PrettyLittleThing shoppers have fumed at the brand for allegedly making them wait ‘weeks’ and ‘months’ for refunds.
Fed up customers have verbally attacked the company on X and Trustpilot, saying they are ‘disgusted’ with the label after it failed to stick to deadlines despite asking customer services for help.
The online fashion house, which operates out of a warehouse in Manchester, has been in hot water as of late – including heavy criticism of their dramatic new rebrand which some have called ‘ugly’ and ‘not inclusive’.The fast fashion site is known for its high turnover of colourful, trendy and cheap clothing, becoming so popular in recent times, its yearly revenue is estimated at more than £500 million.
But according to many of its UK customers, the brand is unable to keep up with the massive influx of returns and process the corresponding refund payments within a timely manner.
PrettyLittleThing states ‘it can take up to 28 days’ from the date a customer returns a parcel until their refund is ‘processed’.
It further adds that those who paid for their purchases with a credit or debit card can expect their refund to be processed ‘within 14 days’ of PrettyLittleThing receiving the package.
The money for the refunded items ‘should appear on your bank statement around seven working days thereafter’ it claimed on its website. The issue with this wording is that customers claim to have received emails from the brand confirming receipt of their returned items that clearly stipulates the exact date they will receive the refund.
The brand has now come under fire for allegedly failing to refund the money by this date or even afterwards, leaving shoppers frustrated and asking the pertinent question ‘where is my money?’
‘Is anyone else still waiting on their PLT refund. I’ve waited nearly a month for mine’ one woman lamented on X.
‘I sent my clothes back to PLT three weeks ago tomorrow and I’m still waiting for them to refund me like?’ claimed another.
One shopper said they were going to ‘lose it’ because PrettyLittleThing was taking ‘4000 years to process a refund these days’.
Responding to this comment, someone else piped in: ‘I’m on three weeks today and just received an email saying it’s going to be another two weeks, five weeks for a refund. It’s a joke!!’And referencing PrettyLittleThing’s recent rebrand which includes a change from their famous baby pink packaging to a more mature maroon-coloured wrapper, someone else wrote: ‘PLT [are] using our refund money for rebrand.. where is my money?’
Meanwhile customer review website, Trustpilot, has been inundated with scathing remarks and zero stars aimed at the fashion brand.
Titling their review, ‘PRETTY LITTLE LIARS. PRETTY LITTLE FRAUDS’, one person accused PrettyLittleThing of deleting complaints on Instagram.
‘Today is the date you set for my refund (SECOND DATE) and still NOTHING’ they wrote. ‘DELETING COMMENTS ON YOUR INSTAGRAM ISN’T DOING YOU ANY GOOD.
‘I see you’re only responding to influencers…typical. I’m actually done with you lot. Give us all our refunds. It’s only a matter of time before this goes viral on TikTok. It’s FRAUD. I’m contacting my bank for a chargeback. PRETTY LITTLE FRAUDS.’
Similarly, content creator, Dyana, in Florida, shared a video on TikTok also querying the brand over whether it had removed various comments from its Instagram page.
Back on Trustpilot, someone said that they’d returned part of an order on March 17 and claimed PrettyLittleThing told them to expect a refund by March 26.
‘Date came and went and I contacted customer services who advised to now wait until 6 April’ they continued. ‘Today I’ve received another message to wait until 13 April. Will PLT actually refund me my money as I ordered and returned the items within two weeks. Not happy with the refund process at all’.One shopper said they had finally received a refund after three weeks, albeit after a ‘back and forth’.
‘I recently returned an item and it took forever to get my refund. I received an email on 7th March to say they had received my return and I would get my refund by 16th March’ they explained.
‘A few messages with them back and forth and [I] ended up getting my refund on 28th March. I’m guessing this delay was something to do with their rebrand and maybe things are just a bit slow right now but just something to be aware of if you’re returning anything’.
Someone else wrote: ‘As other reviewers have mentioned, I was given a refund date of 27 March. I contacted customer service and was told the refund will be in my account on 7 April. This is just not acceptable. I will not be purchasing any further items from PLT if they are unable to issue refunds in a timely manner. They cannot just fob customers off. It’s a disgrace’.
According to a subsection on the PrettyLittleThing website, customers are to wait nearly a month – or 28 days – before receiving a refund.
It reads: ‘It can take up to 28 days from the date of your return for your parcel to be delivered back to our warehouse and your refund processed.
‘On receiving your return the next step is for us to check the Product(s). Once our checks are complete, we’ll refund you for the accepted Products returned unless there are any issues with the Product(s).
