Stores - Kohl's Dept. Stores - Sunbeam warming blanket unfair return policy for Sunbeam warming blanket

Complaints.com received the following e-message on December 29, 2000:

From:

Sent To: Email User

RE: KOHLS DEPT. STORE RETURN POLICY

Kohl's Dept. Stores have a very unfair "return policy".

I received a SUNBEAM warming blanket as a gift.

It had a Kohls price tag on the outside of $147.00. It worked for about a month, and then stopped warming. When I returned it to Kohls, they asked me for a receipt, and I advised them that it was a gift.

They looked it up in a computer, and offered me a credit of only $24.00.

I asked them how they arrived at this low price, and they said they sold one at $24.00. When I inquired about the $147.00 Kohls price tag, they said they never actually sold any at this price.

This was only a "suggested retail". I think this policy is extremely unfair.

In the first place, how can you retain a receipt if the item is a gift?

Secondly, why put a suggested retail of $147.00 if you never intend to sell any at this price?

Jerome Ginsburg

11407 Rockbridge Rd.

Silver Spring, Maryland 20902

Phone: (301) 649-2275

E-Mail Email User

Comment On This

As a Kohl's employee, I'm happy to answer this complaint. First of all, most everything at Kohl's is almost always on sale, or at the very least it's buy one get one free, so it's quite possible that was never sold for $147. Kohl's is not like Target or Walmart that prices at Suggested retail, Kohl's heavily discounts items regularly.

You cannot get the full price, because without a receipt or a GIFT RECEIPT (which is what you should have been given from the person who gave you the gift, it is their fault you won't get what they paid for it) Kohl's doesn't know what price the person paid for it. The only way kohl's can guarantee that they don't take the product back for a loss is to return it for the lowest price it ever sold for, just in case it was purchased at that price.

In your case, if I was the employee, I would have recommended that you find another item at the retail price of $147 so that you could do an even exchange. You can even exchange it for another blanket. So really not much to complain about here.