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00:11Hello and welcome to the start of your evening here on The One Show live on BBC One and iPlayer
00:16with JB Gill and Angelica Bell. Now the night when Artemis 2 rocket prepares to take off we
00:22are launching into a new month in the company of some fantastic guests. Yes we'll be joined by
00:27Saturday kitchen host Matt Tebbett and comedian Joel Domit. Plus in tonight's watchdog Matt gives
00:32us an insight into one of the UK's biggest fashion retailers. Yes I'm talking about ASOS the online
00:38brand that built its reputation on free returns but after years of shouting about it it's made a
00:43major change and some loyal customers feel let down. I went to find out what happens when the
00:49company receives your returns and I sat down with the chief customer officer to get some answers.
00:54Yeah we'll have more on that very soon. Also coming up Saturday kitchen's Matt Tebbett is serving up a
00:59brand new podcast called Check Out Confessions where he peeks into the shopping bags of famous
01:04friends unpacking the stories behind their supermarket staples from childhood favourites
01:09to guilty pleasures. I can't wait to find out more. Also on the menu tonight is masked singer host Joel
01:14Domit who's preparing for one of the biggest stand-up shows of his career at the London Palladium no
01:19less. He'll be revealing how Jimmy Carr once inspired him to do 300 gigs in a year. Can you believe
01:24it?
01:24No so many and later in the show explorer LL Shamehi is in Colchester to oversee a very special
01:31delivery as one of the most important dinosaur fossils ever discovered goes on display for the
01:36very first time. So lots coming up tonight but first Matt is talking all things ASOS. Yes online
01:42clothes shopping it's supposed to be easy with just a few clicks you can buy a new outfit try it
01:48on at
01:48home. If it doesn't fit send it back at least that's the deal customers of fashion giant ASOS
01:54thought they were signing up for but a change in the company's returns policy has sparked frustration
02:00confusion and has left some feeling penalized. Before we put their concerns directly to ASOS
02:07here's what's changed and why so many customers feel let down. ASOS a household name and one of the UK's
02:16most popular brands. When it first launched in the year 2000 it transformed the fashion industry by
02:22turning people's bedrooms into a fitting room thanks to its offer of free delivery and free returns.
02:29But changes made in 2024 mean that some customers no longer get those free returns and some of those
02:37customers think that's just not fair. ASOS offers a premier service for $9.95 a year customers get free
02:46next day delivery on top of free returns. But since the company updated its fair use policy if you have
02:54a
02:54high return rate you may end up having to pay. Let me explain. If you order £100 worth of clothes
03:01and send £50 worth back your returns rate is 50%. But premier members whose return rate is more than
03:1070% across three or more orders a year won't be allowed to renew their membership and may be charged
03:17£3.95 for returns. Since January ASOS customers have been able to see their returns rate
03:25online. Now ASOS says it's done this to make things more transparent but some customers say
03:31it makes them feel like they've done something wrong. Jessie from Colchester has been shopping with
03:38ASOS for 10 years. Returns are always free was the message and so it was my go-to place. Do
03:45you feel
03:46like there are reasons why maybe you have to return more than other people? My size doesn't fit neatly
03:51into the sizing guide. I'm often between a size 10 a 12 or 14 I'm gonna have to order it
03:57all to try it
03:58out and see how it actually fits in person. But ASOS emailed her to tell her she had a high
04:04return rate
04:05and may be charged for returns. I felt like I was playing by the rules and then the policy changed
04:11which feels a bit like a slap in the face. So she's now cancelled her premier membership. What should
04:17ASOS do to fix this? A flat rate would be preferable to be honest because then everyone
04:23knows up front what the rules are. Of course ASOS hasn't broken any laws or rules here. It can charge
04:29people who return too much whatever it wants as long as it's clear and transparent. But is it targeting
04:36the right people and is it at risk of losing some of its most loyal customers?
04:43Non-premier members will also be charged £3.95 if their return rate is higher than 70%.
