Unhappy Returns- Holiday Shopping 2008

Getting your money’s worth takes a little effort.

Holiday Shopping 2008

Whether you believe our country is in an economic crisis or not, saving money matters. Not getting ripped off means you need to be alert when making your purchases, even little ones. Small mistakes add up and they happen all the time. I told my Mom about my 2008 Christmas shopping & returning horror tales and she told me she doubted she could stand up to a store manager. That is exactly what some stores are hoping for.

Kohl’s Return Rip-off Policy stinks. I tried to return a gift for my kid that still had the tags and had never been worn, not even tried on. It was much too large.  My son wanted to exchange it for one that fit. So, off we went to the circus. Because I didn’t have the receipt, we were told the item could only be exchanged for another item worth the exact same amount. Not a penny more or a penny less (her words, exactly) and she pointed out that it could be exchanged for only one item, not two or more items totaling the same amount. Okaaay.

We had a $34.00 item, lets go shopping.

I just knew there was something funny about all this. There was. We spent a full hour looking for said merchandise and found n-o-t-h-i-n-g.
Everything in the store appeared to be on sale and that is great, right?

Wrong. We found really great jeans on sale for $21.99- $39.99. We found shirts in every price range imaginable from about $18.99 on up. Watches, $25.99 and up. Getting desperate, we searched for hats, gloves, boxer shorts, even Christmas decorations. Being just a penny off was thee single most frustrating thing.

I got in line (again) at the service desk, this time asking for a manager. After waiting my turn yet again, I finally spoke with her. That short conversation with her made me feel better but in the end all she offered was an in-store gift card worth $21.00. What a rip-off.  At least he got the jeans he wanted and me, I was an hour late for work.

I will add in their defense, having had the receipt would’ve averted this pain-in-the-butt shopping nightmare.

Deal’s “You Can’t Be Serious!!!” Return Policy. In case you aren’t familiar with this chain store, it is an old school equivalent of a “five and dime.” Yes, things are pathetically cheap here. Most items are about a buck. It’s a decent place to stock up on wrapping paper, gift bags, etc and that why I was there that day. While waiting in line, my kid saw a stack of pound cakes by the register. They was really pushing these cakes. He asked for one. I asked how much and was told a quarter. A quarter? Really? Okay, get five. lol

Later, I looked at my receipt.  Five pound cakes @ $1 each. No way!

Way.

Five bucks in my pocket is worth more to me than five bucks in Deals bank account so off I went. That is when I decided to write this article.

The pound cakes were still there so I grabbed one and got in line. When it was my turn I asked, “How much for the cake?” Again, he said a quarter. He scanned it & came up for a $1 and that’s when I whipped out my receipt. I showed it to him and said, “Yeah, it got me last week too.”  I kinda chuckled and said I needed to be refunded the difference. He told me he can’t, it is against store policy. “What??? Your joking, right?”

I asked for his manager and apologized to those stuck in line behind me while he went to get her but they seemed as interested as I was.

She told me she didn’t like company policy either but all she could do was let me get the equivalent in store merchandise. She said just go grab the items I’d like to exchange it for and bring them to her. But I had to say it. I just had to. Somebody has to say it!

“You mean to tell me that I came in here to purchase something that is clearly marked .25 cents and you over charge me by 75% and then tell me I cannot have my money back? That is MY money, not yours! You didn’t sell me anything for that money, this is clearly thievery!” I wasn’t yelling and wasn’t really angry but I was firm about it. I meant what I said. She never caved and in the end all I left with was the address for company head quarters and a promise to write this article. I haven’t heard from them yet but I won’t give up.

Walmart really isn’t that bad most of the time. At least they make good on their mistakes but the fact they make so many concerns me. And because the mistakes always seem to run in their favor makes me wonder if it really is a mistake or not. To be more specific, here is an incident that happened a couple days after Christmas. I was in there purchasing items marked down (by 50%) and they scanned at full price. In my experience with Walmart, this is most likely when they will make a mistake. If you catch it at the register as items are being scanned, they can (and will) happily fix it after verifying the price with an associate from the floor. If you catch after you’ve paid, you’ll have to take your receipt to the service desk.

JCPenny’s isn’t cool. If you return something and have the gift receipt, they will happily allow you to exchange merchandise or receive a JCPenny’s gift card (which is a different way of doing the same thing so you at least feel like you had a choice) but they won’t give you your money back.

Hopefully you saved all your receipts and if you haven’t already, go over them carefully. I bet you’ll catch a few errors.

Good luck and happy shopping!