What ring? Victoria ordered a ring from Sears, but wasn’t happy with it and sent it back. That’s the whole point of the return process, right? Only the point isn’t supposed to be that the item disappears into the ether and the retailer shrugs. At least we’d like to think so.

I bought a $60 ring on Sears.com; when it arrived to my house and I discovered some flaws, I decided to ship it back. I cut [out] the Sears Returns address and taped it to the box (so there was no room for error in me writing it instead). It’s now been a month past the date it was supposed to arrive, and my return has not been [received].

I have talked to numerous customer reps, demanded to talk to a supervisor (who refused to give me a number for an executive or manager of sorts), and sent multiple emails. They have all said the same thing; they can’t find my package anywhere, so therefore, they “don’t have it.”

Here’s my problem: I don’t have a tracking number. I shipped it through UPS, who told me they would ship it through USPS, and did not offer me a tracking number (and of course, I didn’t think to ask for one). Whenever I explain this to a customer rep, they say that unless I have a tracking number, they can’t help me.

I’ve called both UPS and USPS asking for a tracking number, but there is no way for them to trace my package or my shipping purchase. I called and spoke to a supervisor at Sears.com, explaining all of this to her. She then explained to me that Sears has a second vendor they ship their small returns to, so they “don’t get lost in the warehouse with the big items.” I was told the second vendor would be called (as I was not allowed to have their name or phone number to contact them myself) and that I would be emailed about my package.

A week later, I have received no emails or phone calls from anyone regarding my return. Odds are, USPS did indeed ship my package to the address Sears gave me on my packing slip. This is where I’m stuck now, wondering if maybe my return is lost in their warehouse, lost at their second vendor’s warehouse, perhaps it was lost in transit to the second vendor, or perhaps someone even stole it; there’s a possibility the return address they gave me was incorrect (but there is no way to tell, because no one in customer service knows what address it is).

Maybe the real lesson here is that for an item of any value, when possible and when more money than you can afford to lose is at stake, pay for your own traceable shipping method if the retailer isn’t already using one.

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