the garment develops a defect in the six months after you bought it?

No. Especially not if the tag in question comes with an instruction to cut it out as in this case! But it applies to any tag.

I wrote to ZARA South Africa, saying that the removal of a tag doesn’t deprive a consumer of their right to recourse in the case of a defective item.

Consumer Goods & Services Ombud Neville Melville shared with me a legal view that if the defect in question is unrelated to any “alterations” a supplier may not escape liability.

Responding, ZARA SA said if an item is defective within six months and the customer has a receipt, they were entitled to their choice of a refund, replacement or repair, even if the “care label”  - as they refer to it - has been removed.

“If the care label has been removed and the store manager cannot identify the product on the store system – as there are many SKUs which are similar - we have a way to still assist the customer.”

And that is to note the case in the store’s customer service book so that the product department in Spain to provide a price, I was told. 

But Zaakir says he was told -  no tag, no return.

Anyway, after my intervention he went back to the store at the weekend for his refund. The same manager who he had dealt with two weeks before asked for his receipt again, punched in the SKU and that time the system identified the right top and he was told to stand in the sales queue in order to get his refund. 

But his ordeal wasn’t quite over. 

"When I got to the front the cashier told me the inner tag wasn’t attached so I couldn’t return it!  Then they called another manager because they couldn't get hold of the one who assisted me, and he also wanted to know where the inner tag was...”

That would be a fair question if the item was otherwise in perfect condition and Zaakir was bringing back the top as unwanted gift of a change-of-heart purchase. But not in the case of a defective garment.

Zaakir did get that R459 eventually.

Food for thought

Bottom line - if you want to cut the tags out, go ahead, as long as you’re sure you want the item of clothing. Because remember, you only have the right of return if something is defective. If you want to return something that’s in perfect condition, no store is going to do you a favour and take back with the tags cut out because they won’t be able to resell like that.

* Modification of an item can see you lose your CPA right of return in the case of a defect; for example cutting off a plug which came with an appliance and replacing it with another.

Click here to read a Consumer Goods & Services Ombud’s ruling on a case involving a DVD plug.