A former Kmart employee and frequent tipster who used to work at Kmart has read our recent stories about problems with Kmart layaway, and was able to offer some insights as to why layaway orders placed online are going wrong. Maybe. [More]
Retail Services
Online Start-Up Lets You Give Presents From Afar Without Those Pesky Gift Cards
By 12.20.12
We know there are plenty of you out there who also abhor gift cards — either you forget about them in a drawer or don’t realize there are a ton of hidden fees eating away at your credit — but then again, shopping for loved ones who live far away can be so hard sometimes. A new online start-up called Yiftee thinks it has the solution, even if its choice of name is questionable. [More]
Kmart Builds Holiday Ad Campaign Around Layaway Angels Of 2011
By 12.20.12 — Updated: 12.21.12
So far this year, we’ve mostly shared tales of people complaining about the process of purchasing items at Kmart using layaway. Last year, something inspiring started to happen. People, including our very own readers, would walk up to the customer service desk at their local Kmart and offer to pay off the layaway balance of a random family. The “layaway angels,” media outlets began to call them. The idea spread nationwide, mostly in Kmart stores. This year, Kmart has built an ad campaign around them. [More]
Another Top Best Buy Exec Flees The Ship
By 12.20.12
Less than a year after joining the company, Stephen Gillett, the head of Best Buy’s digital team — which includes BestBuy.com — has left the electronics retailer for a gig at Symantec. [More]
Kmart Tracks Down Reader After 2-Day Shipping Became 2-Week Shipping, Tries To Help
By 12.19.12 — Updated: 12.20.12
You may remember reader Linda, who ordered a computer from Kmart with 2-day shipping as a Christmas gift for her mother. Kmart’s idea of “2-day shipping” that they charge extra for turned out to be “2-week shipping” once they actually got around to shipping the computer. That wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t, you know, a Christmas gift, and if Kmart planned to ship it before December 24th. Based on the information in the post, the nice people at Kmart’s executive customer relations department tracked Linda down, which is impressive and only a little bit unnerving. [More]
Creepy GameStop Stalks Me, Wants To Talk About My Gift Card Late At Night
By 12.19.12
Michael doesn’t remember registering his gift card with GameStop, and he didn’t associate his cell phone number directly with it. He might have used his PowerUp card to make a purchase using that gift card, but didn’t realize that he was linking them up. Or that GameStop would call him up to pester him about his unspent gift card balance. [More]
Retail Managers: You’ll Get More Product Info From A Smartphone Than A Sales Associate
By 12.19.12
Times used to be, you had a question about a product and needed information about it, and you asked the sales associate at the store. But now it’s not just consumers who stay home to online shop who are finding the best information and prices about items they’re shopping for, even retail managers say customers in a store are better off turning to their smartphones to get info, rather than asking a sales associate for help. [More]
Kmart Overcharged Me For Layaway Order, Then Their Servers Ate It
By 12.19.12
Caroline’s Kmart layaway order was wrong. After she placed the order online, the contract came back $92 more than it was supposed to be. Well, okay, no problem: she could just call up Kmart and straighten it out. That’s why stores have a huge customer service staff. Except for how she called up Kmart and they told her to direct her problems to her local store. For an online layaway order. She’s been struggling with Kmart for a month now. The staff at her local store have been extremely helpful, but that doesn’t solve her core problem: she’s been overcharged for an order that still hasn’t shipped after being paid in full. [More]
Best Buy Charges Me Twice, Now I’m Stuck In Refund Limbo
By 12.19.12
After being misled and provided incorrect information about her purchase, Nicole says Best Buy then managed to charge her debit card twice. Now she’s stuck waiting for a refund and there’s not much anyone can do about it. [More]
Target Also Hauls Out Valentine’s Day Stuff In Mid-December
By 12.19.12
In the poll on our post from Monday about a Kmart that has already hauled out the stuffed animals and cards for Valentine’s Day, the wishes of our readership are clear: you don’t want to see Valentine’s Day stuff out until January at the earliest. Unfortunately, our readers don’t run the world, and certainly don’t run big-box discount stores. Reader L. sent along this photo from a Target store in Florida. [More]
Penguin Group Reaches Settlement With Justice Department Over E-Book Pricing
By 12.19.12
The Justice Department is close to wrapping up one more piece of the e-book pricing dispute that’s been going on for months, announcing today it had reached a settlement with Pearson Penguin Group. The government had alleged that Penguin, four other publishers and Apple had been in cahoots to unfairly fix e-book prixes. [More]
Report: Amazon Preparing To Debut Its Own Smartphone In 2013
By 12.18.12
Amazon already has big box stores scrambling to compete with its massive online business, and now it seems the company might be gearing up to terrify smartphone makers with its own device. A new report claims the retailer will be debuting a device sometime in the middle of next year. It’ll be manufactured by Foxconn and go for between $100-$200. [More]
How Decades Of Sears Loyalty Screwed Over My Family
By 12.18.12
Dee is a regular Consumerist reader, but her family’s 30 years of loyal Sears shopping outweighs the occasional tales of crappy service she has read here. When her mother’s dryer broke down, she ordered a few other appliances while she was at it and while Sears was sending a delivery crew. Things went smoothly, until they learned that they had been misled into believing that Sears would ever deliver and install a houseful of appliances on the same day. [More]
Forget Christmas. This Kmart Has Already Moved On To Valentine’s Day
By 12.17.12
By now, you’re all familiar with Christmas Creep, the insidious inching of the holiday shopping season earlier and earlier into the year. But there’s a lesser-known holiday creep that is already showing up on the shelves of at least one retailer. [More]
Amazon Lies To Customer, Says Company Doesn’t Set Its Own Prices
By 12.17.12
It’s one thing to tell a customer “no” when he asks for a price-reduction. It’s another to outright lie to try to avoid looking bad in the situation by blaming the manufacturer for your inability to offer the lower price. [More]
Bank Of America Provided Cheat Sheet To ‘Independent’ Foreclosure Reviewers
By 12.17.12
Imagine you’re sitting down for an exam and you find that your friend has already filled in the answers with what he believes are the correct answers. Sure, you can change whatever you want but it would also be so much easier to just let your friend’s answers go, so long as you’re generally in agreement. [More]
Walmart Knows I Bought Lube At The Store, Sends Me E-Mails About Other Lubes I Might Enjoy
By 12.17.12
Some folks are put off by online retailers tracking their browsing and buying habits in order to send them recommendations, but what about when your minor — and decidedly personal — purchases at bricks-and-mortar stores become the basis of marketing e-mails? [More]
Land’s End Can’t Redeem Shop Your Way Rewards, Doesn’t Care
By 12.17.12
Shop Your Way Rewards are one of the delightful selling points for continuing to shop at companies that are part of Sears Holdings Corporation, such as Sears, Kmart, and Land’s End. Hayden has accumulated a modest balance of these points, and wanted to spend them at Land’s end. The website won’t let him. He reported this problem to Land’s End, and no one at the company seems to care. At all. [More]
