Do NOT. Mess. With me.

[fairyrune]

I just had the most horrific "customer service" experience in my life, and I would like to share it with you all.

My mother and I decided to go to Woodbury Commons in Central Valley, New York, to do some shopping today. We were having a quite lovely day, until we went into the L'Eggs/Hanes/Bali/Playtex outlet.

That was the end of that.

Rich needed some new underwear, and I needed some stockings. I took a three-pack of men's boxer briefs off a rack labeled $8.99. All of the racks of this style underwear were labeled with that price. I picked out a packet of stockings, and went to pay for my items.

At the register, the underwear rang up $10.99. I pointed this out to the cashier, and she said that it was probably just a mistake. I paid for my purchase, went to the back of the store, and took the rack with the price label off of the wall. I brought this back up to the front of the store, and asked to speak to a manager.

The "manager," (more likely a supervisor of some sort,) came out, and I explained the situation. I showed her the rack, with two packs of underwear on it still, and told her that I had been charged an extra two dollars, and would like a refund of the difference.

That's when things got out of hand.

She told me that the $8.99 price was probably a mistake, and that the $10.99 price in the register was correct. They wouldn't refund my money.

I explained to her that it was their mistake, not mine, and that meant they were responsible for rectifying it. Still, she refused to refund my money. "It's just two dollars, it's not a big deal," she said.

At that point, I said to myself, "Fuck this shit. They're not getting any of my money." I told her I wanted to return my items, and I called to my mother to put her stuff down. When I explained to Mom why we wouldn't be shopping there anymore, she tossed her items over the counter.

The so-called "manager" interpreted this as my mother throwing the nice, soft, bags of pantyhose at her, and threatened to call security. Not wanting to cause more trouble, my mother left the store.

She was so busy trying to get the phone and call security, that she was taking forever to do my return. I kept saying, "Just give me my money back, and I'll go."

I shouted to the rest of the customers that they shouldn't shop there, as they don't honor their advertised prices.

This girl was terribly rude to me. I asked for her name, as none of the employees were wearing name tags, and she said, "I don't NEED to tell you my name." When I told her we wouldn't be shopping there any more, she said she didn't care; it wasn't going to affect her.

Oh, BOY, did she ever get that wrong!

I walked out of the store, sat down on a bench, pulled out my cell phone, and called the corporate number on my receipt. The girl on the phone was very helpful and apologetic, and said that a supervisor would be getting back to me.

When I receive that phone call, I am going to demand, in writing, an apology for the way I was treated, and a promise that they will honor their labeled prices from now on. I'm also tempted to ask that the employee in question be fired. No one talks to me that way and gets away with it.

They have one week. If I do not hear from them by then, I am calling the newspapers, the news stations, the Better Business Bureau, and anyone else who will listen. I will tell everyone I know to tell everyone they know to never shop there again. In my free time, I will go to Woodbury Commons and hand out fliers telling people not to shop there, with my story printed on them.

I will not let this stand.

Comments

[justducky2204.livejournal.com]

you rock!!!

:) let me know how it goes...stores take this kind of stuff VERY seriously. the pricing thing is actually illegal, it's called "bait and switch." the stores BY LAW have to honor the advertised price unless they print a retraction.

[fairyrune]

Hmmmm...isn't that interesting. I may call the store on Monday and tell them that.

[justducky2204.livejournal.com]

my mother is a 'secret shopper' for a bunch of retail chains...she gets notified when there have been complaints and she tries to duplicate the claims (they provide her with money and such). people get fired for stuff like that on a regular basis.

absolutely pursue it. it will go somewhere.

[fairyrune]

You can bet I will pursue this. I have NEVER been treated so badly in a retail establishment.

[blueyz72.livejournal.com]

Outside of this post, write it all down now with as many details as you can. Anyone else you can get to go in there, see how they are treated (or even better get names).

I'm with you, the $2 is an annoyance but THEY were wrong and both the cashier and manager were totally in the wrong here. ?Go for it, get em!

[fairyrune]

I might try and get my aunt to go spy for me. She lives near there.

I just wish I had thought to take pictures of the incorrect labels.

Really, if two dollars isn't that big a deal, why couldn't they just refund me?

[crimsontom.livejournal.com]

You may want to look up the "Consumer scanner law" or something like that. There is a law on the books where if scanners are not programmed correctly and ring up the wrong price you are entitled to something like double or triple the difference back. Then you can say to the manager, "it's not just 2 bucks anymore is it?"

