Sharon followed a link from our daily “Morning Deals” post to clothing retailer Jos. A. Bank to check out the “clearance” section. There was a coupon code for an additional 25% off clearance items, but apparently not all clearance sales are created equal.

I saw a “morning deal” listed at Consumerist on [August 3] for 25% off Clearance Items. Went to their site, searched through their clearance items, picked two sportjackets – made sure the coupon deal was working on the first – my husband decided he liked the other instead, it wouldn’t accept the coupon and showed that I had duplicated my use of the coupon.

Since I was only using the coupon for the one item, I put through the order and wrote to Customer Service for help. They refused to honor the coupon, insisting that the item wasn’t part of their Clearance, even though it comes up when you search via Clearance at their site, and it was marked down from $495 to $148. Angry at them for not honoring their Advertised price, but it was a good price so I went ahead with the order.

Today, I went to check their site – they have raised the price of the same jacket to $247.50 and show that they will honor the coupon! Seems kind of sleezy to raise the prices of your clearance items so that you can receive a sales price!

Guess I should be glad I bought it last week, when it was $100 less but no coupon accepted. I searched your site, and the web to find a Corporate email address of theirs to write to – no luck, only Customer Service – which has been no help.

I always thought Jos.A.Bank was a high end company, guess I was wrong.

It’s possible that the lower price but classification as NOT a clearance item was due to a data error, and they aren’t obligated to honor that price. Ironically, it’s when the jacket wasn’t on clearance that Sharon received a better deal. She just should have been able to receive an even better one.

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