For duo, Basement ban is no bargain: Sister shoppers get a dressing down from store honchos

Boston Globe ^ | July 13, 2003 | Bruce Mohl

[sarcasm]

The rare Basement ban was handed down in May in a bluntly worded letter to Nancy Singer from the chain's corporate parent, Value City Department Stores of Columbus, Ohio.

''Given your history of excessive returns and your chronic unhappiness with our services, we have decided that this is the best way to avoid any future problems with you and your sister,'' wrote David E. Sherer, vice president of loss prevention.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

No scarf for you!

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[patj]

They must be pretty horrible customers to get banned from the store. Of course, we see the usual; "Not me! I didn't do anything to deserve this."

[goldstategop]

If it was Jesse Jackson would he get banned for life?? Hmmm

[Freedom4US]

Is this for real, or something from the Onion??

Stores apparently have the right to evict customers because, technically, a store is private property and retailers are not required to sell to every willing buyer. Still, a store eviction is a very rare occurrence

Either the author can't write a sentence, or he just found about private property is really upset about the whole idea.

[NYS_Eric]

Look out Marshalls. They're comin' for you now.

[Welsh Rabbit]

"Not me! I didn't do anything to deserve this."

Yeah, right; when the CFO of a relatively large chain of stores has to get involved in case involving two individual costumers, you know they had to be a real pain in the a$$. I'm glad, it's better for the other costumers too. I always seem to get stuck behind weird cranks like these in line and they cause the staff to assume a seige mentality.

[Miss Marple]

Customers who abuse a store's return policy are the reason stores have instituted more rigid requirements for returns.

Several years ago as a furniture saleswoman I had a customer turned over to me because another consultant couldn't seem to satisfy her. I visited her home and looked at the items she was unhappy with. I agreed that the store would exchange the items although they were not really defective, but merely not to her taste.

She came into the store later to select replacements, and while there started bragging to me about how she always got the gift with purchase at the cosmetic counter and then later returned the purchase, keeping the free gift.

A little alarm went off in my head, so I encouraged her to talk. Pretty soon she was explaining how you can buy a dress for an occasion, hide the tag so it isn't visible, and then return it after the event. She bragged about how Lazarus would take back almost anything.

After she had left, I notified our manager that I expected the replacement furniture to be unsatisfactory for her after a month or two. Sure enough, she called and demanded to return the replacement items.

When our manager refused, she called the north side store and complained about our manager and wanted an exchange, which they foolishly gave her.

She had figured out how to game the store's system for free rental furniture, and as far as I know she is still pulling this stuff.

People who do excessive returns are thieves of time and money.

[kitkat]

My guess is that these two kooks contacted the newspaper to further their agenda against the store. GET OVER IT, SIS..

I've only had a quick look at a Filene's store, but what I saw was enough. The clothes were crushed into overflowing racks and full of wrinkles. The quality was the cheapest. Is this typical of Filene's or was it an aberration?

[Ronin]

I can remember one instance many years ago when a woman brought an entire store to a screeching halt by demanding a product that was out of stock at a sale price that had expired 2 days before in the late evening.

They had the manager practically in tears. No doubt they would have GIVEN it to the woman free of charge just to get her out of the place -- but it simply wasn't there. None. We don't have it anymore...

No sympathy for these women. I hope the store sticks by their guns and keeps them out.

[EuroFrog]

I was refused a refund once and was so upset about it, I refuse to return to the store. Its a little Mom and Pop Country Western clothing store. I went in there, dropped alot of money on an outfit. The owner fully assured me the jeans would not shrink. Well, after one washing, they shrank so much I couldnt even button them. The store refused to return the pants. I might as well have walked in there, opened my wallet, said "Here! I have some extra money! You want it cause I sure dont!"

[Vesuvian]

Have you ever been to Costco? I have seen people return snow blowers (no box) in the month of April, carpet cleaners the day or two after a major holiday. I sometimes wonder how stores can make any money with people abusing the return policy.

Sounds like these 2 never actually kept anything but used Filene's more as a lending "library."

The Filene's I have been too have looked like disaster areas, but that could be because of the customers wrecking the place to find a "bargain."

[Miss Marple]

We don't have a Costco here in central Indiana. I do know what you meman, though. Meijer takes back just about anything...I have been in line at their service desk when some of these people show up.

[EllaMinnow]

Some people have latched on to a new scam. They buy up armloads of stuff at bargain basement prices, take it home, photograph it, and list the items on eBay. If they don't get any bids, they take the stuff back.
Not quite as bad as those who use photos from a sale circular to list on ebay, and then dash out to buy the item once they've sold it.

[angkor]

Is this typical of Filene's or was it an aberration?

Yes and no.

The original Boston store (affectionately called "The Basement") was literally in the basement of the main downtown Filene's.

I'm a guy and not at all into clothes shopping, but I have to say that the original Basement was an appealing place for everyone. You'd go in during weekday lunch hour and the place was crammed with lawyers, students, professionals of all stripes, making their way through the disheveled racks of "seconded" Brooks Brothers and Cerutti suits, 100 percent cashmere coats, Aquascutum and Burberry's jackets ... all very high quality stuff with minor manufacturing defects, usually at 50 to 80 percent off retail.

I vaguely recall when they opened a second Basement somewhere out in the Boston suburbs, and the quality and selection was not at all up to snuff. Strangely, you could still find "the good stuff" at the original store.

As the Basement grew, they started doing what a lot of the outlet chains do, which is to bring in their own private-label stuff from Asia as "seconds," which they really were not. They were just slapping obscure private labels on shirts which you can buy for $3.00 retail in Indonesia or Vietnam, and marking them up to $7.00 or $10.00 for the U.S. market.

[mewzilla]

I wonder if these customers were in the habit of buying something, wearing it with the tags still on but hidden, then returning it? Clerks I know have told me that happens a lot.

[wunderkind54]

Two low-lifes with no life abuse store policy and its employees.

If this wasn't so amusing, it would be pathetic.

[Vesuvian]

Amazing- I have seen people go crazy at the Lord & Taylor outlet, they just grab a pile of stuff and dump it in a shopping cart and buy it all. I wonder what they do with it, as that store has no refunds or exhanges.

[freekitty]

These are buyer Sisters from Hell. We have all seen people like them.

I agree with the store. Who needs ya.