$15 Re-Stocking Fee
By jsitko
@jsitko (1169)
United States
December 14, 2008 3:37pm CST
I am so upset. My husband purchased 2 Sylvania 19" Flat screen HD TVs from Sears. One of them was to go to his Mom for Christmas and the other in our bedroom. He hooked ours up and we were disappointed in the picture and sound quality so we returned them to the store. When we walked in the salesman was pleasant at first until he realized that we were going to return the TVs, then he got rude. My husband stated why the return and the salesman replied, what did you expect for such a small tv with no surround sound. He then asked if we opened 1 or both boxes, we said one and pointed out which one. The assistant opened it up to check on it and then the salesman said that he is going to charge us a $15 re-stocking fee. I asked why and why so much, he replied rudely, well once opened, we have to sell as used. Nothing was wrong with any of the packing materials or the box.
I was mad that he was so rude about the whole thing and the fact that we were totally unaware of the re-stocking fee when we purchased them.
Should we have broken it and lied to receive full credit on our card? What would you do if you are in this situation? $15 is a lot to pay for nothing.
3 responses
@savak03 (6684)
• United States
15 Dec 08
I might have had to pay it because it is pretty standard procedure but I would have tried a little harder to get out of it.
The first thing I would have done is politely ask to speak to the manager and while I was explaining the situation to him I would be sure to mention the clerks attitude. It does not matter that you were returning an item, you were still entitled to be treated with respect. Just because you didn't want those TVs didn't mean you would never shop there again. The clerk was out of line and his company would not have appreciated him being rude to the customers for any reason.
As a mystery shopper I am often sent in to check on customer service. Sometimes I am required to return some item to see how the staff handles the return process. Believe me if the clerk was rude they would get a bad report.
@jsitko (1169)
• United States
16 Dec 08
Hi Savak03, Thanks for your response. I did try to get out of paying the fee and that just made the sales person ruder. Apparently he was also the store manager as well. I wish I was a mystery shopper then, Sear's would have gotten a very bad report on the rudeness, also because they did not let us know when we bought them that there might be a re stocking fee. I did call Sears, found out that was the manager and wrote them a letter as well, I am still waiting for a response. Hopefully I will get some satisfaction from the corporate level.
@jsitko (1169)
• United States
22 Dec 08
Hey Savak03, Sorry it took me a while to answer, bust with holiday stuff. I did get a hold of the right people in corporate level and they seemed very concerned with the way I was treated. I am getting my re-stocking fee back and a bonus $10 certificate off my next purchase. I was also told that they will inform the manager of my complaint and let him know that it is not their policy to treat customers in such a manner, which is actually more important to me than the certificate.
@savak03 (6684)
• United States
16 Dec 08
I'm glad you followed up on that because I know for a fact that sears does not appreciate their employees being rude to the customers, specially since it was the manager. Managers are supposed to be setting a good example for the rest of the employees so it was more important for him to be gracious than anyone else.
I hope you asked for a refund of the restocking fee in your letter to sears. At the very least they should honor that request in the interest of good customer relations.
@netshopper30 (15)
• United States
15 Dec 08
I would contact Sears and report the rude salesperson and complain about the restocking fee. Retail stores really need business right now so they should listen to their customers and treat them well. And nothing is going to change if people don't share their complaints with the company.
@jsitko (1169)
• United States
16 Dec 08
Hey Netshopper30, Great advice! I did send out a letter to Sears, I had called store and found out that the rude salesman was also the mgr. I am hoping to get the fee back as I could not find anywhere stating that they were going to charge me a fee. I remember the day when Sears was the place to shop for the holidays and they bent over backwards for you to make you happy.
@sedel1027 (17846)
• Cupertino, California
14 Dec 08
So many places charge that restocking fee that I just assume they charge it, usually the notice is on the back of your receipt though.
I don't think $15 is bad at all though. Normally restocking is a percentage of the purchase price.
@jsitko (1169)
• United States
14 Dec 08
Hi sedel, Thanks for your response. It was my first time ever to be charged a restocking fee. There was nothing on our receipt that said that would happen. It was all done on our Sears visa card and even there we could not find where it would charge us. It was a percentage of the sale of that one tv, we did get a deal on it but it is not even worth that.
