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We received the following comment last night, left in response to our post “Colder’s ‘Half Back’ Promotion Might Be A Scam”, from a kind but apparently unfortunate reader, Lisandra, currently caught up her own Colder’s Mess.
Here’s the full text of that comment, reposted here so it hits our RSS feed and gets as much online reach as possible:
hi alex,
boy, i sure wish i had come across your blog before i went shopping at colders! jeez, where do i start?
on 3/5 i went in to take advantage of their serta ‘full back’ offer. i bought a matteress set for about $1750 (reg price). so then i was able to pick out $1750 in ‘free’ stuff…at reg price. i bought a bed frame (850) a blue-ray (409) and a ‘19 tv (400) . not too bad of a ‘deal’. i had to pay less than $50 difference., no big deal. i priced the serta set (online and on sale) for about $1200-1300. so i feel i got a good deal. BUT…..(hear comes the problem) ………..
……that night i also purchased a floor model tv for $1150. (reg price was around 1600?) i didn’t receive any cash back because it was clearenced and a floor model. ok, no problem. i took home the tv that night and the next morning when i hooked everything up and turned it on, a blue vertical line from top to bottom, a quarter of the way in from the left, appears on the screen. wtf? i played around with the remote and all the settings to see if that might have fixed it…nope. i called colders and they told me i is probably the cable reception. so i called time warner and set up a time for them to come out and ‘fix’ it. that was on 3/10. just as i though, it wasn’t any problem with the signal. so i called colders for the 2nd about the issue and was told to talk to the salesperson who sold me the tv. of course, he was not there at that time. so i called the next day and was able to speak with him and he said i needed to speak with someone in service, so i was transferred. the person in sales told me i needed to speak with, yet another person, jim who has already left for the day! and won’t be back until monday!! ugh!!!!
so now, over a week goes by, and its the 6th time i call about this situation with no results. i finally was able to get ahold of ‘jim’ on 3/16 and told him what is going on and basically told him i want to just return the tv. he then has me transferred to another guy, whose higher up, and when he gets on the phone he basically tells me i can’t return it and its per manufacturers policy and that the tv needs to come in to be serviced. they would be able to come to my house to pick it up on the27th or 4/2…lol you have to be kidding!? i told him that i’ll be in that night to bring it in. so, i take it back to colders and told them i’m returning it. the poor girl in customer service/pick-up location didn’t know what to do. she was calling to 3-4 people to get an answer about taking a return and all each and every one of the people she talked to seemed like they didn’t want to ‘help’ or get involved…….
so, i left the tv there to be repaired, but was told to call the next day (which was today) and talk to the cust. serv. mgr. was told she works from 9-4:30. i called around 1pm and aked for her and was told she ‘left for the day’. boy, if i’m not getting the run around, wtf gives!!!!!??????? now i feel foolish because they have my money AND my tv!
Colder’s, shame on you–again and again and again.
We’d call this unbelievable, but unfortunately, stories like this are apparently entirely common. So sorry, Lisandra. 
 Which Colder’s location? Do you have any more details regarding the names and exact positions/titles of people with whom you’ve spoken? We’d be happy to out them all.
As we mentioned in our comment reply to Lisandra, there may be other options available to you, if you feel you’ve been swindled by Colder’s (or anyone else). You may have recourse if you paid with a credit card (including many debit cards, Visa/Mastercard-logo’ed or not). You can dispute charges with your bank/credit card provider and possibly get the item(s) charged back and off your account. Your bank/card provider may offer other buyer-protection options as well. Call them and ask; it’s good information to know anyway.
Additionally, you can always contact your state’s Attorney General’s office and file a consumer complaint. Here’s the Wisconsin Attorney General’s site for filing:
http://www.datcp.state.wi.us/cp/consumerinfo/cp/complaint-form/file_complaint.jsp
Please, good readers, help us help the rest of you. Get the word out. We hate reading these stories (this one was definitely not the first). We hate that Colder’s business model seems to predicate heavily upon an ability to play hard-working Milwaukee-area consumers for suckers. Talk to other people. Share your experiences here. Milwaukee, southeastern Wisconsin, northern Illinois… they all need to know about this bad-apple retailer.
Interesting.
This is in response to the posts on your website. I just wanted to share my latest encounter with Colders.
I have never been to Colders before this incident, and I don’t plan on going back.
I bought a Toshiba 55″ LCD TV for a tick over $2,000. Which included a five year service contract.
The girl at the counter rung everything up, I wrote a check, and set a date for delivery.
The very next day, today, which is 11/4/09, I got a call from the delivery department stating the TV cannot be delivered, as I owe $80.
I stopped into Colders and asked the girl at the counter what happened.
She explained that the other girl who rang the sale up made a mistake, and I still owed $80 on the transaction.
I was furious.
The girl called the manager to the counter, I did not catch his name.
He explained over and over that he wanted the order to be right, but never admitted that anyone made a mistake.
I likened it to someone charging $200 to fix a car, then after the car is picked up, the mechanic called back and said: “No no. You still owe me this much and this much.”
And surely he would see how ridiculous this was.
The manager refused to bend on anything.
Money was not the issue, as I just wrote a check for several thousand dollars, I do have $80 more, the point was were they going to call me the next day for more money?
If I didn’t have it delivered and I took it home, would they have still called me for more money?
I did not know.
So I asked for my money back.
The manager straight out refused to give me a refund.
I did not want the TV anymore, I decided to take my business elsewhere.
But he refused to refund the money. He still wanted that $80.
I later left, but called the bank and put a stop payment on the check, as that’s all I could really do.
Colder’s once again makes clear that which it values most. Which location was this?
Thanks for sharing your experience with us.