Eltham Argos sold man a bottle of water in Meta headset box

Despite immediately returning to the store, Argos refused to refund him – until he asked the News Shopper to take up his case.

After we questioned the legality of the retailer’s behaviour, Argos agreed to repay 27-year-old Connor Birch in full.

Prior to our intervention, he had been considering legal action against the retail chain.

He said his attempts to deal with Argos had been "a debacle".

“Someone else had obviously scammed Argos,” he said. “They must have bought it, taken it out and then returned it. But Argos categorically said they wouldn’t give me a refund.”

Connor said the Argos store in Passey Place, Eltham, refused to refund him - a problem reported by other customers in recent Google reviews (Image: Google Streetview)

Connor, who works in finance in the City of London, likes to unwind by playing car racing computer games, so forked out £480 last weekend for an immersive virtual reality headset, made by Meta.

He bought it online from Argos, using PayPal, and then collected it last Saturday, November 4, as soon as the store opened at 9am.

But when he got home and opened the box, he discovered it contained a towel, some bin liners and a bottle of water.

“I was in shock,” he said. “I was speechless for a few seconds. But I realised that the quicker I went back, the better my chances were of getting it changed.”

Connor only lives a few minutes from the store so returned very quickly – but his shock turned to anger, he said, when “they just completely, outright refused to give me any sort of help.

“The very first thing I asked them to do was check if this specific box had been sold previously. They just refused.”

The staff told him that if the product wasn’t in the box, he would have to take it up with Meta.

“The only way I can describe it is that they seemed to have already made their minds up that I was trying to pull a scam,” he said. “They flat-out refused to help me in any regard."

Connor said he was 'speechless' and 'in shock' when he opened his Meta VR headset box and found it stuffed with household items (Image: Connor Birch)

Connor said he went home and called Argos’s helpline, but was told only the store could help him. He returned to the store as instructed, but was again refused a refund or an exchange.

He went home and phoned the helpline again, who told him to go back to the store and put the helpline staff on the phone to the shop staff.

He did as he was told but even then, shop staff refused to refund him or swap the item.

“It’s very difficult not to get irate,” he said. “I’ve been on the phone to them five or six times. They eventually told me to contact their customer resolutions team, but then customer resolutions told me they were unable to provide a refund, redelivery or exchange either.”

He contacted Meta, as store staff had suggested.

“Meta were very clearly saying this is a retailer issue, but Argos were telling me to contact the manufacturer,” said Connor.

He looked online and found other recent reviews by customers saying they too had been refused refunds.

One wrote on Google Reviews: "They never accept returns, even though you have 30 days."

Another wrote that "they never accept returns at all" and a third wrote that they were "laughed at" when they tried to explain why an item was faulty.

All three reviews were left in the past week. Connor added his own, making four.

Connor, from Eltham, said his interactions with Argos were 'unbelievable' and he had no idea how a customer would be refunded without resorting to contacting the News Shopper (Image: Connor Birch)

“It’s unbelievable," he said. "I don’t understand how on earth you’re ever supposed to get your money back or get the product. They eventually said the only way I would get my money back was if I made a PayPal claim.”

The News Shopper contacted Argos’s press office on Tuesday, November 8, to raise questions about Connor’s treatment.

He was contacted the following morning by the store’s “executive office” and offered a full refund.

A spokesperson said: “We have been in touch with Mr Birch to apologise for his experience and given him a full refund.”

But the chain would not answer our questions about whether it would investigate why Connor's repeated requests for a refund in store and by telephone were refused, or why Google Reviews suggested this was part of a pattern.

Connor told the News Shopper: “Thank you for what you have done, as I have no doubts I would have been waiting for a far greater amount of time had you not asked them for comment.”