04:50Like Emma from Leicester who's also been shopping with ASOS for 10 years. She believes there's one
04:56main reason why the company should offer free returns. It's not a brick and water store like I can't go
05:03in
05:03and try things in store and put it back on the rail. ASOS is the only brand of the UK's
05:09top 10 clothing
05:11and footwear retailers that doesn't have a physical store. And of the nine that do, eight of them offer
05:16a form of free return, be that in the post or in store. How difficult is it to get the
05:24right size for
05:25something when you're shopping online? I'm petite but also I guess curvy so I always have to try multiple
05:32sizes unfortunately. What would you like ASOS to do? I just want to know why they decided to bring
05:40this in. They call it a fair use policy but I feel like I'm just being treated unfairly.
05:48So that's how some ASOS customers feel and we're aware of many more who feel the same. And because
05:54it's one of the first major UK retailers to bring in this kind of returns policy, we wanted to understand
06:00why. Does it realise how it's leaving some customers feeling? ASOS agreed to meet with me and the team.
06:09ASOS has 17 million customers so inevitably there are a lot of returns. Before I speak to its chief
06:17customer officer, I've come to the ASOS Returns Centre in Doncaster to find out a little bit more
06:23about the process and also find out why they are now charging customers for items that either don't fit
06:30or they don't want. ASOS has allowed us to film in two restricted areas so that we can get an
06:39insight
06:39into what happens to the returned clothes. Sarah is head of returns logistics. How much a part of what
06:47ASOS does is what we're seeing here. Each garment is rigorously checked for a variety of different
06:53quality elements including fasteners, zips, making sure that the hems are intact and there aren't any
06:59loose threads. We don't have changing rooms and so we expect there to be a level of returns. What we're
07:06trying to avoid is unnecessary returns. Customers have been telling us they often struggle with the
07:11sizing and fitting of items. At its London site Sarah heads up a team of people working on a new
07:18online tool that they say is designed to help. So we have just recently launched our new virtual
07:24try-on service. You can either upload an image of yourself and it will create a digital version of you
07:29or we have a range of virtual models in sizes and shapes and you can then select the item to
07:37put on
07:37there to get a feel for potentially how it might look on you. The people that we've spoken to your
07:42customers said they still struggle to get the fit without buying a number of sizes. We do have an
07:47exchange policy where you can exchange a product that you've purchased for the same product in a
07:54different size and that will not impact your returns rate at all. Not helpful though if you're
07:59looking for something to wear that weekend. So we've heard about the high volume of returns and how
08:04they're trying new things to get the sizing right it's time to sit down with the chief customer
08:09officer Ben Blake to ask why the policy was brought in in the first place. A few years ago
08:15we noticed several of our competitors starting to charge a flat fee for returns. So we started to
08:22look at the data about our customers returns. The vast majority of people were using free returns
08:27exactly as you would expect but a small group were using it a lot more and we decided that we
08:34needed to look at how we could make that more sustainable for us as a business. Can you give
08:39me a bit more detail about who you think was maybe crossing a line in terms of the returns that
08:45you were
08:45seeing? We had people contact us after we changed the policy. One saying I'm a stylist and I have clients
08:51every weekend so I order a whole wardrobe of clothes from ASOS and when I return them on Monday
08:57and this person had a returns rate of more than 95%. The policy wasn't implemented purely to deal
09:04with extreme cases. There are also some customers who just need some guidance. A lot of those retailers
09:12who do offer a flat fee also offer shops where you can try on and see yourself. You don't have
09:17that. Which
09:18is exactly why we wanted to keep free returns for as many people as possible and why the flat fee
09:26just
09:27wasn't acceptable to us. Give me an idea of the cost of returns to you as a business. Free returns
09:33means
09:33free returns. We pay for the shipping back, we inspect everything, we do repairs if needed but we are happy
09:40to do that to make sure that customers can get something which is a key part of our proposition which
09:46is free returns. What we've seen from a couple of customers is that they feel they're being
09:51discriminated against because their body shape doesn't match an ideal. ASOS has always prided itself
09:59on being very inclusive. We're very happy for people to buy more than one size. If you want to buy
10:04two
10:05sizes, if you sit in between, that's absolutely fine. What we don't want is people buying two different
10:10sizes in five different colours and sending back nine out of the ten that they've bought. Are you
10:15happy now that the policy you've got is weeding out those people who were taking the mick quite
10:21frankly without judging people who are just trying to find the right size? When we first launched the
10:26policy we weren't transparent enough about how it worked but now we believe that we have done a lot
10:34to really make it clear to customers where they stand with us. We actually think it's it's world
10:41leading it's a first no one else has tried this. We'll continue to improve that all the time
10:47but we're very happy with how the policy is set up at the moment.
