Macy's

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Lisa of Milpitas CA (8/28/05):
I was trying to return 4 junior dresses I bought from Macy's. (I bought on July 20th, and tried to return on August 28th) The store manager (Judy) refused to do the return. Her reason was: Dresses and denim has to be return within 30 days of purchase. And she showed me the sign of the statement on the cashier. However on the back of my receipt there was a clear return policy said that items can be return within 180 days. So I called the Macy's customer service and they also agree with the 180 days policy. I also called several Macy's stores (Macy's valley fair, Macy's Oakridge, Macy's Stanford and Macy's San Francisco), they all said that the dresses can be return within 180days.

The customer service than set up a conferance call with the Macy's Vallco Mall manager (Judy) and she agreed to return the dresses. However when I return to her store, she started again to give me a hard time and raised her voice saying that a company policy is within 30 days. Her sales associate also gave me a hard time.

After the manager gave me a big speech for almost half hour, she said she'll do the return this time only as a favor to me. But it's not a "favor!" Why, when I'm right, do I have to be accused of being wrong?

Victoria of Reno NV (6/16/05):
I have never had a friendly experience at the Macy's in Reno. I would boycott the store altogether but sadly in reno it is our only "nice" store. I am constantly ignored by the sales people. For instance: I was looking at jewelry with a friend of mine, and by jewelry I mean the real stuff, diamonds, saphires, etc. Anyway as we were looking at the cases the sales girl starts taking everything out and closing up for the night. The store didn't close for another 45 minutes!

Another time I stood in line patiently to pay my bill when the clerk asks to help the lady behind me, she did this several times until the woman behind me kindly insisted I was first. When I approached she informed me that she could not clock in for another 3 minutes and I would have to be helped elsewhere. I have been told I need to go upstairs "over there" -- vague wave of hand -- to use the phone to activate my card, instead of just letting me use the phone at the register.

These are not rare occurances, this is a daily thing here. I am not saying all Macy's are horrible. If I go to San Francisco I get treated promptly and courteously.

The last straw for me came when my new furniture was not delivered yesterday, after being informed that the delivery was going to be late, I received no further communication. I had to call them myself this morning to find out what happened and to re-schedule! I cannot believe that Macy's has no telephones to call customers with. I suppose it's my bad for continuing to shop there, but as soon as we get the new mall here I will bid farewell to Macy's Reno.

Linda of Mountain View CA (5/29/05):
Received my first bill after opening an account to get some discounts - Annual percentage rate on the bill shows 171.12 with a periodic daily rate of 0.05918%. Seems extraordinarily high (usurious?). I contacted Macy's with question - spoke to Frank in Credit via LiveChat (kept a copy of the "conversation"). Did not respond to my query of the APR rate (whether or not the rate was usurious). I paid my account in full and asked to have my account closed.

Macy's closed my account immediately. No legal remedy required. If I didn't work in finance, I wouldn't even think to check the rate. Other people may not be aware of the extraordinarily high APR.

R.J. of Ellicott City, MD, writes:
We ordered a wedding gift from the Bridal Registry directly from Macy's in Owing's Mills, MD in October '00. When it had not been received in December we called to inquire about it. After leaving three messages on their voice mail that went unanswered, we finally were able to speak to someone who actually answered the phone. The person promised to investigate the order status and get back to us.

After another week we called and spoke to the same person who had no recollection of our previous conversation but again promised to get back to us. After another week, we called again and spoke to this same person who tried to put us on hold while she worked with another customer. At this point we cancelled the order.

We then tried to order the gift from Macy's Weddingchannel.com. After another six weeks of waiting, we e-mailed an inquiry to the Wedding Channel and received a reply that the gift that we had ordered would not be available until June '01! No notification of the delay or apology was ever sent to us about this. We subsequently cancelled the order.

Kathleen of Hauppauge, NY, writes:
On 12/21/99 I purchased a Bulova watch from Macy's as a Christmas present. Yesterday, 1/1/00 it was noticed that that the watch was losing time (about 5 hours per day).

We went into Macy's and we attempted to have the watch replaced. We were told by Deidre (the sales person) that she could send it out to see if there was a dying battery and have it replaced if so. I inquired about the action that would be taken if it was in fact a defect and not the battery being that I have only had the watch for about 2 weeks.

I was met with the answer that it will go out for 2 weeks and then come back in. If there was still a problem then, "We would deal with it when we came to it."

I thought that there should be something more concrete than that. I asked to talk to the manager, Flo, and she repeated the same policy to me. There is a posted policy for fine watches that states that a return can be made within 30 days with a receipt, original box and warranty. In fine print at the bottom it say that it is an exception to the regular Macy's return policy -- the same regular policy that I was getting told by the 2 employees.

Also, each receipt is apparently stamped with additional rules and regulations on the back. There is a very faded half of a stamp on the back of my receipt, which is hardly legible. It does not state any more then what the posted sign says. Flo was even unable to read it and offered to re-stamp my receipt. I naturally refused. When I asked the manager of customer service, Flo, for a copy of the policy I was met with a no. She would not supply me with a copy of the policy for whatever reason, so she decided that she would not honor it either.

The watch had links professionally (not by Macy's because that would have been another 2 weeks) taken out so that it could be properly worn. This seems to be the reason why Macy's is having such a hard time taking this watch back. The only way you are going to tell if a watch is losing time is if you wear it! Hence, the tags were also removed. I feel as though I was sold a bad watch and then not given the courtesy of a policy to have it corrected. All I want is a new watch. If a store is going to post a policy then they should stand by it.

I purchased this watch for my father for Christmas and he was with me for this incident. I was embarrased that it was not a pleasant experience and that I was shouted at by the manager of customer service in front of the store. Then, I went to find out the name of the store manager I was followed around the store being harassed by Flo. I don't feel as though I had the freedom nor the right to walk around the store without being followed or shouted at.

I will not shop in Macy's after this is cleared and I am doing this to avoid the same thing happening to another customer.

Thomas of Newfield, NJ, writes:
Well I shopped for an hour or so at the Macy's at Deptford Mall. I finished my shooping at the jewelry counter where I was going to get a gold cross for my mother. I wrote a check for the total amount of about $224. After ringing the sale, the cashier was instructed to call for authorization (they use a credit reporting agency). After a couple of minutes on the phone, she turned to tell me that my check had been declined (this, in front of other customers)

First, let me say, I got a great bonus from work, and I know the cash was available. When I asked the girl why, she said she was not allowed to tell me, and that I'd have to call an 800 customer service number to find out why I had been refused.

Here it is, about 4pm on Christmas Eve, and I'm spending my time trying to remedy this situation, rather than getting my shopping done. I called the 800 number from a mall pay phone. A customer service rep told me that the reason for the refusal was first due to a significant difference in the sequence of my check numbers since the last time I shopped at one of their stores. And since that raised a flag, they felt a need to contact my bank to verify that the funds were available, but since my bank closed at 3pm, (after all, it was Christmas eve, they couldn't verify the funds) so I was refused.

The rep also said that she would send out a form containing questions about my financial situation, and if I filled out and returned the form, I would not have this problem again. Well, I have yet to receive that form. I have however, received a letter of rejection such as those one receives after applying for credit and being declined.

I also had the same thing happen at a Today's Man store in Deptford. Why is it that I can go into Walmart and write a check for $304.00, and have no problems, but go to one of these more uppity mall stores, my money isn't good enough. Feels like discrimination to me.

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