Joined Jun 2006
L8: Grand Teacher
Forum Thread
I was just CHARGED for trying on a pair of shoes. UPDATE ON POST #431
June 22, 2007 at
12:00 PM
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Okay so today I went into a running store to try on some shoes. I'm in the very BEGINNING of my search for new shoes and I just wanted to try on a few brands that were new to me and see if anything was going on with my foot. So I go into this store, the kid asks me if I'd ever been there before.. I said NO.. I said I was looking for shoes.. he says okay great and asks me to take walk in front of him for him to look at my stride/ gate. I do, it takes 2 minutes for him to determine that I'm mostly neutral/ slight overpronator. I try on TWO pairs of shoes. I tell him okay great, I'm going to look around, I might come back. I don't know. I don't know and I don't BS, its as simple as that. I might come back I might not for the shoes. I'm an informed shopper and I next to NEVER buy things on impulse. Then his attitude changed. He starts giving me this schpeel about how they're a high end running store and they take pride in fitting their customers with shoes and if I don't buy the shoes right then and there he was going to have to charge me $20 for the less than 10 minutes of time and two pairs of shoes I tried on. I asked him if he was freakin kidding me. The lady manager had to come over.. APPARENTLY, on the OTHER SIDE of the boxes of shoes he was stacking next to me was a sheet of laminated PAPER that said about this policy, in a not so very large font size. Okay so why did he NOT tell me about this when he asked me if I had ever been in the store? I clearly said no. Why did he let me walk in front of him and and spend the two minutes looking at my feet and not tell me this? I paid the $20 and left. And I know they talked about me when I left.. you could feel it in the air as I was paying. And I just know they were all like "Oh I hate when people do that.. " when in reality they should LOVE it.. $20 PURE PROFIT for under 10 minutes of time! They didn't tell me about this upfront and they stacked the shoes next to the piece of paper that said this. I couldn't even see it!
So I was thinking should I file a report with like BBB? I think $20 is a lot of money for merely trying on a pair of shoes and less than 10 minutes of time especially since I wasn't told about it upfront. I'm a girl and I've tried on my fair share of shoes in my lifetime and NEVER been charged for trying them on.
What do you guys think I should do? Nothing, something? I might just let it go.. but for right now I'm
Sorry I meant to click the RANT icon not chat.. I don't know how that happened.
So I was thinking should I file a report with like BBB? I think $20 is a lot of money for merely trying on a pair of shoes and less than 10 minutes of time especially since I wasn't told about it upfront. I'm a girl and I've tried on my fair share of shoes in my lifetime and NEVER been charged for trying them on.
What do you guys think I should do? Nothing, something? I might just let it go.. but for right now I'm
Sorry I meant to click the RANT icon not chat.. I don't know how that happened.
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http://www.labbb.org/BBBWeb/Forms...pic142&
all it requires is it to be in plain sight. like paperboy said, that can be hard to prove. there's a big difference between carrying a sign on your person, and having an open faced booth vs entering a store and having a "service" performed.
sleazy tactic? yep. not exaclty sure if its illegal though..
http://www.labbb.org/BBBWeb/Forms...pic142&
all it requires is it to be in plain sight. like paperboy said, that can be hard to prove. there's a big difference between carrying a sign on your person, and having an open faced booth vs entering a store and having a "service" performed.
sleazy tactic? yep. not exaclty sure if its illegal though..
She was shopping for a tangible item, and wanted only the normal type of free service expected with such shopping. She did not want a fee-based service.. essentially, they gave her the fee-based service without telling her of the fee.. that could fall under EITHER the bait and switch laws [labbb.org]..
OR it is an "unfair act" that falls under the Federal Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. 45(a). [cornell.edu]..
Oh, but bad news seems to be that Discover cards wants to be a b*tch about it.. I don't think I'm getting the chargeback. They said something like if the charge was the store's "policy". I guess it doesn't matter if the policy is deceitful? Whatever Discover... Discover Card sucks.
Send Discover the replies from the shoe companies.
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that's the wrong law.. we're not talking about a return or exchange, we're talking about being charged for a service that the customer had a reasonable assumption to be free (based on industry practices)..
What do you think that would do?
Of course it would need to be sent directly to the person (or their manager) dealing with the situation.
No it wouldn't be bait-and-switch because they had the policy posted. If the correct policy was posted, then there was nothing false that led customers into their store.
No, that deals with unfair methods of competition. I didn't see anything in that page that reseambled what happened to OP. Maybe you could post what you thought?
What do you think that would do?
Is this store in a mall? Go directly to the administration and complain. You can do it via e-mail, which is better because it's all documented. If you don't get any satisfaction from them, go directly to the people who manage the mall. I did this recently when I had a complaint about a particular kiosk. The mall management was somewhat reluctant to assist me, but after I complained to the company that actually owns the mall via phone --- I received IMMEDIATE satisfaction.
[Never Mind --- just read through more of the posts -- store is obviously not in a mall.]
OP, you're really getting somewhere with this thing. I wish I could be a fly on the wall when the store employees start to get contacted by not only the shoe vendors, but the media! I'd gladly pay $20 to see this store get hung out to dry on the 10:00 o'clock news. Excellent work!
So I was thinking should I file a report with like BBB? I think $20 is a lot of money for merely trying on a pair of shoes and less than 10 minutes of time especially since I wasn't told about it upfront. I'm a girl and I've tried on my fair share of shoes in my lifetime and NEVER been charged for trying them on.
What do you guys think I should do? Nothing, something? I might just let it go.. but for right now I'm
Sorry I meant to click the RANT icon not chat.. I don't know how that happened.
A sucker is born every minute.
I would have told the guy to shove the shoes up his ass and walked out.
Of course it would need to be sent directly to the person (or their manager) dealing with the situation.
A sucker is born every minute.
I would have told the guy to shove the shoes up his ass and walked out.
Fact is, sure you might not have but no one knows what they'd do when they're caught off guard, and she was caught off guard. Let it go already.
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Fact is, sure you might not have but no one knows what they'd do when they're caught off guard, and she was caught off guard. Let it go already.