‘If you paid using a credit or debit card, we will process your refund within 14 days of us receiving the Product from you, and the funds should appear on your bank statement around seven working days thereafter (exact timing will depend on your card issuer’.It adds that ‘different refund processing times may apply’ depending on whether you shopped using a gift voucher, store credit or a buy now, pay later service provider’.
‘Finally, we’ll make sure to keep you in the loop and send you an email as soon as your parcel arrives back at our warehouse, and again when we have processed your refund’ it concluded.
Customers have hit out at PrettyLittleThing once more – this time for changing the refund policy itself.
People have taken to TikTok to say they are not feeling the recent change, which stipulates that shoppers now have 14 days as opposed to the former 28 days to change their mind about an order and return it.
British shopper Hannah Elizabeth said she was ‘annoyed, furious and let down’ after her returns label was rendered invalid because she tried to use it after 14 days, causing her to lose ‘£100 worth of clothes’.
‘I was literally in my coat ready to go to the parcel shop – I packed up my PrettyLittleThing return with things that don’t fit me [and] put in the order number at the returns portal,’ they penned.
‘[I got a message back saying] “Sorry invalid” What?!… Turns out that PrettyLittleThing with this glamourous rebrand that they’re having have kindly shortened the returns period to 14 days without letting any of the customers know.’
The creator claimed that the time period had reached 16 days but customer services refused to accept the return and has since vowed to never shop with the retailer again.Also speaking on TikTok, she said she reached out to PrettyLittleThing, and this was their response: ‘They’re like “oh no it’s a new policy it’s on the website so we are not going to let you return it”.
‘So I’ve now got loads of clothes that don’t fit me and I don’t know what to do with them’ she lamented.
She then accused them of failing to ‘post’ about the ‘massive change’ while they continued to advertise their rebrand.
According to PrettyLittleThing, the change to their return policy was effective from February 6 2025. They also claim to offer longer return periods ‘at their sole discretion’.
‘If you are a customer in the UK or the European Union (EU), ordering on or after 6th February 2025, you get 14 calendar days under law to cancel your order if you change your mind’ the website reads.
‘However, we may, in our sole discretion, offer you a longer period for returns from time to time. This cancellation period starts from the day after you receive your order.
‘If your order is split into more than one delivery, then the cancellation period will start on the day after you have received all of the products in your order.’
PrettyLittleThing has been at the receiving end of shoppers’ uproar for weeks now, apparently stemming from a total rebrand which began earlier this month.
The creative team seem to have embarked on a huge U-turn, as the garments on display are now all in neutral colours and ‘conservative’ styles, consisting of turtleneck tops, pleated skirts and ruched dresses that fall to just below the knee.
The brand has also updated its logo from eye-catching pink unicorns to a more understated burgundy with PLT lettering in cursive handwriting.
But not everyone has been left convinced by the creative changes, with some fans even declaring that the brand is ‘entering its flop era’.
Others criticised the business for upping its prices despite using the same materials, while mimicking other brands such as Zara and the ventures of former creative director Molly Mae Hague in Maebe.
The price increases, combined with sizes only going up to 16, have led people to accuse the brand of not taking an ‘inclusive’ approach.
British content creator Leah Tézila said the ‘Zarafication of fashion brands has to stop’, and criticised PLT for stating that it’s for ‘every type of It-girl’ when they only go up to a size 16 in their main range.
She said: ‘The price point has increased making it less accessible to its main consumer. The plus size range is insulting in comparison to the normal range.
‘I’m also of the opinion that we don’t need to have a separate plus size range it’s 2025, you can literally just have the increase in sizes shown on [other products].
‘It’s getting harder to buy because it’s getting harder to live. More bad fabric, with some of us such as bigger people or less able bodied people being able to have the privilege to shop elsewhere means consuming more fabric and other environmentally unfriendly materials.’
Harriet Wright added that PrettyLittleThing have ‘completely abandoned their core customer’ by switching to ‘beige and boring’ clothes.
She said: ‘Who at PLT thought they could go dark on social media for a couple of days, bring out the most beige and boring clothes, hike their prices and give us clothes that nobody asked for and think it was going to be a hit?’
‘I think they’re going to have to go back to the drawing board because I don’t think this is going to be enough to take them out of their flop era.’
Others likened the revamp to Molly Mae Hague’s brand, Maebe, which launched in September last year uses signature neutral shades of brown, nude, black and white hues in all its clothing.
MailOnline has approached a PrettyLittleThing Shoppers fume at PrettyLittleThing over delayed refunds – just weeks after label is criticised for ‘boring’ rebrand
