Posts about Macy's
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A few weeks ago, Macy's ran this somewhat mystifying promotion. Simple enough: Buy a mattress, get a free video camera via mail-in rebate.
It's interesting to see a department store modern enough to openly market to aspiring amateur porn stars. More »
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—>Rick writes: Check out the first bill I received for a Macy's card I just opened last week (because they offered me 20% off if I did). 716% APR has to be some kind of record. Even loan sharks couldn't charge that with a straight face. More »
—>Did you know the asterisk in the Macy*s logo is actually part of a clever branding campaign to associate the brand with fine print? It must be true, because no other department store has such a love of fine print on coupons—and such an apparent hatred of actual coupons. Their latest masterpiece in exclusions won't cover electronics, wigs, mattresses, shoes, watches, about a million clothing brands, and more. What does it cover? Probably a shoehorn from the Notions for Men department. More »
—>Benny wanted to return a baby gift worth $19.98, but Macy's refused to offer more $2.50. Benny didn't have a gift receipt so Macy's understandably refused to give him more than the product's lowest advertised price—but when Benny tracked the item down on the shelf, it was selling for $19.98. When he asked where the product was selling for $2.50, he was told: "its not, the managers put in the lowest selling price, thats Macy's policy!" More »
—>Macy's is slaying 7,000 positions from its payrolls. No news about any store closing so far. Things are not looking good for retail stores with large stores in the physical universe these days. Economy = asteroid, creating large dust cloud over planet so the sources of food for the dinosaurs dries up, which is very sad for the massive reptiles, but then it creates space on the food chain for small furry mammals to thrive. Cockroaches, too, though. [Marketwatch] (Photo: u2acro) More »
Americans face a tough choice Tuesday morning: watch Barack Obama's historic inauguration, or storm department stores to take advantage of a first-come, first-serve cosmetics giveaway worth $175 million. More »
Macy's now admits that it was an in-house software glitch that caused them to charge in-store debit card users twice on the Saturday before Christmas. [StorefrontBacktalk] (Thanks to Evan!) More »
—>Looks like it's time for Macy's annual closing of the stores! This time it's 11 underperforming locations that will be shuttered, and Macy's says clearance sales will begin at those stores next week. Here's a list of the stores that will be saying goodbye. More »
If you used your debit card at Macy's on the Saturday before Christmas, you might have been charged twice. More »
—>Amanda couldn't find a fitting formal dress at Macy's. Macy's said they don't cater to her plus-sized demographic, she should go to another Macy's, which caters to more black women, who tend to be larger. More »
—>Check out the 18 and counting online retailers at freeshippingday.com for stores that will give you free shipping and guarantee delivery by Christmas if you shop there on Thursday, December 18th. The retailers include Amazon, Zappos, Dell, Target, Macy's and other big names, with perhaps more joining before the 18th. Nothing like getting rewarded for waiting until the last minute. More »
—>Inside, email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses for over 100 different companies to inject your customer service complaints into their corporate executive offices, and get it well on the way to success. More »
—>Macy's marketing department doesn't seem to understand either third-grade math or what it means to walk and chew gum. More »
—>Last week, news broke that a sweatshop in Queens, NYC was producing clothing for several large U.S. retailers, while overworking its mainly Chinese immigrant employees and cheating them out of wages. At the time, Macy's announced it was cooperating with New York's Department of Labor and investigating the matter internally. Now the company has confirmed that it never did business with the sweatshop—in fact, it investigated it twice in 2007 while evaluating potential suppliers and rejected it for shoddy record keeping. Use your crazy Macy's coupons all you want, readers. More »
—>New York state labor officials are bringing one of their largest cases ever against Jin Shun, a clothing factory in Queens, New York that employed Chinese immigrants. Inspectors say the company
- cheated its workers out of more than $5 million in pay;
- instructed workers to lie to state inspectors;
- required 6 and 7-day workweeks, sometimes for up to 120 days at a time;
- didn't pay overtime or minimum wage;
- kept two sets of timecards to fake-out inspectors.
