Saturday, December 30, 2006

My Rebuttal

Rather than e-mailing Del or Macy's HQ, I started this blog. All previous posts have been backdated/timed so that you can follow the timeline.

I don't know what resolution I expected, but Macy's failed. Again. Here is my open letter to Macy's.

Thank you for explaining your store policy, but I think your policy is still poor customer service and inconsistently applied. Furthermore, your (in)action does nothing to regain my patronage. I hope you think it was worth saving a few dollars on my shopping visit to lose multiple customers. After hearing about my story and your latest e-mail, many of my friends will no longer shop at Macy's either. Your (in)action also motivated me to start this blog.

  • When I complained to the associate at the time of my purchase, she told me her story about a similar situation. She wanted to buy a comforter at Macy's Arcadia store but she could not because the item was salvaged. She apparently was not offered the option to purchase the merchandise at another price at that time either. (If she was offered the option, she did not present this part of her story.)

  • I understand that associates will not find every item to remove from a rack during a temporary markdown, but everybody to whom I tell the story is appalled to hear that Macy's wouldn't sell the item at the marked price. It seems Macy's has a few options:
    • When a customer finds a salvaged item, sell it to the customer at:
        i. the advertised price on the sales rack.
        ii. the salvage value.
        iii. the previous lowest price.

      Most businesses would choose (i) since the item WAS advertised and they truly value their customers. A store would lose a few dollars short-term for long-term patronage and ask the customer where he/she found the item so that associates can quickly go through the racks looking for other salvaged items before more customers find them. Macy's does not do this.

      Some businesses would explain their policy at the point-of-sale and offer the item at salvage value to the customer -- option (ii). It's not an ideal solution for the customer, but it seems like a reasonable compromise. The customer still gets a discount, and, if that customer trusts the store, would see that the store is selling it for its lowest possible price. The store doesn't lose money by selling it less than salvage value. Macy's does not do this either.

      Instead, Macy's chooses the least customer-friendly option.

    • Allow the associates enough time to go through the racks and find more items. If Macy's truly valued the customer experience and still did not want the issue of how to handle the transaction, it should have associates work harder to find the items.

    • Put a disclaimer on the bottom of EVERY sales sign that states that Macy's has the right to refuse to sell a piece of merchandise at the advertised price if the price is less than the salvage price. I'm sure lawyers would love this option, but I'm sure Macy's wouldn't want to really advertise its hidden sales policy very widely.

17 Comments:

At 8:14 PM, Blogger Kevin Weedon said...

Neither my wife nor myself will visit Macy's, as we're equally peeved with them, and thus far, have not even had the decency of a reply, though we've tried three times. I too posted my letter on the internet, at Everything2.


They seem to have the view that the individual is not important. My wife was looking for a mastectomy bra, and Macy's dismissed her out of hand. She went to Nordstrom's, and was haooy with their service.

 
At 4:56 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I can't believe you started a blo about this issue of all things. i hate macy's and they do a lot of crappy things, but you couldnt buy some pants and now you are going to lose your mind. i actually feel sory for that store manager that he has to keep dealing with you. Macy's has the policy that they drill into employees heads, that they cannot sell salvaged items. although they could have offered the item at the marked price, they are not required to, and they certainly will not sell the item at the salvage price no matter how much you argue. macy's is a business and has to make money, so if they have a policy like that its for a reason. i am actually a macy's employee and have run across this situation many times, althouh i offer the marked price i am really not supposed to. i just think it is odd that this is the issue that made you start a blog, of all things macys could do.

 
At 5:18 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

it also sounds to me that you do not understand what the term salvage means. you cannot sell an item for less than the salvage price because essentially it has no value. when something is salvage it rings up for a penny. macys cannot sell you anything less than the salvage price because the salvage price is a penny.like what the manager explained in the letter the item is out of their system, so they really for whatever reason dont want to sell the item anymore. although the employee who refused to sell was following policy, the store manager could have let you come back to get the items at the marked price, but only to appease you. maybe he felt if he did this with you he has to do it with others, i dont know. i hate macys for my own reasons, but if this happened at this particular macys did you consider going to another macys, that is if you have one that is within a reasonable driving distance to you. i have several macys where i live and some are better than others. i am a macys employee and i hate that you did not get to have somethig you really wanted. like i said in my other post i have encountered the salvage issue with several customers and i realize for customer service it is best to offer it at the price marked on the tag than anger the customer, but understand this actually goes against the rules at macys. i agree what they offered was not the best customer service, as i have gotten an item at kohls that was out of there system and i was still allowed to buy it. i have my own reasons for hating macys, but maybe you should shop at kohl's, i am sincere when i say this, i like kohls better than macys.

 
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At 5:13 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I work at macy's. Salvage items mean that they've been in the store forever and that the producer/manufacturer gets them sent back. when we price check them, they show up on the POS as .01 cents. Normally if we found this item on its own, we'd put it in the stock room to go back to the manufacturer. If a customer wants to purchase the item, we sell it for the lowest marked price on the tag. Employees are not eligible to purchase salvage items. Not sure why this is such a big issue: salvage items are usually items of which there are only one or two left in the store and are already on deep discount since the store had tried to sell it for such a long time.

 
At 9:36 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I work at macy's and we call that item penny stock. at the macy's i work at we are informed that we MUST sell it to the customer for 80% off the original price. (NOT THE SALE PRICE BUT THE ORIGINAL PRICE). This is something that is drilled into our heads at the macy's i work at and i don't understand why it wasn't at the other stores.

 
At 6:21 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I hate working at Macys. They hire homeless people, hobos and the uneducated. It was embarrassing and an unclean environment. LP also treats all employees like shoplifters too and are always suspicious.

 
At 10:47 AM, Blogger CustomerService said...

macy customer service

 
At 7:40 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

I can’t believe you took the time to resound. Move on!!

 
At 7:40 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

*respond...🙃

 
At 6:01 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

I will not shop at Macy's again. I had the clerk screw up my $50 Thanks for sharing gift card. The manager would not assist. She told the clerk to call the home office. Clerk said line was busy and did not try again and continued to dig and trash my card. I left, called the customer service number they did not care. Told me to buy online and then call them and they would help with the share card. Macys no longer cares about their customers.

 
At 5:38 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm done with Macy's. I'm still waiting for a refund 11 days after it was supposedly processed. I spoke with a male "supervisor" that was incredibly abusive - wouldn't allow me to speak (spoke over me every time I tried to say something), yelled at me when I told him to stop talking over me and let me speak, then hung up on me. I guess they forgot they exist because of the customers that shop there. They still won't refund me and they have my money, the merchandise, and are just charging me interest. They've literally stolen from me. I'm cancelling my card as soon as possible, but am afraid I'm going to have to take legal action against them to receive my refund. I never thought I would have to consider taking legal action against a major department store. Never again. Never ever again.

 

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