Fascinating to find other reviews online about the exact same staff member I dealt with (though I do not name this person) exhibiting the exact same attitude that I experienced! I’ve spent a lot of money at Wool Warehouse & also given them a lot of business, recommending them to many people in online craft groups. Never again! I won’t recommend a company who I personally consider to be pedantic, parsimonious, & totally lacking in customer care. I placed an order with Wool Warehouse on Dec 18th. Like their competitors, Wool Warehouse offer refunds on unused goods, excluding patterns. However, unlike many competitors, they don’t seem to feature images from their pattern books: so, when the pattern books arrived, I was disappointed in them. But no problem, I thought, because I understand that Wool Warehouse’s competitors accept returned books – just as Amazon do. I did everything right: I checked their returns policy – nothing about not being able to return books. I emailed them, pasting the order into my email listing the items I bought, including the books. I asked if I could return 2 of those items. They replied: “Thank you for your enquiry. We are happy to accept returns up to 30 days after receipt; please return the items to us, preferably with the original invoice and a short note explaining what you would like in exchange or if you would prefer a refund. We will process the return as soon as possible after receiving it back at the warehouse. Please send returns to: Wool Warehouse” No mention of their returns policy, nor did they ask me which items I wished to return. I followed their directions exactly & paid for the packaging & returns myself. However, instead of refunding me, and without even consulting me, Wool Warehouse pettily returned books to me that I’d made clear I didn’t want! What a ridiculous waste of their time & money! They then emailed me, managing to misname me for the first but not last time, saying that their returns policy claimed I could not return the books – it doesn’t. Their returns policy states customers cannot return patterns: perfectly understandable & a policy that their competitors follow too. However, a book containing sewing or knitting patterns is still a book: and, as I pointed out in my reply: “The quoted section of your returns policy states that only ‘patterns’ cannot be returned, not books. They are a very different thing - as you make clear in your own email when you refer to each separately. Indeed on your website, books have a separate section [ from patterns]. I understand why paper patterns cannot be returned as they are not worth the cost of returns. Books are an entirely different matter. Finally, I refer you to our previous email communication, which I paste below, in which you agreed to accept the items, without limitation. I followed your instructions to the letter & those books were returned by me, at my own cost, because your email told me I could do so. The fact that your website does not state that books are not returnable is your fault, not mine. I am incredibly disappointed in your attitude, and in you reneging on the agreement in your previous email. Please refund me the cost of those items, as agreed in your email.” Their reply? “The reason that we cannot accept patterns or pattern books as a returned items is due to copyright issues. We cannot take the risk that the patterns included in leaflets or books have not been photocopied before being returned back to us, which is why we have not been able to refund you on this ocassion.” (Their misspell, not mine). So it seems that Wool Warehouse don’t trust their customers. Do they seriously think that customers are going to go to the hassle of ordering books online, waste the time & cost of printing copies – then pay to package & return them, when the books were only £4.99 each?! That’s just ludicrous and insulting. They continue: “In your original email you did not state which items you were returning from your order (they didn’t ask!), and since you ordered a number of items including buttons and yarn as well as the pattern books, the normal instructions for returning items was sent to you, since our returns policy on our website states what you can and cannot return to us.” (The most convoluted & ungrammatical sentence I’ve seen in some time!) “I realise that we only state that patterns can not be returned, but since patterns are included in pattern books, these are also included in this policy. I will request that this policy is update to make sure that it is as clear as possible.” (That would be ‘updated’, I believe?!) So, they again ignore the distinction that their own website - & previous email – appear to make in separating patterns from books. Further, they admit that their returns policy is unclear & needs updating. I email back, thanking them for updating their website & assuming I’ll get my refund now. No. I get the same exact drivel excuse on repeat. Oh but they admit that “our website has been updated to make this more clear”…. So, they admit their returns policy is unclear, amend it, but still fail to do the simplest thing & refund me for books I’d returned at my own cost?? Oh & they manage to get my name wrong AGAIN. Try copy & paste, next time? Oh no, wait! There won’t be a next time! The biggest joke is the money they’ve wasted paying staff for the time they’ve spent repeatedly typing drivel & excuses to me - plus one staff member ludicrously spending time researching legislation which doesn’t factor into a situation where a seller admits their policy was unclear anyway. Add that to the cost of packing & postage to return books to me that I didn’t want, and they’ve probably spent way more than the £9.98 they owe me! In addition, they’ve lost a loyal customer who spends a lot of money on crafting materials (the majority of which are used for charity makes), plus the repeat business I have sent them through recommendations in many online groups – recommendations which I have now firmly withdrawn. So, thanks to the apparent pedantry & esurience of Wool Warehouse, & their inability to make their returns policy clear to a customer who followed all the rules, they’ve lost far more than £9.98. I do hope Wool Warehouse are proud of what their laughable ‘customer care’ has achieved. All this could have been avoided if they hadn’t been so petty. If they try to argue that their returns policy was clear, then why did they change it?!