
Nicole of Bronx, NY on July 8, 2011
On July 6, 2011, I and a friend purchased a number of items at the National Wholesale Liquidators store located at 691 Co-op City Blvd. Amongst those items was a banded bra in a size small/medium. While the store does carry clothing, it does not have a fitting room; so, you are forced to make a good guess when purchasing any item of clothing. I took the item home and tried it, only to discover that it was excessively tight, even on my small 34 B frame. So today, July 7, 2011, I took it back to the store intending to exchange it for a larger size. The return policy listed on the back of the receipt states that such "undergarments" are not returnable; but given the aforementioned limitations, the fact that I returned it the very next day and the fact that it does not explicitly state that the items cannot be exchanged, I decided to attempt an exchange nonetheless.
The young lady in customer service was immediately confrontational. Without my consent, she tossed the new exchange item back to her shelf without waiting to hear whether I would choose to purchase the new items, upon hearing I could not apply the cost of the old items. She directed me to the manager, one Moussa, who refused to supply his surname. He, without hearing me out, also immediately directed me to a sign behind the customer service representative which states that undergarments are not only non-refundable but are also not exchangeable. The customer service counter and this sign is not close enough to the check-out registers for it to be seen by patrons -- nor is that exchangeable bit noted on the receipt. In fact, unless you enter the store with the intent to go to customer service, you are unlikely to see the sign. I argued my point. The more I put the facts to them, the more aggressive they became; the more aggressive I became.
The young lady, while attending to my friend who was double-charged for a single item the day before, used words like **, answered me tit for tat, all in her capacity as a customer service agent. The manager, whose behavior was no better, adamantly refused to give me his last name, shouted what I assume to be the headquarters numbers at me and called me stupid. The young lady went so far as to call me a slave. I was angry and answered them word for word -- even if the bra is only 2.99. It seems unfair that I should be made to eat it, despite how much money I spent in the store, despite the fact that they have no fitting rooms, despite the fact that it cannot fit and I can do nothing with it. So needless to say, the fray ended with me tossing them back their bra.
The customer service rep claimed that no store would allow patrons to try undergarments, in this case a bra; so that even if they had a fitting room, you still would have to make a good guess at it. I know that to be untrue. While most to all stores will not allow you to try panties, stores from Macy's to Kmart to Target allow you to try bras and even swimsuits, so that excuse is void or at least should be. In good faith, when someone has patronized your store and spent their hard-earned money, it is not right that an item, such as a bra, once inspected and found to be in the condition it was sold, should not at the least be exchangeable.