Poor Advertising on items in store

I thought retail stores had some kind of policy where if an item was
signed wrong they had to give you the sale anyway? Guess not anymore,
that's lousy.

Some stores used to do this but then just got scammed by people who
"claimed" the item was on the sale rack or put several there
themselves and then would go back and say "here, see, there are
more."

Also, a lot of people just put stuff back where it doesn't belong.
They pick it up, think they might buy it and when they decide they
don't want it, just drop it anywhere.

When I was at Macy's, we had so many people claim stuff came from the
clearance rack when it obviously did not. I used to take them over to
the real display and show them.

I only worked there for 6 weeks during the holidays to earn some extra
money and boy did I get an eye opening about what some people would
do!

I stand corrected. I did receive a reply... an automated reply, which
I assume is standard. It basically said thank you for writing and
someone will get back with you.

So I am sure they are looking into it and I will hear back from
somebody.

This really turned out to be a great letter. I'm patient up to a point
and I would still have been willing to wait for the manager,
expecially knowing I was right, the signs clearly marked the percent
off, and were placed where the products you purchased were.
I thought about your decision to leave and still write the letter. I
think they should take this feedback seriously. I wish more of the
"suits" who run these stores would secretly shop them themselves and
see what the consumer has to deal with.
I was waiting for something that never materialized at the end of the
letter, and seeing it wasn't there, it shows you are serious about
wanting them to know better so they can learn and do better.

This is a GREAT letter. Had this happened to me I would have waited
around for the manager. But if you can live with not doing so...
that's all you! lol

Thanks for sharing this letter. :)

I'm kind of surprised that salesperson would tell you the price must
have been for items on the "other" side of the display. That's kind
of shady.

Personally, I like the stores that LIST the merchandise or at least
the SKU numbers of the items included in the sale - then there is no
mistake or confusion and the customer doesn't have to waste time
because it's all right there in black & white.

I hope they at least rectify the situation and even though it wasn't a
great experience, you'll give them another chance.

Good letter, Bob. And you're right: Sale items do NOT get a sticker
on them; clearance items do. And as far as the "it must be for the
items on the other side" comment, that employee is WRONG. If the
items on one side of the table/display are on sale, then only that
side can be marked as a sale.

I spent two years working for Dayton's/Marshall Fields, which was
bought by Macy's, and my job was to "set sales" and mark items down to
clearance (and unload the truck). This employee needs more training,
and the people in charge of setting sales at that Macy's location need
more training as well. Sounds like a few laws were broken.

And I'm glad you didn't cave and buy the clothes anyway. I hope you
see our comments and let us know if you hear back from Macy's.

I kept waiting for Bob to be unreasonable. But it never came.

Bob did exactly what he should have, as a customer. Including
requesting a manager. This was mishandled and Bob was right to
leave.

However... without a store location, I'm not sure that anything will
be corrected. Either for Bob or for anyone else in the situtation.

When I worked at Macy's, we had a procedure for these situations. The
first thing we did was go over to the display and verify the sale
sign. We checked the wording "all Calvin Klein shirts 20% off" as
opposed to "all long sleeve Calvin Klein shirts 20% off". If I
determined that the shirt fell into that category, I would check the
sign for the dates. Sometimes old signs were left up by accident. If
it was an old sign, we would remove the sign but give that customer
the sale price.

If I still couldn't determine if the item actually was on sale or not,
I called a manager who had other ways to check. Again, if it was a
problem with the signage, we gave that customer the sale price and
removed the sign.

I find it odd that so many items rang up wrong. Macy's has a team of
people who come in overnight to put up signs for sales. If I had two
items per day to check, that was a lot.

I do think you should have waited for the manager who would have been
able to help you. If you've never had a problem like this at that
store before and I assume you haven't because you said you like to
shop there, I think you should have given them a chance to make this
right for you. It could have been an error on the part of the person
who keyed in the sale prices, maybe they missed a page or something.

You are correct in saying that not all sale items have sale stickers
on them. They don't put new stickers on for temporary markdowns.
Only when something goes to clearance does it get an orange sale
sticker.

Good letter. It is extremely frustrating to find clothes that are on
sale, only to discover that they are not on sale because of either
register errors or mis-marking by the store.

And kudos for attempting to speak to a manager about this issue.

A similar thing happened to me over Christmas at Boston Store. I
wanted to buy a scarf. There was a table of them with a sign that said
25%. The scarf didn't ring up as on sale and I showed the sign to the
clerk. There was nothing on it indicating selected styles, but she
refused to give me the 25% off. She told me the sign shouldn't be
there, but sure enough, a week later and the sign was still in the
same place. I now wish I had brought it to the manager's attention.

Good letter. It can be so frustrating to find great sales, but in the
end not get the sale price. In a perfect world, the computer/registers
would always have the sales programmed in and save everyone - the
clerks as well as the customers - a lot of headache and trouble. Kudos
for not calling for the firing of the clerk - who was just doing his
job - or gratuitous freebies.