Reader comments
Stores should check their merchandise quality

My first thought was that you should have given us a hint of what store it was you were talking about. In today's world, a few bad reviews can really affect a company and what their customer service is like.

The snowball effect of one bad experience is greater than the effect of good experiences. Companies are well aware of that and also how fast things spread on the internet now.

If a store sells a defective product, my mother who worked in retail for many years, said that the store was never out, because they would return it to the manufacturer. However, in this case, it looked like the mattress worked o.k., just used. In that case, as you said, customer service should have inspected the item to see why it was being returned.

Sorry that you had that bad experience...but let us know where it happened so it won't happen to us!

Thanks

I don't know why to write an article and not mention the store so someone else does not get stuck. No matter what people dislike about the store, Wal-Mart has never refused returns.Next time shop there.

Probably Target.
I prefer their merchandise over W-Mart, but they have the absolute WORST return policy.

Used to be you could ONLY exchange something in the same dept. For example, we received two of the same DVD's for my daughter's b-day and wanted to exchange one for a toy. Couldn't do it. They insisted on DVD for other other video item.

Think they've changed that policy, but I'm still mad at them. Only problem is that a lot of the merchandise at WM is so poorly made, there really aren't good options for people on budgets.

Mentioning the store's name might be perceived by that store as libel (or would it be slander? I'm proudly no lawyer). In any case, the store accuses the paper and Ms. Collins of hurting their business; claims the accusations aren't true or are just a result of one lazy/bad employee--the "Abu Grhaib defense"; calls out their team of greysuits to draw up papers; etc; etc. Just less complicated for Ms. Collins and the Deseret News to print this piece without naming names.

Sad fact that it is, when I purchase merchandise in any store in which I'm not greeted by, "hi Hatu, nice to see you again!", I inspect the merchandise in the parking lot. Been burned too many times.

Sad.

Could have been worse, tho --

Saw a feature on TV the other day about people who've learned how to open pkgs, remove the goods, and then re-seal the box so it looks "unopened." They then return the "brand new" goods (box containing a piece of wood, or whatever will make the weight seem right) for a full refund and sell the (ipod, or whatever) on ebay!

Still, I agree: you should be able to count on a store to give you what you paid for.

Most of the time, anyway --