10:53Do you know what Matt, I think that report is going to get a lot of people talking because I
10:56don't know
10:56about you, when I try and close it's so personal and if I can't get the right size it does
11:01not my
11:02confidence in it. Yeah I think you're right and I think we're going to see a lot more of this
11:06sort of
11:07thing as well. So many of us are shopping online we know some retailers have already started charging
11:12when you return things by post because they're trying to cut costs and also reduce waste that's
11:17what's behind it. Yeah well Matt surely when you shop for things online you've got the right to
11:22change your mind and send them back. Yeah in most cases you're absolutely right JB the consumer
11:26contracts regulations of 2013 mean you do have the right to change your mind no questions asked however
11:33the retailer can charge you a fee to return the goods to cover costs. That's what ASOS is doing
11:40but this is the important thing it doesn't affect your statutory rights the law wins every time. Now
11:45Watchdog is taking a short spring break we're going to be back in three weeks but our team
11:49they don't rest they're keeping an eye on the inbox so keep those stories coming in. If you feel let
11:54down by a company we want to hear about it get in touch watchdog at bbc.co.uk or tag
12:01us on the socials
12:02at bbc watchdog. Yes thank you so much Matt we will see you in a couple of weeks. Still to
12:09come
12:10at Saturday Kitchen's Matt Tebbett will reveal why he's been snooping around in the shopping baskets
12:14of some famous faces plus Joel Domiton preparing to perform at the iconic London Palladium. But before
12:20Matt and Joel join us on the sofa let's take a look at Joel doing what he does best as
12:24he reveals how
12:25people can't get enough of the Masked Singer. Businesses start asking me to do like a corporate
12:32version of the Masked Singer for their business. Sometimes it's over Zoom.
12:44I just need you to imagine for a second me on a Zoom call there's these people from their company
12:50just
12:50sometimes in their houses sometimes in the office and then there's just one guy in their house dressed
12:54head to toe in a costume just dancing and singing away. Everyone's trying to guess who it is on the
13:00chat function even though it says their name in the bottom left hand corner.
13:08Time now to say you later Joel Domiton and Matt Tebbett.
13:13Welcome. Yes welcome. Clap yourself. Clap yourself. Now Joel we'll come to you first you've hosted the
13:19Masked Singer of Cause for the last seven series. Yes. You're so good at holding everything in and
13:24keeping it under wraps but what happened on the Christmas special? Oh I'm sorry yeah I
13:28I essentially ruined the format because someone inside the mistletoe costume laughed and I went oh yeah
13:34that's Dermot O'Leary. Completely ruined the format. It's as if like imagine if Claudia was on the
13:39traitors and went by the way just to let everyone know that person's traitor, that person's traitor.
13:43Alan did it. Because you're usually so good and you don't even know who's usually in the
13:48I have no idea. Basically what I do is every time I think everyone's JB Gill. That's what I do.
13:53I came up this year. You came up a lot this year obviously because Marvin was on it and I'm
13:59not
13:59here to talk about the fact that people need to buy tickets to my Palladium show. We're here to get
14:02you on the Masked Singer. Oh wow. You need to do the show man. You'd be so good. You know
14:07what I love
14:07Joel hasn't even said that to me. He's like you can't sing girl you just stay where you are.
14:12You should do it as well. Matt do it. Everyone get on. Let's all do it.
14:17I was going to look at you JB and say you don't need to be able to sing.
14:20You don't need to be able to sing. You don't need to be able to sing that.
14:23Wow. Everyone could be on the show. It's so fun. It really is.
14:27Absolutely brilliant. Now you were on the show last year when you came and spoke about
14:30Happy Idiot Your Tour which has been a huge success across the UK but you're about to see your final
14:34night. Like you said you're here to talk about the London Palladium, the iconic venue. How are you
14:39feeling? I'm feeling good about it I think. I've never played the Palladium for a tour show so it
14:44feels obviously it comes with quite a lot of esteem and it's an amazing venue for comedy and I'm
14:50really really excited. I think it's going to be great and obviously it's the end of the tour so it's
14:55the
14:55very final show and it really the tour over the whole year has really sort of morphed into a
15:02very different show and so it's sort of you know I'm not blowing my own trumpet but I feel like
15:06it's
15:06the best it's been and I'm really excited to do sort of a big final London date you know.
