andoel

Here's the email I sent Kmart customer service.

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Saturday, January 5, 2002

To Whom It May Concern,

I am writing this letter to bring to your attention an incident that occurred at your Big Kmart #4840 in Reading, PA.

On Saturday, December 29, 2001, I stopped at the store in question and bought a PlayStation 2 and 2 games for my nephew. Unfortunately, he had already received one from his grandmother on Christmas. Naturally, I would have to return the gifts. This is where my problems with your company began.

I went back to the store the same day to return the merchandise without my receipt. It was not in the bag and my assumption is the cashier never put it there. After waiting for at least a half hour in line, I finally reached the counter to make my return. I told her my story and the Associate just laughed at me and asked if I was joking. She told me, “There’s no way in hell you’re going to find any store that will take back $400 worth of merchandise without a receipt.” She then told me to try to return it at Wal*Mart. I told her that I didn’t want to return it at Wal*Mart, I wanted to return it here where I had purchased it. She rolled her eyes at me and said, “I guess I’ll have to call my manager to deal with this.”

I proceeded to wait an additional 10 minutes for a manager to arrive. When she did, she told me she couldn’t accept a return on a big-ticket item without a receipt. She said, “How can I be sure you didn’t steal it?” I told her that I had just purchased the items today and I asked her why she couldn’t check the receipts from that day to verify the purchase. She told me that she didn’t have the time nor the patience and that I needed to move because I was holding up the line for the people who were smart enough to have their receipts. I told her that I was fed up and that I would just leave the merchandise on the counter and dispute the charges with my credit card company. She said, “Whatever, just as long as you know that as soon as you leave the store the merchandise becomes ours. ”So that is what I did.

I have never been so offended by a retail establishment in all my life. The way I was treated by your employees was beyond disrespectful. I did not deserve any of the statements that I received. I am not a shoplifter nor a thief and will not tolerate anyone insinuating that I am. I have shopped at your stores frequently and have even worked for your company as an Associate during the ‘99 Holiday season. I have never and would never treat anyone the way I was treated. I will never shop at any of your stores ever again and I will see that everyone in my immediate family does the same. God forbid they receive the same treatment as I did.

Seeing as I am not in possession of the merchandise purchased, I am demanding that you credit my credit card account (#****************) in the amount of $423.97. I have already contacted my credit card company and the amount has been placed on dispute. I will be expecting a reply from your company within the next 48 hours or I will consider this an act of fraud and will be contacting the Better Business Bureaus in both Southfield, MI and Bethlehem, PA.

Sincerely,

******* ******

**** ****** ******

*********, ** *****

***-***-****

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sniper308

Good luck. I sympathize with you, but I don't think that I would have left the store without a credit card receipt for over $400 in merchandise. I actually go into the gas station if the pay at the pump does not issue a receipt properly. I'm not that familiar with credit card disputing, but it will be interesting to see if they pull your signature record. Also, I'd think you could have waited for your credit card statement and used that for the return. You might be screwed at this point ... unless the dispute process is really lenient.

bboisvert

First let me say that I definitely sympathize with your situation. It sounds like you had a pretty frustrating afternoon.

However, I do have to agree with sniper308… I definitely would not have left a store after such a major purchase without confirming that I had a receipt (for the correct amount, etc.)

And, while you may have been treated flippantly (or even rudely) by these K-Mart employees, it sounds like their general policy makes sense. There are very few stores that would accept a return of over $400 worth of electronics without a receipt.


There were certainly several options open to you, but I have to question the logic of leaving the merchandise in the store and walking away. What on earth would possess you to do that? You are now in a situation where you have paid $423 for merchandise, have no refund, and have no merchandise. The K-Mart is going to be able to prove to your CC company that you bought the items (by providing a signed receipt), but you have absolutely no proof that you "returned" said items. Sounds like you took a difficult situation and just made it 10 times worse.

If you had taken the Playstation back home, you could have then contacted your CC company and discussed how to go about getting a refund from the place of purchase. Now, I really think you may have to eat that full charge…





edited to add:

Just re-reading your letter to K-Mart... Again, I'm having trouble seeing your logic here. How does the fact that you are "not in possession of the merchandise" give you any standing whatsoever?

Also, just so you know, the BBB has very little power in situations like this. They will gladly take your complaint and file it, but they receive hundreds/thousands of such complaints every day. Contacting them may make you feel better, but it won't affect the standing of a large company like K-Mart one bit.

HKFlix

I wouldn't even bother with BBB. They take forever, and then don't do anything at all...especially if the company you're complaining about disagrees with your allegations. In my previous experience, contacting the BBB has been a complete and total waste of time.

GatorDeb

So you lost the receipt and it's their fault?

ecarland

Kmart is filing Chapter 11-bankruptcy protection
I heard it on the evening news.

Iron Chef

As stated in previous posts, I would not buy $400 worth of PS2 and games and just leave the store without checking the receipt. I personally would have the cashier put that receipt in my hand, before I stepped one foot away from that counter, and I would put it somewhere where I would not lose it.

