Coldwater Creek, the "upscale" catalog clothing company, is anything but upscale when it comes to honoring refunds.
They claim that you can return anything, anytime to them and get a prompt refund. But they don't quite honor their word.
I sent three items back to them worth a total of $249.89. They received the items, and don't dispute that I deserve a refund.
But here's the kicker - the items were bought a year or so ago with two seperate debit cards - drawn on the same bank account (U.S. Bank, which I closed a while back because that bank is just awful). Now I know from experience that any refund posted to those cards will just spend a few days floating around the system and then get kicked back to the issuer. The same thing happened when I got a refund from Amazon.
Luckily Amazon was cool about it and sent me a check when I asked them to. I knew it would happen here, so I specifically requested Coldwater Creek send me a check on my return form.
No check. I contacted them after I saw in my account that my items were listed as "returned", and was told that they had issued a refund to my card (s) - in complete defiance of my request for a check. I asked them why and they snottily stated in various emails that a) Visa would handle it b) my bank would handle it c) it wasn't their problem any more.
Eventually they stopped returning my reply emails at all. I had to mail them again through their website to get any response, and each mail got snottier the more questions I asked. They started out being elaborately polite, yet ignoring the questions I asked and finally evading all responsibility when pressed for an answer. I know they have my money back by now, as well as the items I returned, but they falsely claim that the bank or Visa has it, and refuse to just SEND ME A CHECK like I asked.
I emailed Visa and U.S. Bank and was told by both that they have no policy whatsoever on what method a retailer may use to issue a refund - so Coldwater Creek's story is false. As is their claim that I can get the refund back from my bank, because I can't. That's not how that bank works. And why should I chase after my bank, when Coldwater Creek has the money? They just refuse to return it in a way that would enable me to actually use it. Who knows whether they actually returned anything at all, or whether they were giving me a false story.
Beware of this company. Their catalog looks very inviting and they seem like such a classy company... But they are anything but classy when it comes to being honest with their customers. A company that gave a damn about its customers would go out of their way to make sure a customer got their refund, instead of blowing them off with false stories and blaming everybody except themselves.
I'm preparing to sue them now for triple damages.
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