15:11Yeah. Now it will be amazing. It's going to be very exciting but you've also got another
15:14exciting family event that you're nervous about. Yeah so my wife is about to give birth to our second
15:21child. The due date is is is slightly close to the Palladium but far enough away that I promise
15:29it's going to happen. It's going to be fine so I'm whether it's a boy or a girl we don't
15:33know but
15:33I'm going to call it Bruce Forsythe.
15:35It's a big year.
15:38Yeah it's Bruce Forsythe, Cooper Domit, that's what I'm going with.
15:42Some shoes to fill now. When you started out in stand up you were inspired by another comedian who
15:48I think you you were performing he said to perform 300 gigs.
15:52Yeah so I was speaking to so so Jimmy Carl wrote an amazing book called The Naked Jape and it's
15:58it's a
15:58brilliant book about stand-up comedy about where comedy comes from it's really really interesting if
16:02you're not read it and um and he said in it that he he did 300 gigs in his first
16:07year it's what I
16:07loved about stand-up is the more you gig the more you write the better you get at it and
16:12you move up
16:12the ladder slowly but surely so I was like hell-bent on you know like trying my best to do
16:18300 gigs in
16:18my first year. Did you do it? It's my I did yeah it's crazy you know 20 years later I'm
16:24still doing it
16:24Jimmy Carr's filling the O2 and I'm struggling to fill the Palladium.
16:31Talking about people who inspire careers let's move to you Matt because Marco Pio White he gave
16:36you your big break when you started out as a chef yeah what was that experience? Yeah first job uh
16:41it
16:41was it was a lot uh let's be honest I mean but he was he was a bit of a
16:45kind of a legend or still
16:46is a legend in the whole food industry and I think these these kind of mentors are you need them
16:50when
16:51you're starting out whether it's in comedy or food or whatever it is you need those people to look
16:55up to and aspire to and yeah Marco was certainly one of those so yeah I went to work for
17:00him and
17:00learned a lot um and it was it was it was a fun time it was it was a full
17:05-on time should we say
17:07no that was Alistair so that was another chef a great Alistair Little Italian chef and so I did um
17:13yeah uh well I worked for him twice because I got sacked that's right I started in just three
17:26star which is like the pinnacle of michelin cookie and I was straight out of catering uh school and I
17:32really didn't know what I was going into and wow what what a shock that was so he sacked me
17:37after a
17:38month and then I went home and the next day I was going oh my word I need a job
17:41I need to find some
17:42work and the phone went and it was Marco going why are you at home I went well because you
17:47sacked
17:47me last night well don't worry about that wow and then and then I went back and I worked at
17:51one of
17:52his other restaurants the Criterion which was was really busy uh but it was it was fun it was it
17:57was
17:57busy it was often tough well he wants to see something in you that was special but right yeah
18:03that's what I like to think that's very sweet
18:06you know Joel you've got lots of products on the go we had uh Judy Love and GK Barry on
18:12the show
18:12recently talking about your new prank show yes sabotage this week you're causing chaos in the
18:17kitchen which I'm sure can identify with I hear it was one of your favorites to film oh it was
18:21so
18:22fantastic so the the conceit of the show if you haven't seen it's on Saturdays it's very far
18:27yeah it's just so chaotic and so mischievous and uh there's a different show every single week
18:33that is a fake reality show and we are behind the scenes sort of sabotaging these real contestants and
18:39every time we sabotage them we win money for them and uh we have the cooking one so they have
18:44this big
18:44sort of bake-off tent and we're doing silly things like like dressing up as cleaners and turning off all
18:50the oven so we ruin the bake yes so brilliant as like the real as we have these real hosts
18:57like
18:57we had Matt and Emma Willis last week uh Monica this week so the contestants really think it's real
19:03it is action-packed and there are some moments aren't there well you can see Joel at the London
19:08Palladium on Friday the 24th of April and celebrity sabotage continues on Saturday evening at eight
19:13o'clock on ITV1 and ITVX in just a moment Matt will be telling us about his new podcast which
19:18celebrates
19:18the connection between food and nostalgia but first we're heading to Colchester ahead of an exciting new
19:24exhibition opening its doors on Friday which is set to display one of the most important dinosaur
19:28finds in recent years we went to help welcome this prehistoric guest to its new home
