Cold….Kohls…World

When Price Match Doesn’t Match

I received a call from my sister who relayed an online shopping experience she had while dealing with Kohl’s. Like most young professionals, my sister mainly shops online but that doesn’t stop her from seeking a great deal. She is also part of a Facebook group called Dream Catchers, which is a group of females dedicated to living a richer life by managing their finances, budgeting and finding deals. One of those deals discussed in the group was the fact that Kohls.com would price match products that you find online at a cheaper price. Staying true to her dedication to living a richer life, my sister scoured the internet looking for products to furnish her new apartment in Harlem. She scoured the internet and found a series of Mikasa products on the Bed Bath & Beyond website. In total, her savings with using price match would have been between $200-$300. She called into speak with a representative at Kohls.com and arranged the order with the price match. After realizing she had additional Kohls cash, she delayed the order to use her Kohls cash. When she called back to process her order she received a different representative. This is where things get interesting…..very interesting!

She was told that the order would need to be reprocessed due to the fact that stores change their pricing frequently. As the new rep began to process the order and saw how significant the savings were, she began to make excuses for not honoring the price match guarantee. One of those sticking points came on a Mikasa Flatware Caddy the same product was listed on Kohls for almost $20 more. The rep original denied the request due to the product names not being the same. My sister refuted that claim and the rep look up both products and compare. The rep then came up with numerous excuses that did not hold weight. When my sister gave a rebuttal for all of her excuses the rep finally dug deeper and stated she could not honor the request due to the fact that the product on Kohls.com said it was 10 x 6.4 x 12 and the product on Bed Bath & Beyond states 10 x 6.4 x 11.6. Those familiar with the back-end of online inventory programs are familiar with the FTP file upload with images and other product information. That information while mostly automated also has a human input error margin for product description and title. A quick look shows the Bed Bath & Beyond product description to be more detailed. They include the correct trade mark presentation (Mikasa^®) the product description itself is more detailed and gives more product information. So if Bed Bath & Beyond were more precise about not violating trademark guidelines, don’t you think they would be more precise in their product descriptions as well? Yet because of a .4″ difference in the product details, Kohls.com denied my sister’s purchased.  They advised her that she could complete the order, and have it reviewed by a different department to see if she could be reimbursed. Not sure what kind of bizarre world Kohls.com is living in, but rather than allow them to hold onto her money for weeks just to be denied a refund, my sister did what any practical person would do, she cancelled her order and purchased the items from Bed Bath & Beyond. For .4″ really Kohls.com, that’s cold….a cold Kohls world.