By Honker
In early November, 2010, I purchased two 18 month size puffer jackets from the Children’s Place for my twins to wear for the winter. In March, I noticed that there was a large void in the back of the coat; all of the stuffing was gone. Finding that strange, I examined the other puffer coat and found the same thing had happened. The care instructions for the coats state to machine wash and dry. We followed the care instructions, and yet all of the stuffing shifted within the coat, leaving my twins backs exposed to the winter for an unknown period of time prior to discovery of the problem.
I brought the coats in to the location where I had purchased them at the end of March, as soon as possible after I discovered the problem. I didn’t have the receipts with me, and I am not able to find them, but I thought that the store manager would recognize that the colours were those of the most recent season. She did recognize them, and stated that she had never seen that happen to the puffer jackets in her 6 years of working for the company. Both of the coats had the same defect, although they came from different lots since they were different colours, so this was definitely a quality issue and not a fluke. This kind of defect is unacceptable in a winter coat!
The manager said that without the receipts, the best that she could do would be to give me a refund for $5.99, the price that the coats are now being sold for! I indicated that $5.99 was not acceptable, but that I would be happy to exchange the coats. She stated that she no longer had any of the coats left and no store in Ottawa did. I was outraged at the idea of a refund in the amount of $5.99.
Although I do not have the receipt for these coats, $5.99 is an unreasonable and unacceptable refund for a defective winter coat that cost between $30 and $40. Furthermore, winter coats from a quality store like yours should not be disposable, no longer useable after less than one season of wear. I don’t think that your return and exchange policy on your website would hold in this situation. I feel that a reasonable resolution would be either a refund for the two coats for the price that they were sold for in early November 2010, or a store credit in that amount. I would happily return the coats for your examination to determine what the defects were to prevent them from recurring in next year’s coats.
So I wrote to the Children’s Place on May 1st, including essentially the same information contained above. To date, I have not had the courtesy of any kind of reply whatsoever.
Moral of the story: BEWARE of the abysmal quality and total lack of customer service at the Children’s Place.
Stahr says...
Im sorry for your bad experience. If you do not have a receipt (even if it is clearly an item sold at the store) most stores will do just what this one did and offer you a refund of the current sale price.
I have had an experience similar to yours and I now file ALL receipts for anything I would want a refund on if defective. It may be a pain in the rear, but being out hard earned money is far worse.
If you purchased with a cc or debit card, perhaps you can bring in your transaction records as proof of purchase.
yesbeware says...
Also beware of not saving and photo copying your receipt. This store offered you what any other store would.
candice says...
ummmm… i think you’re being unreasonable. you had no receipt and had used the coats - you shop at children’s place, not holts.
honker says...
Wow! I’m surprised by these responses. $40 coats used for less than four months that are complete garbage aren’t considered defective? Do we really live in a world where people purchase things, get less than four months use, and expect them to be garbage at the end?
Also, I would have thought that a store that sells only clothing with its own label shouldn’t need a receipt. I would have completely understood their position if it was a place like Sears or Zellers that carry many brands common to other stores.
@Stahr, that is a good idea - I could show them a half dozen other receipts from other times I purchased items there, just not that one! I pretty much always use my credit card there.
I did write to head office, again, will see if they are willing to stand behind their clothing and provide some level of customer service. If not, consider yourselves warned
gretzky says...
Just say a big thank-you to the scam artists out there who buy the $5.99 jackets and try and get a full refund when they claim to have lost their receipt. Stores have to protect themselves! I’m not willing to pay higher prices to pay for those who rip off our system… so I’m glad stores protect themselves with these rules. People who take advantage ruin the system for the legitimate cases like yours.
Always keep your receipts! They’re called a “proof of purchase” for a reason.
Ashley says...
While I do sympathize, you cannot expect them to do anything for you without a receipt. Even if you brought in a bank statement or credit card statement showing the purchase, perhaps they may have been able to look up your receipt in their system and do something for you.