19:36right now we are living in a golden age of dinosaur discovery
19:42i'm el al shamahi and i am obsessed with fossils i'm an evolutionary biologist and explorer and i've
19:50traveled the world searching for fossils but today at the holly trees museum in Colchester i'm getting a
19:57preview of a truly extraordinary find this massive crate just happens to have a dinosaur in it but not
20:04just any dinosaur it is one of the most complete dinosaurs ever discovered and possibly a brand new
20:11species it was found in the states in an area in wyoming called the morrison formation it's provided
20:19some of the most significant dinosaur finds nicola tomo a world expert in restoring dinosaur fossils has
20:27spent the last 18 months extracting its bones from rocks and getting them ready for display there is 80 percent
20:36of original bones and 20 percent of restoration 80 is huge yeah it's huge for a rare dinosaur like this
20:45a display frame has been specially constructed for the 150 million year old skeleton so these are ribs
20:53yeah cervical ribs and they're numbered as well it's easier to have numbers so it's a bit like paint by
20:59numbers then yeah the skeleton is in colchester for collaborative research with curator
21:04dr simon jackson for him bringing a dinosaur here is fulfilling a lifelong ambition it's a dream come true
21:13to be able to work on something like this and share it with it with the colchester community absolutely
21:16incredible at the moment the skeleton is called judasaurus it's common to nicknamed dinosaurs when
21:23they're thought to be new species and before they get an official name what kind of dinosaur are we
21:29looking at so we believe this is a carnivorous dinosaur its closest relative would be the ferocious
21:35allosaurus a distant cousin of the t-rex why do we think it may be a new species of dinosaur
21:43some of the
21:44features that might be different you can see in the back of the skull parts of the skull do look
21:50distinct
21:50from other species there's a lot to go through with all the different bones in the skeleton to
21:55actually work out if it's really genuinely different enough to be a new species or even a new genus
22:00to go with the exhibition paleo artist dr mark whitton has created an artwork to show what judasaurus
22:07might have looked like in life our goal as an artist is to stick as closely to the fossils as
22:13possible and
22:14to extrapolate other anatomical details based on those of living animals nowadays we're thinking
22:20that maybe lizards are a better reference for what a predatory dinosaur may have looked like so things
22:25like the the crests that i'm adding here are based on close relatives with mark's artwork installed the
22:32exhibit is taking shape it is looking quite ferocious it's probably capable of quite quick slashing bites
22:38it would have been quite terrifying and dinosaur sightings like these could well have been a
22:44reality here in essex if we look at other dinosaurs that would have lived in britain we see that some
22:49of these dinosaurs are very similar to those that lived in north america so essentially you think
22:53that there might have been dinosaurs like this roaming around here in essex it's highly possible it's
22:58incredible that new discoveries are still being made in paleontology now after two days of careful
23:05construction all that's left to attach is the skull as you can see it's quite painstaking
23:23with the last piece in place judasaurus is complete how does it feel each dinosaur finished
23:32we are a little bit proud and now we are happy to to see it in a museum 150 million
23:41years in the
23:42making this dinosaur is finally ready for its first visitors wow i don't know about you that's
23:50absolutely fascinating yeah thank you so much ella for that and you can see julia saw us at holly
23:54trees museum in colchester from good friday now it's time to talk about matt's brand new bbc sounds
24:00podcast it's called checkout confessions where each week he's joined by a celebrity guest and
24:05their shopping basket which is filled with some of their favorite foods oh sounds good tell us about
24:11it it's really fun it came about so you know when you're walking around the supermarket and you kind
24:16of you get a bit judgy when you see somebody you know or somebody you don't know and you look
24:20in the
24:21basket there's a ready meal for one and there's two bottles of whiskey
24:25there's a red flag just one time matt okay i mean it's like what is this saying to me so
24:31it's
24:31it's basically that it's kind of it's a it's a way of sort of diving into to nostalgia and guilty
24:36pleasures and a little bit of history um and then when you start sort of talking to people about