—>Nate and Ashley got some duplicate gifts from Macy's and attempted to exchange them for store credit. The trouble is, when they tried to spend the gift card they'd be given — they found out that it had never been validated. They're pretty much resigned to the fact that they're not getting the $120 in store credit back, but they'd like to let Macy's know that they were treated very rudely by several employees. More »
—>Macy's has managed to lose $59 million in the first quarter. CEO Terry J. Lundgren says that considering the crappy economy, losing $59 mil isn't all that bad: More »
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—>Dyan says that Macy's contacted her with the apology she was looking for. More »
—> Reader Dyan isn't sure if she's right on this one and wants to know if we think Macy's owes her an apology. She was shopping at Macy's last Saturday when she noticed a cast-iron pot on sale for $19.99. The display item was the last one in stock, so she asked if she could have it. An employee said she could, but before she could pay for the item the store's manager stopped her and took the pot away because "another customer want[ed] it." More »
—> Last Thursday, a 400-pound man in his early thirties was confronted at a Macy's in Oakland, California, and accused of shoplifting a hat from the men's department. According to CBS News in San Francisco, "Security officers at the mall then attempted to arrest and detain Gomes, who allegedly resisted and assaulted security personnel, according to police." The police were called, but on their way to the mall they received a follow-up report that the man had become unresponsive. He died later that evening at a hospital. More »
—> Trey is upset. Four times in the past year, Macy's has reduced the credit limit on his card without advance notice, even as his card membership level keeps going up. (Apparently he really likes liked to shop at Macy's.) "I lit into them for not advising me of my credit limit decrease, especially considering just three days before I received a brand new Macy*s platinum card in the mail, where they had the perfect opportunity to let me know it was now only $800." More »
—> The American Customer Satisfaction Index has released its latest scores of retail businesses, so we thought we'd take a look at the department store rankings by constructing a handy graph. When it comes to customer satisfaction, apparently Dollar General is doing something right—and Wal-Mart, as usual, is doing lots of things wrong. More »
Macy's Inc. plans to eliminate the former Marshall Field's headquarters in Minneapolis and cut more than 2,000 jobs as part of a move to consolidate regional offices and boost sales and cut costs. More »
—>Some people would rather not take a plastic bag if they don't need one, ourselves included, because a) enough with the plastic bags already b) it's wasteful and bad for the planet to take plastic bags when you really blatantly don't need or want them. More »
A shopper was punched in the face in the 1am scramble outside a Macy's in Central Florida at the Altamonte Mall. Way to shop, indeed. "They couldn't open the doors because there were too many people pushing," Rhonda Wega told the Orlando Sentinel. "It was chaotic." Once again we have a problem with outward-opening mall doors. Guess they need to invent futuristic inward-opening inward AND outward opening mall doors, or better cordon off the area immediately outside the doors. More »
—> Here's the perfect gift for your favorite little Consumerist reader! A giant stuffed e. coli bacterium. More »
—>Macy's and designer Tommy Hilfiger have reached a deal that will make the store Hilfiger's exclusive "department store" retailer. More »
—>Alright consumers, Macy's heard you loud and clear: you want a good deal, not a good price. To celebrate the revelation, Macy's is proud to announce the return of the coupon. Psychological gratification is yours to clip and snip away, 15%-20% at a shot.
Despite their dowdy image, coupons remain a huge business. In 2006, companies issued 279 billion of them, or roughly 1,000 per person, up 13 percent in four years, according to NCH Marketing Services in Deerfield, Ill. More »
—> Chicagoans don't like change. (Take Wrigley Field, for example, in all its jumbotron-less glory.) Yes, they are a strange, stubborn people who do not eat ketchup on hot dogs and who put the sauce on top of their pizza. And they don't like Macy's. Why? Because Macy's did away with Marshall Field's. More »
—>Reader David sends us what might be the worst coupon we've ever seen. Not because it's a bad deal, ($10 bucks off regular, sale and clearance is cool; we're not complaining) but because we broke our brain in two reading the exclusions and conditions. More »
Other celebrities in the campaign include Sean Combs, Kimora Lee Simmons, Russell Simmons, Marc Ecko, Emeril Lagasse, Tyler Florence, Tommy Hilfiger and Kenneth Cole. Some ads also feature Tim Gunn, co-host of the TV show "Project Runway." The ads were created by WPP Group's JWT. More »
—>Recently, a Consumerist tipster sent in an internal memo from Macy's explaining that the store was "flipping" 3.5 million inactive store accounts into Citibank Mastercards. The memo reads:
"Approximately 3.5 million inactive (24-48 months) Macy's accounts have been selected to "flip" to the Citibank Mastercard. That means the customer will be sent a Citibank Mastercard to replace their inactive Macy's card. "More »
—>According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Macy's has cut their yearly outlook after their second quarter profits dropped 77%. What's the big problem? More »
—>Health inspectors found over 200 fruit flies infesting the lower level food court of the Macy's State Street store in Chicago. Inspectors first discovered the infestation last week after a disgusted customer complained to 311. Food court employees apparently were not bothered by either the fruit flies or the health inspectors. From the Chicago Tribune:
"Not only did they not do anything, the problems seemed to get worse," [Tim Hadac, spokesman for the Chicago Department of Public Health] said. "It was a surprising and disappointing lack of adherence to basic food safety regulation... We stopped counting fruit flies when they hit 200."The inspectors also found: More »
—>Starting this September, all Macy's employees will be required to wear black clothes to work. The dress code, which is designed to help customers identify apparently-elusive sales associates, is already in effect in east coast stores, but will be expanded to the 113 stores composing the midwest division. While consumer behavior specialists rave about the change, union officials have filed a grievance against Macy's for requiring workers to purchase new clothes. Do employee uniforms improve your shopping experience? Tell us after the jump. More »
—>According to Women's Wear Daily, struggling, Cincinnati-based retailer Macy's may be the target of a buyout. Despite grand plans to become a nationwide discount department store, Macy's has been struggling to make any money. More »
—>Adam's mother has been trying for 16 months to get Stainsafe to honor its warranty for her ripped couch. SIXTEEN MONTHS. She's documented the series in a time-line of ineptitude. She definitely deserves the warranty repair, but then some part of us is like, ductape? More »
Unable to resist, we sent Gawker video wunderkid Alex Goldberg to tape the affair awesomeness. We hypothesize the fete was conceptually tied to Dell's new line of Insprions which come in different colors, meaning that Dell has finally caught up to Apple, circa 1998. More »
—>How can you take hundreds of pictures inside a store without getting caught? It can be really hard. If you ask for permission, it will be likely be denied. If you're too conspicuous, someone will say, "No pictures!" and you could get thrown out. More »
Reader George writes in because Macy's asked his wife for her Social Security Number when she tried to return a pair of jeans she bought online with a gift card. No, she wasn't trying to get cash back. Yes, she had all the documentation from Macys.com. More »
—>We posted recently about the Humane Society's investigation into the widespread use of canine fur from China in clothes sold in the US. One coat in particular was made by Diddy's line "Sean Jean" and was initially labeled "faux." Tests prove the coat uses dog fur. More »
- "First these jackets were falsely advertised as faux fur, and then it turned out that the fur came from a type of dog," said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The HSUS. "This is an industry-wide problem, and our investigation demonstrates that retailers and designers aren't paying close enough attention to composition of the fur trim they are selling. It's especially problematic when the fur is sourced from China where domestic dogs and cats and raccoon dogs are killed in gruesome ways, even skinned alive. The safest course of action is for Sean Combs and other designers and retailers to stop using fur trim. That single act would solve the problems we have uncovered."
The 2006 Deloitte report on gift cards is out, and it's official. Gift cards are the single most popular gift this holiday season. But are they a good buy? Sort of. It seems that due to consumer pressure, and FTC pressure, stores are improving their customer service/disclosure of fees when it comes to gift cards. But that doesn't meant there aren't still a lot of problems. The Montgomery County, Maryland, Office of Consumer Protection which assesses dozens of cards annually, has released their 2006 report. The report evaluates 40 different gift cards, looking for things like whether or not the card can be replaced if lost or stolen, whether the cards have an expiration date, and whether fees are assessed to the card's balance. Basically, you want to avoid the following cards: More »
Online megastore Amazon.com won top honors in a national customer service survey released last Thursday. Here's the top ten list, according to a National Retail Federation/American Express study. More »
After spotting a duplicate charge for a single purchase she made last Wednesday, she emailed the Macy's customer service. Macy's contacted her and requested more details. More »
When Seth G. bought a splendid new carpet from Macy's for over $1,500 bucks, Macy's didn't send it via Fed Ex. They didn't send it via DHL. Heck, not even UPS. They sent it by a little company called Roadway. Hey, Macy's didn't get rich by not knowing how to pinch some pennies. More »
—>A customer complained to Macy's about their removal of gay mannequins from Boston window displays in response to a campaign by an anti-gay religious group. More »
—>A review of the week that was in consumerism, as determined by popularity contest. More »
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—>Colleen G. is getting married and so yet another beautiful Consumerist reader becomes immune to my lascivious advances forever. Congratulations, Colleen... you tramp! No, just kidding — really, our most hearty congratulations, even if you have gouged one of those stiletto heels I like to imagine you wear through my heart. More »
—>Chris sends in a happy story about Macy's messing up, then going above and beyond to not only remedy the problem, but assuage its effects. His letter details exceptional service, but not surprising for a department store counter known for high levels of customer care. More »
—>A jury has awarded $1.2 million to a woman falsely accused of shoplifting at Macy's in Georgia. More »
• Buy a man's poverty on eBay for a buck. And if it just takes a buck to get him out of poverty, you might be able to complain that you didn't buy as much poverty as you were led to believe. More »
