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Last night we experienced, first-hand, a denial by a local Colder’s store manager, flat-out refusing to honor advertised sale pricing on merchandise because part of the payment would be made using a “half-back” store credit from a purchase we made at their location earlier this summer.
We were shopping in this particular Colder’s store location last night and overheard several salespeople telling other customers they would have to pay the “redemption price” (the regular, non-sale price) for any item so marked if they wanted to apply any half-back credit they might have to redeem, and that they could not take advantage of the advertised sale price of the item at ALL if they planned on using that credit.
What it means is if you’re trying to pay for an item using a store credit from a previous half-back promotion, they are going to insist you start at the FULL NON-SALE PRICE instead of any advertised sale price for the item, and apply your credit from there.
So, an example… You see a $1200 item on sale for $900. You have a store credit worth, say, $500. Instead of getting that item for $900 - $500 = $400+tax, you’re instead charged $1200 - $500 = $700+tax. Your store credit just lost the amount equal to the sales-pricing discount, and suddenly you’re paying a lot more for the item than you’d (rightfully) expect!
From our perspective, this is stealing or some sort of retail-variety long con.
I have a $500 store credit. You’re a store advertising an item at a sale price of $900. I redeem my $500 credit toward that item, paying the $400 difference, plus any taxes/fees/etc. This is how these things work, Colder’s. Simple.
None of this was making any sense–so we got curious about the details and went to the customer service counter to ask for any actual written information about the promotion.
We were told by both the customer service desk and the summoned sales manager on duty whose name I don’t have in front of me (though we do have his business card; we’ll post names and other details later as necessary) that they don’t have anything in writing detailing the terms and conditions of the half-back promotion.
No written terms or conditions exist for the promotion at all, we were told. How is any customer able to agree to unwritten, unspecified terms like this, exactly? How is this even remotely enforceable? Or legal? There is nothing written anywhere–not on our receipt, nor on any signs or other customer-facing brochures or literature–regarding this credit having any sorts of limitations, exclusions, terms or conditions regarding future purchases, etc, in any fashion.
As mentioned, we have an existing half-back credit from a few months ago and no such conditions were ever presented to us. We were certainly not informed of any such restrictions at the time of our original mattress/box-spring purchase earlier this summer. My wife and I were there, with her parents–so we had plenty of people witnessing the entire transaction. No language to that effect exists anywhere on our receipt. No written information to that effect was included with our purchase. No store signage indicated this anywhere. Nothing regarding this limitation was presented to us verbally at the time, either. Had we known about any such restrictions, we would likely have not made the purchase we did.
Two of the conditions we were told about at the time were apparently lies anyway: we were told we could only use the credit at THAT particular Colder’s location, and additionally, that if we lost the receipt, we’d lose our credit, period. We still have the business card/name of that original salesperson.
The sales manager we spoke with last night confirmed our salesperson’s original statements to us were incorrect. Apparently–according to this sales manager, anyway–half-back store credits can be used at any Colder’s store, and any transaction/receipt can be looked up as necessary, so while the original receipt is handy, it’s not essential to receive the credit.
If those conditions weren’t true, how do we know these other conditions are true, lacking anything at all in writing, anywhere?
Several times during our conversation last night, this sales manager kept mentioning “our lawyers”. We don’t know if he was attempting to threaten or otherwise intimidate us, but it won’t work. What did happen, though, is we lost out on a chance to take advantage of a pretty big Columbus Day sale. And Colder’s has lost both a sale–so far–and some customer loyalty. Neither come cheap anymore…
We’ve not spoken with anyone higher up than the store sales manager so far regarding this…thievery. We’ll attempt to reach a district or regional representative in the next day or so at the West Allis location.
More on this as we work through it. In the meantime, buyer beware… Colder’s may be ripping you off.
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Just wanted to say HI. I found your blog a few days ago on Technorati and have been reading it over the past few days.
I must say this is a great article i enjoyed reading it keep the good work
Please keep me updated on the status of this. I was considering making a purchase to receive the half back promotion, but will not if this is the case.
Thanks.
Ben
@Dan, @Mike: Thanks for stopping by.
@ben: We’ll definitely be following up once we know something more; thanks for visiting.
And… if you (or anyone else out there) happens to call or stop by a store in the meantime and see what they say, we’d love to hear about your experience. My guess is you’ll have the same we had…but would love additional experiences that either confirm or refute our experience as Colder’s general policy (or lack thereof).
We were rather busy this past week, but we’ve finally made an initial attempt to contact someone more authoritative or knowledgeable at Colder’s. Despite requesting it, we were not given any direct contact information by the sales manager for his superior(s), so we’re left cold-emailing Colders hoping our situation finds the right person. We’ll see.
My husband and I inquired about this very subject when we went to purchase a sofa and were told the same thing….half off the full price of your next purchase. We asked what they could do for us if we didn’t want the half off offer. They gave us a discount off of the sofa we were interested in (sorry, I can’t remember the percentage). The way we figured it, not only was the half off offer not worth it, but we were locked into buying from Colder’s again. What if we couldn’t find something else there that we liked? When you look at it that way, it really ISN’T a great (or even a good) deal.
N Gleason: Thank you for posting. We still haven’t received any resolution of this issue, after a flurry of initial attempts to contact us, and a little back and forth trying to connect, Colder’s seems to have dropped off the earth as far as our situation is concerned. Needless to say, we’re not pleased with how this happened, or how it’s continuing to fester unresolved.
I regret having shopped with Colder’s at all at this point. We’re satisified with the mattress and box springs we bought several months ago, but I’m positive it wasn’t worth any of this, in retrospect.
More worrisome than our own situation is that it’s almost certainly a company-wide problem… happening to a lot of other people who won’t know until they go back trying to get the deal they through they were being promised, only to get the runaround and a Version B or C of the original sales pitch.
Same exact thing happened to my daughter. They purchased a living room set and had $1000.00 cash back to use. They went in to buy a plasma tv and wanted to buy the floor model to save $$. They were told they couldn’t purchase the floor model because it was discounted and they had to pay full price with their 1/2 back coupon. When they went to pick up the TV it was the FLOOR MODEL!! Funny…as I’m writing this Colders has an ad on the radio for 25% cash back!!
I have a 500.00 credit from purchase this summer.I just purchased Maytag frontloader washer and was told that if I wanted to use credit I could not have sale price.I opted for the sale price.Washer was delivered and did not fit under my counter.I have been in contact with sales person and customer service and want to get a refund at this point.Tonight I was told I bought merchandise that was marked lower that floor model and could not be refunded .Sales receipt does say floor model are not returnable or sales greater that 30% off originAl price.I did not purchase floor model and was not aware of any great savings being that I paid 899.00 for washer.I am starting to feel scamed on using half back credit .I have been in twice to purchase items and have opted to take “sale” price because to use credit I would come out overpaying if I purchased item at full price.I am awaiting call back from manager on returning washer.I was also told if I purchased another washer I would have to pay a second delivery charge.I waited 30 minutes in store yesterday to resolve with sales person.I called today and was placed on hold for 25minutes and finally hung up.At this point I no longer want to purchase anything else from Colder,s.They have not been very customer friendly or have they offered any assistance to solve problem.
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