John’s wife ordered a pair of boots from Macy’s, returned them, and got a refund. In a perfect world, that would be the end of this post, which would be very short and very boring. John lives in the real world, though, where Macy’s just went ahead and charged the couple a second time for the boots three weeks later for no clear reason. No one can explain where the charge came from, and no one has been able to get their $180 back for the last two months.

Here’s John’s story:

On Nov 26th, my wife ordered a pair of Vince Camuto riding boots ($189.21, including shipping). The package was listed as delivered by Fedex, but never arrived. We filed a lost package claim with Macy’s but the next day Fedex found the package and delivered it. We called Macy’s back and were led to believe the lost package claim was stopped at our request. Turns out, the boots were damaged and didn’t fit, so we returned them and our money was refunded on Nov 30th.

On December 19th, our bank account was charged $179.99 (the price of the boots without shipping). We called Macy’s, the representative confirmed that the charge shouldn’t have happened and promised to refund us the money. The representative even did a conference call with my wife and a representative from our bank in order to confirm the transaction and exchange the necessary information to set up a refund. We were told to wait 7-10 business days. The refund never occurred and three weeks later we called back. The representative told us that an error had occurred, promised that she would re-send the refund and told us to wait another 7-10 business days. The money was never refunded. Since then we have continued to contact Macy’s and the results keep getting worse:

• Waited 7-10 business days, called Macy’s and was told a supervisor would call us back. They never called us back.
• Called the next day, the representative said she would re-send the refund and even sent us a $25 gift card as compensation. The refund never went through, but we got the gift card at least.
• Called after waiting 10 business days. The representative said he couldn’t find a record of any transaction, yet kept telling me that I should keep waiting for the refund. I asked to speak to a supervisor. The representative politely refused, and only after 10 minutes of repeatedly asking for a supervisor and threatening to file a complaint against him, was I finally put in contact with a supervisor. Again, was told that the refund was re-submitted and would be coming in 7-10 days. It never showed.
• Called after another 10 business days. I talked to a supervisor named [M]. He informed me that the reason for the refund not being completed was because the original lost package claim was never cancelled in their system. Every time the refund process was attempted, the system would show the lost package claim and cancel the refund. M. told me he would re-submit it and would include a letter to Macy’s billing department explaining the mistake and assured me that the refund would work this time and to wait 7-10 business days.
• Waited 10 days and called Macy’s yet again. Was told that all the supervisors were at a staff meeting and one would contact me after it was done. It’s been 2 hours and I still haven’t received a call back.

I don’t know what to do anymore, since talking to Macy’s never accomplishes anything. I’ve now resorted to contacting my bank and filing a fraudulent charge claim against Macy’s. I’m also thinking of filing a claim with the Ohio Attorney General’s office. I’m tired of either being lied to or Macy’s employees not properly following through with this issue.

It just really irks me that every time I talk to a supervisor, they find the mistake and agree that the charge shouldn’t never have been applied to my bank account. If the mistake is really that apparent, why can’t they actually refund my money like they say they will?

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