I believe that leaving the merchandise there was poor judgement on your part. It doesn't make you look good, and now you are S.O.L. if you want to get the stuff back in your possesion.


The manager and the clerk should have treated you nicer.

bmarquardt

All game consoles have serial numbers on them that are scanned before (by Sony, etc. before shipping to a store) and at the point of purchase when you buy it (that's why there is a nice sized "hole" on every console box...for a store to scan the barcode/serial number and for Sony, etc. to keep track of how many consoles have been sold through ). The serial number will also ALWAYS show up on your receipt (and will also show up in their records).

They could have easily scanned your PS2 to see if it was bought at their store or not. Totally unacceptable by them for not realizing this.

As for the Wal-Mart thing, if you took it back to Wal-Mart, they would have scanned the serial number and it would have showed up on their own system that you purchased it at K-Mart (I'm quite sure that it would list the place of purchase, even if it wasn't a Wal-Mart store). Wouldn't work.

My friend once tried to take back a N64 he bought at Toys R Us to a different store and they said, "Sir, you purchased this console at Toys R Us on "x date". Sorry, we can't take it back since you purchased it there". Won't work.

Hope this info helps.

kansai999

Not to sound repetitive but, why did you leave the items behind?
What proof do you have that you even left it there?

Don Catchpole

Please tell me you had someone with you when you took that back. You may need to have someone sign an affidavid (sp?) saying that you indeed did return it to the store and the employees refused it. As far as everyone saying about the reciept, I can see where that happens, you are running around at Christmas and standing in lines and they probably stapled the reciept on the bag and it just fell off or they handed it to you and you went to put it in your wallet and it fell out on the ground when you were paying for something else like she just didn't give it to you. Pretty common stuff. There is no excuse why she couldn't have checked for you to find the sale of that day. I'm not sorry at all they are bankrupt except for the displaced workers. Give me Walmart anyday. I love that place, only brick and mortar worth shopping at.

TNDVDFAN

You left over $400 worth of merchandise at a store because they refused to give you a cash refund without a receipt? Removed personal insult - stevevt

Groucho

I bought my Gamecube at Kmart, and they did scan the serial number. Did they scan the serial number of your PS2 when you bought it? If so, they should be able to cross-check it. Of course, this may now be impossible since you no longer have the merchandise. Check your car and everywhere else you had the PS2 for the receipt...that may be your only hope.

Edited to add:

I hate to say it, but I don't think you're telling us the whole story after reading this thread:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=163202

Abob Teff

I can't add anything to this specific example that hasn't already been said (most of which I agree with). However, here is a similar, though on a lesser level, situation I experienced a few months ago:

I had purchased a DVD at K-Mart (I don't know what possessed me to do so). Got it home, popped it in . . . froze up. After numerous tries and even a try in my DVD-ROM, I determined that the disc was defective. I took it back to K-Mart. At first the girl at the customer service desk said "Sure, just go get another one." After waiting 30 minutes for someone to come back to electronics to get it for me (they display the empty boxes and you have to have a clerk get the actual movie), and another 20 minutes for them to return from getting it, I went back to the service desk. A different girl was there and she informed me that they couldn't exchange it since it was open.

With the receipt, for the same title, and they wouldn't exchange DEFECTIVE merchandise. After a small fuss, she calls for a "manager." This kid shows up and looks at it and says, "We can't take it back, you opened it. You shouldn't have opened it." Well of course I opened it, how else would I know that it is defective! I left a cart filled with $100 of merchandise (diapers ain't cheap!) sitting in front of their desk and walked out.

I am not a fan of the intelligence of Best Buy's floor help, but I will give a kudos to their customer service staff. A few days later I was in there and relayed the story to the girl working the desk. She offered to do the exchange for me knowing that it came from another store!

I sent several e-mails and made several phone calls to K-Mart's "Customer Care" just to find out that, surprise, yet another monolithic company doesn't give two shakes about their customers. I am really sorry that they are going bankrup t-- NOT! While I am sad to see the playing field lessened even more, maybe one day companies will wake up and realize how to treat their customers.

D-Ball

After reading the thread that Groucho posted, I have to wonder if this whole story is made up. I never had an uncle and a grandmother who was looking to give a me a $400 gift for Christmas. But I could believe that the quality of service you got at K-Mart is true. Every time I walk in there, it's like I just went 15 years back in time. Most stores now can look up in their computers to see your credit card purchases at the store, I guess K-Mart never got the memo. It's easy to see why K-Mart is failing.

stevevt

Please refrain from calling name-calling.

Failure to do so in the future will result in the suspension of your posting privileges.

-stevevt

stevevt

Given recent information "uncovered" in this thread, I'm highly suspect that we were given all of the relevant facts.

I'm closing this thread.

Feel free to e-mail me with any questions or comments.

-stevevt