Help! Macy's Gave Us An "Invalid" $120 Gift Card

Nate and Ashley got some duplicate gifts from Macy’s and attempted to exchange them for store credit. The trouble is, when they tried to spend the gift card they’d be given — they found out that it had never been validated. They’re pretty much resigned to the fact that they’re not getting the $120 in store credit back, but they’d like to let Macy’s know that they were treated very rudely by several employees.

I was wondering if you could give some advice or suggestions. My wife (Ashley) and I got married on April 19th. She had a bridal shower in the middle of March in Saratoga, New York (our Hometown). Like every other bridal shower in the history of modern America, she received 2 coffee grinders and 2 blenders. We did not have a registry but knew that they came from [Macy’s]. We did not have gift receipts so we received store credit. They did their typical deal of taking Driver’s License information and issued a easy exchange gift card. The only thing out of the ordinary was it took her a very long time to do the transaction. It was a card for about $120 when it was done.

Fast forward to this month. We went to use the card to get some sheets that were on sale but was told that the card was “invalid” at the register. Not zero balance but the actual card was invalid. She assured us that it was an easy fix and to call corporate. Between March and July we misplaced the register receipt from the return. Ashley called corporate that following workday and was told that the card was invalid that we could return to the store and register that the return was done and they could fix it even with out the receipt. We then called the Macy’s store and a manager confirmed corporate’s story about it being an easy fix.

On Sunday July 20th we went to Macy’s. We went to the register and they employee was very nice and brought us over to the executive office where we met Nick and Rebecca (actual names). From the moment we were introduced they both were extremely rude.

We explained our situation to them and they once again confirmed that card was invalid and concluded that the card was improperly scanned when we made the return. They said that unless we knew the exact date that we returned the items it would be impossible for them to fix the problem. We said that we are not sure because it was 4 months ago but we knew which employee did the return. Nick said that it wouldn’t matter because they don’t save employee schedules and it is all online and they don’t know them and without the date we were out of luck. I explained it was a weekday in late March and that is only 10 days to look at but he refused to listen.

Ashley asked why did they take all of our info when returned it and they said that the only person that has access to that is in some security office and that would be a dead end. Then we asked if they could do an item returned check since we remembered what they were. Nick said that unless we knew the exact color of the items to get the exact UPC numbers this would also be pointless. We went to look for the items only to find they were not longer stocked at the store. Nick once again said that since the items are no longer here we are once again out of luck and they had NO way to look up UPC numbers. A very helpful Wedding Registry Employee said that she could look up UPC numbers using the bridal registry. We found the coffee grinder and Rebecca called some office and was told that that model of grinder was never returned in March.

Nick told us in a very agitated manner that there was nothing else they could do and the ONLY way to fix it was to call my Aunt and get a copy of the purchase receipt and then maybe they could fix it. He said “make up a story” to why you needed it. We explained that that was mildly rude and they basically walked away from us.

My gut feeling was that the transaction was never completed properly when we returned the items. That is why the card was invalid and the UPC search came up empty. If that is the case no amount of searching will find the transaction. We are not even overly concerned about the money as it was only 120$ and a gift. We were much more upset and shocked about the way Nick and Rebecca treated us. They were very rude and condescending the whole time and frequently change their story as to what they were able to do and were caught in several lies and had to backpedal. They never once apologized for the situation or tried to fix the problem without us prompting them on suggestions. I wanted to email someone in Macy’s corporate but I was unable to find an email outside of the standard “Contact Us” on the website. We also looked over your website but came up empty handed. Any direction would be great.

We’d love to help you launch an EECB about this issue, but, sadly, we don’t have much in the way of Macy’s executive customer service info. Of course, you can always follow the instructions located here. We’re pretty sure their emaill address format is firstname.lastname@macys.com.

Anyone got better info to share? tips@consumerist.com

(Photo: smcgee )

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