Zellers Complaint
Complaint
April
Country: United States
Dear Sir or Madam,
I received a My Little Pony castle as a birthday gift for my now one year old daughter this past weekend. The gift is not age appropriate, as it is for children 3 years and up, nor is it appropriate for us to take home to Mexico with us. I do not have the receipt. I attempted to return the gift for a cash refund, and was not granted this. The store manager (Maple Ridge B.C.) offered me a gift card. I do not live here in Canada, I live in Mexico, and though a gift card is not ideal for my situation, the manager insisted that this was the only option. I was disappointed, but I accepted reluctantly. I was issued both a gift card, and a receipt bearing the value of the gift card.
I attempted to use the gift card to make a purchase approximately an hour later, and the card had a balance of $0.00. The cashier called customer service, and the representative inquired as to what I was attempting to purchase. She told the representative on the other end of the phone. I was directed to customer service, where I was handed a phone number, and no explanation. I asked for an explanation, and was told that the manager was in a meeting, and that she had directed the customer service representative to give me the phone number, and to retain both the gift, and the gift card. I was very upset at this information. This representative was adamant that she was not going to return either. This, I respectfully suggested to her, may be considered theft.
I called the number given, which was out of service. The customer service representative offered me a second number, I called and got a message service. Since I did not know what the current situation was, I did not know what to say, so I left my name and phone number.
I then told the 'customer service representative' in the store that I needed to speak to a manager, to get an explanation. She said I would have to speak to someone at the number she gave me. I told her that I would not be leaving the store without either my gift, of the gift card. She then spoke again to her manager, and directed me to lift the phone to speak to 'someone at another store'. I spoke to a representative in an 'investigation department' . She advised me that I would not be granted a gift card, nor would I receive my gift back. (note that when I originally brought the gift into the store, it had a large fluorescent 'Zellers' security tape across it, which the original customer service representative removed in my presence) I advised the 'Investigations Department Representative' that I did not wish to leave the store without either my gift, or the balance of the gift in a gift card. She said that if that was my position, then I had 2 options. I could leave the gift, and the gift card in the store, while 'an audit investigation' was conducted to 'determine the original purchase information' of I could leave with the gift, and there would be no investigation. I questioned why there would be an investigation, and she assured me this was protocol for gifts returned without a receipt. I was employed by Zellers some years ago, and I do not know this to be policy.
Is it also policy to issue 'fake' gift cards to embarrass customers as they attempt to make a purchase? Is it also policy to refuse an explanation for this behavior?
I asked this representative to replace the security tape to my gift, and I chose to leave with it. I am absolutely outraged with this disrespectful behavior. I am not a thief, nor a criminal, and I did not behave inappropriately. I did not, and do not deserve this mistreatment. I was not offered an explanation for the actions and decisions of the management of the store. I have now left Zellers, with no resolution for the unsatisfactory product that was purchased in that store. I was not offered a substitution, an exchange, or the balance in a gift card. I respectfully demand an explanation for this substandard quality of customer service.
I received a My Little Pony castle as a birthday gift for my now one year old daughter this past weekend. The gift is not age appropriate, as it is for children 3 years and up, nor is it appropriate for us to take home to Mexico with us. I do not have the receipt. I attempted to return the gift for a cash refund, and was not granted this. The store manager (Maple Ridge B.C.) offered me a gift card. I do not live here in Canada, I live in Mexico, and though a gift card is not ideal for my situation, the manager insisted that this was the only option. I was disappointed, but I accepted reluctantly. I was issued both a gift card, and a receipt bearing the value of the gift card.
I attempted to use the gift card to make a purchase approximately an hour later, and the card had a balance of $0.00. The cashier called customer service, and the representative inquired as to what I was attempting to purchase. She told the representative on the other end of the phone. I was directed to customer service, where I was handed a phone number, and no explanation. I asked for an explanation, and was told that the manager was in a meeting, and that she had directed the customer service representative to give me the phone number, and to retain both the gift, and the gift card. I was very upset at this information. This representative was adamant that she was not going to return either. This, I respectfully suggested to her, may be considered theft.
I called the number given, which was out of service. The customer service representative offered me a second number, I called and got a message service. Since I did not know what the current situation was, I did not know what to say, so I left my name and phone number.
I then told the 'customer service representative' in the store that I needed to speak to a manager, to get an explanation. She said I would have to speak to someone at the number she gave me. I told her that I would not be leaving the store without either my gift, of the gift card. She then spoke again to her manager, and directed me to lift the phone to speak to 'someone at another store'. I spoke to a representative in an 'investigation department' . She advised me that I would not be granted a gift card, nor would I receive my gift back. (note that when I originally brought the gift into the store, it had a large fluorescent 'Zellers' security tape across it, which the original customer service representative removed in my presence) I advised the 'Investigations Department Representative' that I did not wish to leave the store without either my gift, or the balance of the gift in a gift card. She said that if that was my position, then I had 2 options. I could leave the gift, and the gift card in the store, while 'an audit investigation' was conducted to 'determine the original purchase information' of I could leave with the gift, and there would be no investigation. I questioned why there would be an investigation, and she assured me this was protocol for gifts returned without a receipt. I was employed by Zellers some years ago, and I do not know this to be policy.
