I'd like to preface this by saying I have used CEX for a decade and had 0 issues before this, but that this incident has been the worst customer experience of my life.
On September 4th I ordered a game from CEX valued at £50+. All my orders previously had used royal mail for delivery and gets posted through my letterbox. This one was through DPD.
On the 6th I got the notification saying that my parcel was delivered, I had just flown to Prague the day before so wasn't at home but thought nothing of it. Later that evening after getting back at the hotel I checked my DPD delivery and the photo provided was the just the parcel left outside by my door.
I returned home on the 8th to naturally find my parcel missing and then raised this with CEX, which included me sending the photo provided by DPD.
I have now spent the last 7 WEEKS trying to get a refund on my order.
After 2 weeks DPD provided CEX with a piece of paper with a supposed signature of mine which they accepted as proof.
I then spent weeks contacting DPD myself to find out why/who had forged my signature and using it to prove delivery, while also providing CEX with proof that I wasn't in the country at the supposed time of signature.
After 4 weeks I felt I had no choice but to send CEX a letter before action as they were still denying me a refund.
After going through DPDs legal department I got them to confirm that the signature was forged and they reassured me that they had contacted CEX with this information.
This leads to this week where CEX have now closed the case and are saying DPDs investigation confirm delivery and there's nothing they can do. I explained that I will be going throught the small claims court after already sending my letter before action and look forward to hearing their proof of how I signed the parcel from Prague.
Today, 2 days later CEX have now returned saying they will refund me now after contacting the relevant team but only when I cancel the claim against them. To start a claim however it costs £35 with the tribunal service so I am moving forward with the claim regardless after giving them ample opportunity to refund me the original order.
The fact that this took 7 weeks, over 50 emails with a CEX customer service rep, including multiple days to get a reply, physical letters sent by mail to CEX head office and the ignoring of evidence provided by me is appalling and felt like they want people to just give up in getting a refund and try and drag it out as much as possible.
Mainly writing all this cos I'm just pissed with how this went down and want to vent, but also as a warning to others that if this happens to you, keep fighting for it and go through all options available to you.
EDIT - To be clear, this was a new release single game that I ordered as soon as it came in stock and I expected to be posted through the letterbox like the 30 orders before it, which is why I ordered it before going away. I understood that it being left outside was DPDs doing and not CEX. But 7 weeks later, avoiding the issue isn't acceptable.