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.

Macy's 3rd Reply

Well it took two days, but Macy's did address my specific complaint. I think they missed the point. I received a nice explanation of its policy, but it's that specific policy about which I was complaining. I didn't really need further clarification.

Here's the e-mail:

Thank you for sharing feedback regarding your shopping experience in our Pasadena store. Our goal at Macy's is to provide every customer with a courteous and professional interaction. We expect to achieve that goal 100% of the time, however it is clear that this goal was not achieved in your interaction with our Petites Department.

"Salvage" is a term that is used to indicate the merchandise has been marked out of our stock and released to a jobber. Unfortunately, sometimes we fail to physically locate and remove these items from our selling floor, and the computers identify them at point of sale. In these cases, we can sell the merchandise for its lowest selling price before it was "salvaged". This is what should heve been offered to you. We apologize that this was not offered to you. It seems the associate assisting you was unaware of the procedure. A Floor Supervisor should have been called to help in this matter. We apologize for the confusion and inconvenience this may have caused you.

We appreciate the choice you made to shop at Macy's and regret that we disappointed you. Thank you again for taking the time to share your impressions of the store.

Sincerely,


Del Hernandez
VP/Store Manager
Pasadena Macy's

Macy's 2nd Reply

I received this polite pass-the-buck e-mail from Macy's corporate:

Thank you for taking the time to e-mail us. We have received your message, and it's been forwarded to Del Hernandez, Store Manager at our Pasadena location, for review and response. Please be assured we take your message very seriously. Del Hernandez or someone from the Pasadena executive office will contact you in the near future. Thank you for shopping Macy's.

Margaret Long
Vice President of Staffing and Selling Services
Macy's

2nd Attempt to Complain

OK. I gave Macy's enough info to investigate my complaint, but they sent me to another webpage which asked for the same contact info again. That's right. No autofill. No space to put the complaint tracking number. And the extra info? Generic feedback. An awful process.

Well, I completed the blanks and submitted the following in the comments section. (Look familiar? Good thing I saved it.)

I will never shop at Macy's again and I will tell all of my friends and everybody I talk to that they should not shop at Macy's either. Here is the reason why.

I was shopping at your South Lake Pasadena (CA) store this morning and was enjoying your wonderful sales. I was excited to find great deals on four pairs of women's pants in the petite section on a rack that said "25% additional at register, price on tag is 50% off regular price" (or something similar). I went to the register with my great finds, the cashier scanned each item and then told me that she couldn't sell me three of the items because they were "salvaged."

Salvaged! I can't believe Macy's pulls this crap on customers. Just because the sale price is below the salvage value of the item, you can choose -- at your whim -- not to sell that item to a customer? It was on display for sale. The price and markdowns were clearly marked. And then you have the option not to sell because the price didn't mean some reserve price?

Since Macy's has purchased multiple other stores and now nearly has a monopoly in many areas, its customer service has declined. This incident is completely indicative of how Macy's could care less about customer satisfaction; so I, and my friends, will care less about shopping at Macy's.

I wish you the best for the Holiday Season.

One very angry and irate former customer,
Mike Vicic

I also want to add my note of disappointment over how this complaint is being handled already. I wrote the above text, verbatim, in an online 'contact us' section (KMM37205838I8897L0KM) and was told to complete this form even though I gave sufficient information to investigate my complaint.

Macy's First Reply

Here is Macy's reply:

Dear Dr. Michael Vicic,

We value and appreciate your comments regarding your store experience.

In order to respond and/or resolve your inquiry, a team specializing in feedback related to our stores has been assembled. To assist in this process, additional information is needed. Please click on the link below and provide the requested information.

http://www1.macys.com/tellus

We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced. If you have any further questions or concerns, please e-mail us at customerservice@macys.com or call us at: 1-800-289-6229. Our office hours are Monday through Saturday 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM and Sunday 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM.

Sincerely,

Nelly Cornell
Internet Customer Service

http://www.macys.com

The Complaint

I submitted the following text on Macy's website:

I will never shop at Macy's again and I will tell all of my friends and everybody I talk to that they should not shop at Macy's either. Here is the reason why.

I was shopping at your South Lake Pasadena (CA) store this morning and was enjoying your wonderful sales. I was excited to find great deals on four pairs of women's pants in the petite section on a rack that said "25% additional at register, price on tag is 50% off regular price" (or something similar). I went to the register with my great finds, the cashier scanned each item and then told me that she couldn't sell me three of the items because they were "salvaged."

Salvaged! I can't believe Macy's pulls this crap on customers. Just because the sale price is below the salvage value of the item, you can choose -- at your whim -- not to sell that item to a customer? It was on display for sale. The price and markdowns were clearly marked. And then you have the option not to sell because the price didn't mean some reserve price?

Since Macy's has purchased multiple other stores and now nearly has a monopoly in many areas, its customer service has declined. This incident is completely indicative of how Macy's could care less about customer satisfaction; so I, and my friends, will care less about shopping at Macy's.

I wish you the best for the Holiday Season.

One very angry and irate former customer,
Mike Vicic