Linens & Things

On Monday, I received an email from a friend telling me about some great towels on sale at Linens & Things for 2.99 each. Not to mention, she had a coupon code for another 10 percent off. Well....since the newest towels I have are 9 years old, I decided to stock up. I even had them delivered to my local store, so I could save on shipping costs. I received an email confirming my order, and one that advised me that my order was ready for pickup. Woohoo!

Just as I was planning to go pick them up....I get an email saying my "return" was processed. Wait! I don't want to return them, I WANT them! So, I call the store and they say to call coporate headquarters, which I do. Apparently the "sale price" was a mistake, so the computer processed an automatic return of my purchase. I say I want them to honor their advertised price and give me the sale price on the towels. After a polite, but longer than necessary conversation, I ask to speak to a manager. I am left on hold for 10 minutes before I get to talk to "Tony". Tony says, "I'm sorry m'aam, but the pricing you saw was an error and our computer automatically caught the error and issued a refund to you". I say "Yes, but I want you to honor your advertised price". He says "All I can do is offer you a refund of your shipping charges". Shipping charges?? For an order that was cancelled?? Gee, thanks. Not to mention, there were NO shipping charges because I was going to pick them up at the store. I mention this to Tony. He says "I'm sorry, but I can't honor the price because it's less than we actually paid". I say "I can't imagine that 10,000 people ordered these towels on that day....it's not going to kill the store to honor the price for one customer, not to mention it is poor business practice to do otherwise." Tony responds "I'm sorry but that's all I can do for you". I say "You didn't do anything!" *silence on Tony's part* so I say "So what you're saying is you can't do one single thing for me to make up for the fact that you processed a sale and then refunded it without my knowledge or consent for a mistake that your computer made". He says "that's right....I can't do anything".

What ever happened to "The Customer is Always Right?". Sheesh! Was it gonna kill 'em to sell me the towels at their advertised price? It's not like I was buying 500 of them for resale! It really irks me how the lack of customer service or even concern about the customer's satisfication is becoming the norm. Not to mention....I wanted those towels!!!

So, I'm doing what I told Tony I would do....letting everyone know about the customer satisfaction "policy" at Linens & Things. Buyers beware.....