It has nothing to do with being cheap or of a certain financial demographic, either. Personal attacks always lack… let’s just call it “finesse”.

It has everything to do with being honest. Reputable businesses don’t do what Colder’s did to us: lie, cheat, and steal. A position and practice maintained from store salespeon up to and including Colder’s corporate staff.

You make a promise, you keep that promise. There’s nothing more fundamental and proper in business than that.

What business is it you run? People of all levels of affluence might like to know who it is that cares so much–or so little, if at all–about them.

Thanks for your comment.

i wouldnt expect it…they cant sell products at less than 1/2 price…i am a small business owner and mark up my products 35-40%…ive heard furniture is 100% markup and if you apply 2 different sales they lose money.

your expecting way to much…your 1/2 back credit was better than the current sale and id be thrilled about it…instead you expect even more….

I always find in my business that the cheapest customers expect the most…its been reinforced once again….thats why in my business i shoot for the upper middle class and beyond.

I appreciate your lengthy reply here. It’s well-written, and I hope it helps further explain how “Something More” or “Full Back”, etc. just…. isn’t. I’m also going to promote your comment to a new post, as there are holiday shoppers doing online shopping and searches now that might otherwise miss this comment and make a terrible holiday shopping mistake.

I’ll add a link here to that post when it’s ready.

Our story is that we say a dining room set we loved at $1,200. That qualified us for the “full back” promotion and we would get an additional $1,200 as a store credit. They are also currently having an additional 5% bonus so my credit was $1,300. We wanted to buy a dishwasher with the credit and found a nice Professional Frigidaire we liked that also had great reviews.

So, the normal price on the Frigidaire was $750 but the “full back credit” price was $1,060 so basically I was giving Colder’s $360 of my credit back as pure profit to them and nothing to show for it. This is in addition to paying a $400 premium price for the dining room set above their normal price.

Bottom line is that to get my dining room set and a dishwasher, I would be giving Colder’s $710 of my $1,300 credit as pure profit to line their pockets. This is above and beyond the normal profit they receive on the items at the regular prices.

What’s even better is that Best Buy had the exact same dishwasher on sale for $595 with an instant $20 coupon and they also told me about $100 in rebates Frigidaire was offering so I got the dishwasher for $475. Something our salesman at Colder’s neglected to tell us about…..

It was smoke and mirrors from the moment we walked in the door. I spent 20 minutes with him on Saturday and another 30 minutes with him on Sunday. I have his scribble card right here in front of me and none of it makes sense. Voodoo Economics. For the record I have an undergraduate degree in Economics and a Masters in Finance and I’ve worked in the Financial Services industry for 20 years. If I can’t make heads or tails out of this, I’m sure non-numbers people would be baffled by it (or just overwhelmed by the slick sales pitch and just buy everything out of blind faith that they are getting a good deal).

Could I have bought the table at the normal price and bypassed the “full back” promotion? Yes, and the price was $870. However, that was still a normal everyday price with no discounts for the holiday or any sales pricing. Based on my experience this weekend and the smoke and mirrors games, I refuse to give them anything going forward (and I’ve spent probably $5,000 over the years at Colder’s before these types of sales evolved – they used to be a great place to shop).

All they are doing is marking everything up 25 to 30% above the “normal” prices to create the cushion for the “full or half back” promotions. What they fail to tell you is that you are giving them back the 25 to 30% of your rebate in addition to the profit margins they already have built into the normal pricing. Nothing illegal about it and if they get people to buy from them, good for them – it’s a free market society. However, it won’t be from me anymore. There are way too many other options out there from stores that don’t play games.

As it stands with us currently, we’re finally rid of our Cash Back credit, but Colder’s company-wide incompetence, indifference, and just plain arrogance continued right through to the end of it all. Such an ongoing series of mind-blowing missteps at every turn by a larger area retailer like Colder’s–at every level of the company, again–should be completely impossible. We will eventually get around to writing up the conclusion of our year-long fiasco; the last stages of our experience were some of the most ridiculous.

As for forgiving and forgetting: we’re not the first customers to have terrible experiences that remain(ed) unresolved. We surely aren’t the last, either. Colder’s has not made any effort with us to correct their mistakes or accept any responsibility whatsoever. The behavior we experienced is unforgivable and unacceptable. As long Colder’s keeps up with their bad behavior, we’ll continue highlighting our experiences and those of other Colder’s victims. Ultimately, we have no qualms at all about warning people away from even the smallest parts of what we’ve been through. Why risk it when there are so many other options that provide as-good or better all-around retail sales and service experiences?

So–very sincerely–congratulations, and good luck with your purchases.

Glad to hear you managed to have a good experience. You may have missed the parts of our posts about ours, where we’ve indicated we attempted multiple times to make sure we had all info, were told we did, and yet we clearly didn’t. Even now, nearly a year later, we have nothing in writing detailing the terms of the sale we participated in, and we’ve nearly had a different story for every different person we’ve dealt with, all along the way.

The only “our bad”, ultimately, is having shopped with Colder’s in the first place.

Thanks again.

Thanks for writing. We’re very happy to hear you were able to have a good experience.

You wrote:
> I guess I can understand your frustration if the promotion wasn’t explained to you.

Our frustration and anger is because the promotion was explained to us. Or, rather, we thought it had been. We asked all the questions we felt we needed to ask. We were assured multiple times that our understanding of the Half-Back credit was correct in every way.

We’re not unfamiliar with bold claims or fine print; I’ve personally been around a fair bit myself, too, and am particularly sensitive to ensuring we’re getting a fair shake and the deal as it’s advertised. I’m familiar with all the tricks. We asked all the questions. We got–we thought–all the answers.

We only learned months later–entirely coincidentally–that what we were told at our original purchase was incorrect. We still do not know if the omissions were deliberate or accidental, but nearly all of the most critical bits of the Half-Back promotion’s fine print were excluded… which leads us to think we were swindled, flat-out. And we’ve been lied to and strung along many times now since. Coupled with Colder’s corporate-level indifference, arrogance,and total unwillingness to honor their word to us–so far–only serves to further support our conclusion and confirm other stories we’ve seen and heard about.

Also, given Colder’s is a local-area business, we think local consumers need to be educated about the possible if not entirely likely downside(s) of shopping there… and so, here we are.

Again, best of luck with your purchase. We hope your experience remains positive, we really do.

Thank you for posting. We’re very sorry to hear this. It seems Colder’s is very good at the Long Runaround.

We would appreciate it very much if you could keep us informed about the status of your situation. A man named Jim and a female customer service manager…sounds very familiar to us; we would love to know more details as you see fit.

Realize, too, that you may have recourse if you paid with a credit card; you can dispute charges with the bank/credit card company and maybe get the TV charged back and off your account, or other buyer’s protection options depending on your card/bank. Don’t wait too long, though.

Additionally, if you’re ultimately left unsatisfied, definitely contact the WI Attorney General’s office:

http://www.datcp.state.wi.us/cp/consumerinfo/cp/complaint-form/file_complaint.jsp

Good luck, and please keep us informed!