24:42their food and their likes and their dislikes all sorts of things sort of come out um and it's it's
24:47just a it's a really nice gentle it's very funny i have to say i was listening to it all
24:51this right
24:54if you don't like me laughing a lot then don't listen to it
24:57it's brilliant i mean i i listen to the one with faye ripley you've got her on there right
25:01tom allen and lots of food in their baskets kind of evoke uh some of their childhood memories do you
25:07have any foods that evoked your childhood childhood memories um i love and it is my guilty pleasure um
25:14um crab sticks or fish sticks oh yes you know seafood sticks okay i had those growing up i think
25:22they were delicious yeah so um a lot of people moaning me about that and i like to to munch
25:27on
25:27them as i was going around the supermarket i'm not sure about that do you pay for it first
25:30well i pay for it afterwards but i got the packet
25:34put this on national tv i do i take the packet to the checkout and they go would you like
25:41me to get
25:41rid of this um so i do that and that upsets people but i think that's quite fun um nostalgic
25:52food uh it's like i mean i talked to jade adams uh brilliant bristol comedian and we talked about
25:58uh angel delight butterscotch angel delight nice uh put a bit of salt on it and it was like salty
26:05caramel before that was a thing basically um what else was i thinking about coca pops oh yeah yes
26:11i mean if you're feeling a bit shabby on a on a sunday morning what about your pops
26:16in the little boxes anything for you i love it like a like a nostalgic i went to a restaurant
26:21last night i was saying i went to this uh gordon ramsay's restaurant up at the top of 22
26:25bishops yeah let's celebrate gordon ramsay he's a great guy sorry and uh we we had me and my wife
26:34we had this lovely little bit it's like very positive we had wagyu steak right we had a date
26:38night before we have the baby tv right and um tv money and she had this little wagyu state it
26:42melts
26:43on your tongue and my wife went oh my god it tastes like a skit do you know what i
26:47mean like skit oh
26:48oh it's like oh it's like skits in your mouth when it's like you know you're the only woman in
26:52the
26:52world just comparing wagyu steak to skits they're iconic i want to talk about saturday kitchen because
26:58it's going to be an easter special yeah this week um pre-recorded and you've got a real life easter
27:03bunny yeah as a guest this guy just coincidence that we're all doing this today we're hanging out
27:08together all the time now i didn't get to go to dinner though yes gordon ramsay's reunion wife um
27:14but yes uh joel is on there we're talking about the tour again we're talking about the the tv show
27:19uh paul a young is coming on talking about all things chocolate because it's easter obviously i'm
27:24doing a little easter recipe uh of uh a lamb dish um and what else we've got we've got a
27:32a brilliant
27:32pasta woman called roberta delia um yeah right yeah uh she makes this very cool pasta which looked like
27:39an egg uh and she's she's just bonkers in the best possible way and the brilliant jeremy lee
27:44sounds delicious shame we couldn't taste it every week guests go on and they share their food heaven
27:52and food hell yes what are yours my food hell was artichokes it was artichokes and my food heaven is
28:00mexican food okay yeah it's it's such i love being outside the kitchen and like because obviously the
28:07food is amazing i just love watching people who are really good at what they do yeah and like
28:11watching matt in the kitchen just like the way he like holds a kitchen towel i'm like this guy knows
28:16what he's doing you know puts over his shoulder just like the way you walk around the kitchen i'm like
28:22yes that's what who my wife wants me to be yeah matt you are so good but what what's your
28:27food heaven
28:28and food hell i love all asian food oh yeah i leave sticky sweet sauces but spice and salty and
28:35all
28:35that business i love that uh my food hell is uh food made by people i don't like oh generally
28:42if i don't
28:43like the chef i don't want to eat your food no names made named i'm not naming names but uh
28:49i need to like
28:50you to like your food well listen we'll leave it as that you can listen to check out confessions
28:54on bbc sounds with new episodes every friday and you can see matt and joel on saturday kitchen
28:59this saturday at 10 o'clock on bbc one and i player well that is it for tonight it's been
29:04brilliant thank you so much to our guests and of course matt with watchdog clara and i are back
29:08tomorrow with anton deck plus comedian bill bailey and kaiser chiefs frontman ricky wilson we'll see you then bye
29:16bye
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