Plus, if it WAS only two bucks, what the hell was her problem in giving it back to you?!

[fairyrune]

I think that may be a county to county thing. I haven't been able to find anything about it for Orange County, but I'll keep looking.

EXACTLY!

[odogonefishin.livejournal.com]

Generally in NY (barring a higher standard by county, which OC doesn't to my knowledge have), the triple (or super) refund applies only to grocery stores

[fairefifi.livejournal.com]

That was bullshit....

Keep at corporate office hon, they DO NOT like get phone calls. Make sure you tell them the time you were in the store so they can check the schedule to see who was working and give descriptions of the rude bitches....

[fairyrune]

I'm not expecting a call this weekend, but if I don't get one by Wednesday or so, I'll call back and tell them that if I don't get a response, I'm going to the BBB.

[blueyz72.livejournal.com]

Don't wait that long, store like this is open each day so you should get results sooner!! Even if it is a weekend, i igt hasn't been reported Monday I would go after it THEN!!

[fairyrune]

Good point. If I don't get a call Monday, I'll call THEM again on Tuesday.

[mishmosh.livejournal.com]

Glad you called corporate.

I used to work at the Jockey Outlet (also undies and socks!). When I worked there, they took customer service VERY seriously...got my first secret shopper award there. Plus they would match the price to what the package said if that happened.

[fairyrune]

My mom got a jacket at JC Penny for half off because it was incorrectly labeled.

I even pointed out to her that most other places would do that, and she STILL was nasty to me!

[harpiegirl4.livejournal.com]

Good for you for seeing this through! I got treated similarly at Abracadabra in the city, when I was shopping for props for Blood and Breakfast. They are such a bunch of nasty, rude, unprofessional idiots there, and the "manager" doesn't give a hoot about customers. They lost over a hundred dollars that night (they decided to close the register, even though it was 20 minutes before closing time), and didn't care. I wish I had pursued it and gotten everyone in the store that night fired, I was treated so poorly. But I didn't because I was just too busy. I still regret it.

[fairyrune]

With the economy the way it's going, you'd figure they'd be fighting tooth and nail to KEEP customers, not to push them away.

[harpiegirl4.livejournal.com]

The problem is, these folks get paid by the hour. They don't give a rat's patooty about the customers. Makes no difference to them of you take your business elsewhere, and the owners of the business have no idea what goes on in their stores. It's a messed up system.

[fairyrune]

The "manager" actually SAID that! My mother and I said that we wouldn't be shopping there anymore, and she was like, "I don't care! I'm leaving to get my Master's degree!"

Master's degree or not, with an attitude like she had, no WAY she's getting hired at a good job.

My mom was like, "There are plenty of people who are unemployed right now who would treat the customers so much better to keep their jobs..."

[harpiegirl4.livejournal.com]

I agree with your mom. Yet, another thing is that retail pays crap. In a lot of cases it attracts the lowest of the lows who can't do any better. And why go out of your way to please customers when you're being paid $8.00 an hour? There's always MacDonalds.

Then again, I know a lot of people in retail who really care about the products they sell, and are great with customers (many of them work in bookstores). But how do you find people who care about underwear enough to work hard for minimum wage? They'll make the same amount no matter what, so they may as well take the lazy route.

[fairyrune]

I worked at a Hallmark store for a couple of years. If I had EVER dared to speak to a customer like that, I would have been out on my ass.

The job market sucks so much right now that even if you have a job that pays utter crap, it would be smarter to do everything in your power to keep that job than to just throw it away.

Some people are just rude, and stupid to boot.

[singingmollusk.livejournal.com]

whoa.

[fairyrune]

Right? RIGHT??? WTF?

[singingmollusk.livejournal.com]

Besides... I've had days where a difference of $2.00 means whether I got to eat that day or not. No joke.
A lady in line behind me at a grocery store actually gave me $2.00 so I wouldn't have to put my can of soup back, having gone over my $3.00 expenditure (I was at camp, on a long weekend, when the kitchen wasn't open , and there was NOTHING in the staff cabin :P)

I hope yer cuteness is not damaged by these events... because then I'll have to sue, too, for the emotional trauma factor of Damage to Friend, hehee.
*loves & hugs*

[fairyrune]

That is exactly what I thought!

Don't worry, I'm angry, but otherwise fine. They won't get away with this, oh no siree bob they wont'!