Is it also policy to issue 'fake' gift cards to embarrass customers as they attempt to make a purchase? Is it also policy to refuse an explanation for this behavior?
I asked this representative to replace the security tape to my gift, and I chose to leave with it. I am absolutely outraged with this disrespectful behavior. I am not a thief, nor a criminal, and I did not behave inappropriately. I did not, and do not deserve this mistreatment. I was not offered an explanation for the actions and decisions of the management of the store. I have now left Zellers, with no resolution for the unsatisfactory product that was purchased in that store. I was not offered a substitution, an exchange, or the balance in a gift card. I respectfully demand an explanation for this substandard quality of customer service.
Comments
You'd make for a great civil action against Zellers. I'd advise you to seek legal counsel and rattle their cage! You could always file a complaint against them through their head office, the Internet Fraud Complaint Center, and then file a small-claims case against them yourself.
Thank you, and good luck.
My cousin purchased a Wii for my son’s birthday from the Zellers store in Coquitlam Center. After testing the Wii, we found that it was defective, so we brought it back to the store for exchange. Since the store was out of stock, we were issued a giftcard so that we could come back and purchase the item when it was in stock.
I returned to the store several days later to make my purchase only to find out that there was a zero balance on the giftcard. The clerk called a supervisor, who left for 10 minutes to place a call. She then came back and asked me to call another number. I spoke to a lady on Saturday, not knowing the entire situation, only that my gift card has a zero balance. She told me she would look into the situation and call me back.
The following day, I had not received a call back, so I called to find out if the issue with my giftcard had been resolved. Now, I am appalled to find out that the number given to me is the fraud department. This giftcard was issued less than a week ago for items that I wanted to exchange but were out of stock at the time. I am horrified to find out that I have been issued a fraudulent giftcard - a card that was issued directly from Zellers. It is my instinct to get the authorities involved.
After this exchange, I received a call back and the only solution offered by the company was to refund the amount back to my cousin’s credit card. My cousin lives in another province and I had already repaid her for making the original purchase so, basically, Zeller’s has stolen $369 and left me with a big mess to clear up.
My son is left without his birthday present and I am left with an awful, unsatisfied feeling.
I would rather wait another two weeks for the items to become available at another store than to shop at Zellers or any other company associated with HBC again.
I am hoping that the power of numbers of complaints will cause Zellers to take action. Or rally enough response to get a legal battle. Individual boycotts will not get attention.
1) We are disappointed with the demonstrated bad attitude of your staff located at Zellers #223, 2290 Dundas Street West M6R 1X4 in Toronto, Ontario. We shopped there on Friday 06 February 2009 at approximately 5:30p.m.
2) The black, middle-aged, female with a name-tag “Arlene” refused to let us try on a pair of trousers in the designated fitting-rooms. Furthermore, she could hardly speak any coherent English and appeared to be mentally challenged.
3) We asked a white, young, female with a name-tag “Debby” for the manager. She refused to get the manager for us, and started yelling at us.
4) After contacting another employee and being made to wait for over half-hour at the store, the manager [a stocky, young, black, male, with a small beard wearing a name-tag “Sean”] came to us, stating: “Yeah! What the [***] do you need?” When we tried explaining the problem to him, he started interrupting us, yelling at us, “Get the [***] out of my store! I am in-charge here! If you have a problem, leave.”
5) It is shocking and disappointing to note the bad and obnoxious attitude of your staff.
• We are a small sampling of the entire public and customer population.
• Chances are that if they did this with us, they may very well repeat a similar attitude with another customer. Possibly many clients may walk away without reporting it, leaving you wondering as to why you may be losing clients to your competitors.
• Other employees will probably follow the example of this "manager" Sean, who apparently was using "his bad attitude" and tough-guy attitude upon customers, using them as a "punching bag". And in the long run, the organization of his employer/ franchiser, i.e. "Zellers" gets a bad name.
• Furthermore, as you may be aware the best advertisement any organization carries is by word of mouth. Put yourself in our shoes. What would you tell others about Zellers?
Sincerely,
Ron
I get back to the shelf, and I was right, it is clearly marked at $10.49. A sales clerk just happened to be walking by and I stop her and ask her for her assistance. I explained to her that all the T.P. is in the same area, not out of order and the price ticket says $10.49 but it is coming up as $19.99. I then say, since this is clearly your error in pricing, I want to have it at the price it is marked at on the shelves. She looks at me, snorts and says as snotty as can be "I don't think so". She then rips the price sticker off the shelf in the process dropping it, looks at my husband and says "pick that up." I was BEYOND upset. I said forget it i'll go to Walmart, they honour their prices and their customers.
People who complain about Walmart being a big box store taking out little people like Zellers are morons. Any day of the week i will shop at Walmart over Zellers. Maybe if Zellers got their act together they would get more business.
Erin
The Zellers at the East York Town Centre at Overlea Blvd in Toronto has the most DISGUSTING washrooms I have ever seen.. and that includes third world countries I have visited.
Even worse, these washrooms are right next to the Restaurant.. and that's just pathetic.
I never even bothered using the facilities, it was just THAT BAD. TP everywhere but where it is supposed to be, no soap, graffiti, broken doors, not one stall was even remotely clean and even every hygiene bin were full!!
They should be investigated by Toronto Public Health. ASAP.