It’s hard not to take it just a little bit personally when a store doesn’t want to sell you something. That’s what happened to Hel when she got a great coupon code from Lane Bryant that gave her 50% off a large purchase. She tells Consumerist that she assembled a $1,400 order ($700 with the coupon) — an entire wardrobe for the next few years, really.

I’ve been buying my clothes at Lane Bryant for almost a decade, at
this point a good 85% of my wardrobe is clothes from them. So,
recently when Lane Bryant had a coupon code that, if you spent $250 or
more, would give you 50% off your entire purchase, I was thrilled.
I’ve been needing to upgrade my wardrobe from pre-college and
undergrad style jeans and t-shirts to nicer slacks and blouses
appropriate for grad school.

I carefully checked when the coupon code was good through (midnight
eastern on 10/18), and spent several days browsing the Lane Bryant
website, choosing just the right items while staying within my budget.
When I was done, I had $1400 worth of clothes in my basket, which the
coupon code brought down to $700. A lot, sure, but a great variety of
classic, versatile stuff, and I’ve continually found Lane Bryant
clothes to be well made and durable, so I was looking at this as an
investment in my wardrobe to keep me until I’ve gotten my Ph.D.

Just before I clicked buy late in the evening on the 18th, I decided
to recheck my budget one last time, just to reassure myself that yes,
I really could afford to spend so much all at once. Reassured, I
flipped back to the Lane Bryant website at 11:40pm, and clicked the
submit order button.

Only to have it pop up saying that my credit card could not be
processed! I frantically pulled up my credit card website, confirmed I
had almost 3 times as much available credit as what I was trying to
charge. Checked the address and other personal info on my credit card
account against what I’d entered at Lane Bryant (I moved about 6 weeks
ago, and thought perhaps I’d not updated things.) No, that was all
fine. Back to Lane Bryant, where I tried again twice more to put my
order in, once at the absolute last minute, 11:59. No luck.

I promptly emailed Lane Bryant via their online contact form,
explaining my problem, and pointing out that their website or credit
card processing problem prevented me from utilizing the coupon code.
I’ve yet to hear back.

And to make things just that much more annoying, my credit card
company called me the next morning, to ask why there were three
identical authorizations against my card. The credit card CSR
confirmed that each of the three attempts I made to purchase the
clothes from Lane Bryant were valid according to their credit card
system, and that if the order hadn’t gone through, it wasn’t due to
anything on the credit card company’s end. And as a final bit of
insult, on the 20th I received an email from Lane Bryant advertising
50% off if you spent $250 or more, only to find, upon reading the fine
print that it was the same coupon expiring on the 18th, which they’d
apparently re-sent on the 20th!

So, I guess Lane Bryant won’t be getting my grad school wardrobe
dollars, and instead of being able to get everything I need all at
once and not having to worry about it thereafter, I’ll be spending
months keeping an eye out for good deals and comparison shopping, or
just getting less for my money.

Way to make things even worse for a customer who’s already disappointed that her order didn’t go through back when the coupon was still valid. For Hel’s sake, we hope that an equally great coupon comes around again soon.

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