Sears, You Suck...Kinda

As I mentioned in the previous post, the girls and I decided to bear the elements and venture to the mall on our snow day.  We were given some pots and pans from the inlaws for Xmas and my husband, the cook, wanted a different kind of cookware so I decided to return them.  The inlaws were Ok with this and gave me the receipts so we wouldn't have a problem returning them and getting back what they paid for them.  Sounds simple enough, right?!  hahahaha

So I take pan #1 back to Macy's.  My MIL put it on her credit card and I thought it might be a little tricky getting the cash back.  Nope, easy as pie.  They were gracious, completely helpful and gave me the refund with a happy smile. :)  Sweet.  LOVE Macy's!

Now, I have pots #2-4 to return back to Sears.  Here is where it gets ugly.  Long story, but my BIL used to work for Sears, 10+yrs ago.  I guess recently there was a class action lawsuit against Sears for commission wages not paid years ago.  A settlement was reached and monies were paid, BUT they were sent out in the form of Sears "Reward" cards (aka, Giftcards).  That seems kind of a BS way of handling it if you ask me, but whatever.  So my SIL received this card and did what anyone would do.  She spent it!!  What's better, she spent it on Christmas gifts.

So, on this particular receipt she had paid with the reward card and with her debit card.  Seeing as I had the receipt and the items were new AND it wasn't an obscene dollar amount to be refunded, I didn't think it would be too  much of a problem to get the cash for it.  So, the cashier does the return and it comes to a whopping $64.  He tells me I can get $20 in cash (the amount she put on her debit card), but the rest will have to be on a gift card.  Now, I must say that being a corporate buyer, I KNOW what the stores are capable of doing.  ANYTHING they FEEL like doing, regardless of 'store policy'.  Now, I'm not saying this for everyone to take advantage of big box stores, but I'm saying because as someone who has worked the full retail spectrum, I know some rules are made to be broken, and some policies have more wiggle room than others.  So, with that said, I tell the cashier I don't want a gift card because the pans I want are at a different store.  True story, my hubby (the cook) wants industrial strength cookware from the restaurant supply area from Sams Club.  Anyway, so the cashier argues with me and I then request to speak to someone higher than him.  Meanwhile, I'm being nice and professional about it.  You can attrack more bees with honey than vinegar. ;)

So when retail boss comes to speak with me, I tell him the whole story, even mentioning that that these were gifts and purchased with a giftcard that was received from a settlement blah blah blah.  He says that's the store's policy and he could give me $40 in cash back (a step up from the $20 the previous guy offered me).  See, point proven.  They can do whatever they want.  I again said that wasn't going to work.  I then asked to speak with their GM (general manager). Keep in mind, I've got the two Ps, and by this time I've been there for 25min now.  At this point it's getting to be a battle of the wills and it's about the principle now.  In my eyes, it came down to a whopping $24 and some change and I'll be damned if I'm going to suck it up and let the 25min I've waited be in vain!!  I did do something productive while I was waiting.  I carefully looked over their return policy.  Not anywhere does it say that refunds must be given back in the way of which they were originally tendered.  Another point that their policy is open for interpretation.  AKA, it will be given & decided on a case by case basis. 

Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for this GM to show up and of course they are never in any hurry.  Now, for my job, there is one GM per region and rarely do they happen to be at the store you are at.  I'm thinking I was waiting on just another store manager.  While I'm STILL waiting for this woman to come up, I take my handy-dandy IPhone and lookup Sears Corp number and I procede to call them.  HA!  While I'm on hold the cashier gives me the managers number, their store's # and her first and last name.  All the ammo that I need to report this person to Corp. 

Finally, after 40 min of waiting, this woman comes up and starts telling me about their policy blah blah and I tell her no where in their policy does it say cash refunds are only given if cash is paid from the get-go.  Now I do know most companies do have that unsaid policy, but again, at this point I was ticked.  If they can give me $40, they can give me the full $64.  Anyway, so as I'm talking to her, I mention that I'm on the phone with Corporate .  This woman was giving me attitude and just being obnoxious until I started talking to the gal on the phone.  My first words were "Hi, My name is Mrs...... and I'm having a problem at one of your stores right now".  Right then I hear the B in front of me say "oh no there is no problem, I'm going to give you your money.".  I repeated to the gal on the phone "well apparently there is no problem, but I'd still like to share with you what happened." So once I was given the cash (not so happily from that B woman!), I walked out of the store and proceded to tell their Corp Exec, Customer Relations Dept person the trouble I was having and how long it took to be resolved. 

After about 10min on the phone with her, she wanted to give me something for the inconvenience.  I said that would be fine, but I wasn't calling to get anything, I just wanted the cash back.  So, for my pain and suffering ;), Sears is sending me a $50 gift card!!!!!!!  HAHAHAHAHAHA

I think I might be able to find something I like in there! ;)