Terrible customer service, and active avoidance of giving refunds on valid returns.
I made my first (and only) order on Dec 25, which arrived about two weeks later. Unfortunately, the "big bust" sports bra doesn't actually cater to large breasts (forward-projecting), but large overall busts (fat all around the chest), so did not work. I went through the refund process, and paid for the items to be returned by Australia Post.
And then I waited.
Two weeks later, after not hearing anything back from DTL, I messaged to enquire about my refund. I received an AI reply apologising for the 'frustration' and claiming that there had been a 'problem' with the refund. I paid through PayPal - all they need to do is click a button. It's not complicated.
I gave them another week - still no refund. I emailed them again, and received a copy of the same AI response.
So I escalated it to a PayPal claim. Suddenly DTL emails me, saying they want to refund me but can't while there's a PayPal claim open. 🙄 Refusing the refund in the first place, and now refusing to participate in the PayPal claim process - two huge red flags. After more back-and-forth today, they have said that they will contact PayPal and approve the refund - but I'm sure they'll wait until the very last second, if ever, to punish me for forcing the refund...
I'm not sure if I'll ever get my refund, and I'm sure the owner will reply here with another sob story about processes outside of their control, but realistically, this is not the way to run a business. A genuine reply from the start and a real effort to refund returned items is all it takes.
Reply from dukethelabel.com
Hi Jessica,
I'm Rhi, the founder of Duke The Label. I want to address this personally because I don't think the full picture has been shared here.
You submitted your return on January 6 at 9:35pm. It was approved the same night at 10:35pm. Instructions went out immediately.
We received your items back on January 16. From there, we attempted to process your refund, and hit a genuine system error. Not once, but multiple times. This wasn't us avoiding it. It's documented in our system.
The PayPal situation is something I also want to be clear about. Access to our PayPal is restricted to me only, it's direct access to business finances and that's not something I hand over to my team. So when a PayPal dispute is open, it has to come through me. That's a security decision, not an excuse.
And when a PayPal case is open, PayPal themselves block merchants from issuing refunds directly. That's their policy, not ours.
Your full refund of $178.62 was processed on February 18.
Now I want to address something else directly.
My customer service team are real people. Three of them. They show up every day to genuinely help our customers and they do not deserve to be spoken to the way you spoke to them.
Calling them clowns. Telling them to stop with the "f***ing AI responses" when they are real humans doing their best to help you. That's not okay. I don't care how frustrated you are, that kind of language directed at my team crosses a line and I won't stay quiet about it.
Frustration I get. Delays are stressful and I understand that. But there is a way to communicate that without being abusive. My team deserves to come to work and be treated with basic respect.
I'm sorry it took as long as it did to get your refund sorted. That part is on us and I own it.
But the way my team was spoken to? That part is not okay and I won't pretend it is.
Rhi
Founder, Duke The Label