Kmart

Full review
On May 5th, I placed an order for an 8 ft folding table via the Kmart website. It was a very good price, and the shipping was reasonable. According to the website, oversize items ship from their warehouse within 7 days, and should be delivered within 14 days.

On May 13th, I checked the status of the order, and discovered the item had not shipped yet. I called the customer service number and spoke to Liv Thomas. I told her that my item was not showing shipped yet. She said oversize items ship from the warehouse within 7-10 business days. I argued that the website says items ship within 7 days. There is a big difference between 7 days, and 7 business days, as business days do not include Saturday or Sunday. She said the item would not ship until the 16th.

At this point, I told her I wanted to cancel the order. She said I could not cancel! I repeated my request to cancel, as the item had not even shipped yet. She kept saying that in the terms of service it says you cannot cancel an order.

Well, its there, but you have to hunt for it. First, you have to go all the way to the bottom of the page and click MORE. Then, in the next screen, you click TERMS AND CONDITIONS. Then, scroll down 8 topics to PLACING ORDERS. In the last paragraph, you find the warning. Yeah, THAT'S a convenient place for it.

Realizing just how sneaky that stunt is, I asked to speak for a manager. First, Liv said there is no manager in the office. When I persisted, she said customers cannot talk to the manager. Finally, she said she cannot give me to the manager because they are not allowed to put people on hold! What kind of a company policy says you can't put a customer on hold long enough to get a supervisor?

As I continued to press, she changed her story yet again and said they cannot place a customer on hold for more than 3 minutes. So I told her I have no problem waiting for 3 minutes while she finds a manager. She put me on hold for about 5 seconds, then picked up and said the manager was on the other line.

So Liv refused to take my cancellation, lied repeatedly about the company policy, then continually tried to prevent me from talking to a supervisor.

So then Liv says she will file a report of my concerns. I asked her to forward me a copy of the report. She said she can't do that. She gave me a case number #11152 to prove the report would be filed. And then she said that all calls are recorded so the supervisor will know exactly what happened. I said, "Can I get a copy of the recording?" She said no. So I cannot get a copy of the report or a copy of the recording, yet after she had lied to me for ten minutes, I'm suppose to trust the company?

So now I have to contact my credit card company and file a complaint. I will never do business with kmart.com again. It's one thing to have miscommunication. It's quite another to outright lie to a customer.
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Addendum--May 16th, 2005

After filing a formal complaint with the company, I received a phone call from Phil Bagwell, a customer service supervisor. After reviewing the complaint, he began investigating the matter, and discovered that my item DID in fact already ship. Apparently, the warehouse did not update their records, making it appear that the item had not shipped yet. He apologized for the misleading information I was given, and admitted that the representative I spoke to both should have looked more into it to see what was going on with the shipment and should have gotten a supervisor for me as soon as I requested one.

He offered to refund me the shipping fees (over $20) in order to make up for the treatment I received. He was very professional and seemed to sincerely want to correct the problem. I got the Fed Ex tracking number and my item should arrive today. I still have that bad taste in my mouth that the situation even got as far as it did, but at least Mr. Bagwell put forth the effort and seems to be willing to address these issues. But it will still be some time before I would consider shopping with Kmart.com again.