What follows is the email I just sent Macy’s about the service experience I had at their store in the wee small hours of this morning.

It could have been the time of day, the fact it was Black Friday or any combo of those things, but unless something drastic changes, I’m DONE.

To Whom it May Concern:

I’m really disappointed, yet again, with your customer service. As I have been every single time I’ve gone into your stores since you bought out The Bon Marche.

I thought maybe after the last time ( where my fiancé and I went into your Bellingham home store and were the only people in there and we’re completely ignored by a pair of gossiping sales ladies and four other workers, who actually HID FROM US) or the time before that (when my mother inlaw and I went to buy socks and couldn’t find a register and when we finally did, the girl was on the phone and didn’t say one word to us the entire transaction…just pointed.) or the time before that (where I was buying something that stated it was on sale and the sales lady couldn’t explain why it wasn’t and finally was so exasperated with me that she snapped “are you going to buy this or not??)….it would be different.

I made the mistake of watching Miracle on 34th Street yesterday morning. That may not have helped with my expectations.

Shopping on Black Friday may not have helped either.

But regardless, I tried to use your fabulous coupon (spend $25 or more on sale items and get $10 off? Amazing!) but apparently it didn’t apply to all sale items.

Which was not made horribly clear on the coupon, but your sales lady was MORE than happy to fling the coupon back at me and be snarky about how it didn’t apply to the items (like the 3 pairs of Carter’s pajamas I was trying to buy for my daughter. $8.80 is a screaming deal, btw.) with the “stars”. (I believe those were the morning specials.)

She apparently had had enough (at 3am, I kind of don’t blame her, but still) and explained it to me in the exact same words three times, speaking slower and louder each time like I maybe was mentally slow and/or deaf.

I like to spend my money in places where I’m at least treated with a modicum of dignity and patience, and just because I don’t read the fine print doesn’t mean I’m trying to get away with something.

It was an honest mistake.

Despite the fact that I received two gift cards for your stores through Klout and was planning on registering at your stores for my wedding, I don’t think I would like to subject myself (or anyone else, really) to more ridicule at the hands of your employees and will be throwing out your gift cards and taking my business elsewhere…even if it does cost me more money.

Because frankly, I’d rather spend more money and be treated like a human being.

Sincerely,

Mia

Thoughts? Was I too harsh? Am I being ridiculous?

UPDATE! received two form letters in response to my email!

FORM LETTER 1:

Hi,

Thanks for reaching out to us. I’m sorry to hear you didn’t have a more positive experience shopping on Black Friday and using the coupon. We love to hear from our customers and feedback is very valuable to us. Please know that I’ve shared your feedback with the appropriate teams here, and reached out to our customer service team about the experiences described.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any additional questions or concerns.

Thank you and Happy Holidays, (name redacted)

FORM LETTER 2:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for your email advising of the problem you experienced.

Please accept my sincere apology for the poor service you have described
at one of our Macy’s stores. As this is a store issue and a problem
with a store coupon, please respond to this email advising the Macy’s
store where this occurred. I will then be able to forward your
complaint to the store manager. We pride ourselves in giving the best
customer service possible, however, it appears the store where you were
shopping was not adhering to the customer service policy. If you
prefer, you may contact me at my direct line with the information;
1-513-573-7760.

We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced. If you have
any further questions or concerns, please e-mail us at
customerservice@macys.com or call us at: 1-800-289-6229. Our office
hours are Monday through Sunday 9:00 AM to 12:00 AM Eastern Time.

My response (sent the same one to both):

It was at the Bellingham WA store at Bellis Fair mall.

I’ve heard all of this before, the last three times I wrote in and complained. And NOTHING CHANGES. Your employees are still rude, you give confusing coupons to your customers and then say “oh, we are so sorry you experienced this.”

Thanks for the form letter, but I’ll be taking my business somewhere else this holiday season.

update 11/30: so nobody responded to my emails. So I sent one last email before completely writing them off. Let’s see if they respond.

Nice to see you don’t care about your customers enough to respond.

I’ll keep that in mind next time I get all sentimental watching Miracle on 34th Street.