Store credit only.

I was cleaning the house the other day when the phone rang. It was Doug. “Did you know Burlington Coat Factory does not give refunds?” he asked. “Uh… no, I didn’t know that,” I replied. “Well, they don’t,” he said, “They give store credit, that’s all.” Uh, oh, I recognized that tone of voice. It was the “I’m-just-faking-calm” voice and it sounded like it was just about to stop faking.

See, last week he and I went to Burlington to buy him a jacket for work; one he could wear on the flight line when it was raining. So he found this red and black jacket that he liked and I thought was ok. In the store, it made him look like a football coach. But, funny thing about trying on things in stores, half the time you get those things home and they look totally different. And so it was with this jacket. When he tried it on here, the football coach disappeared and big, white rapper guy showed up. Needless to say, we agreed, he should take that back. And now we're back to the phone call.

“Well, that’s ok,” I said about the store credit, “you can use that.” Wrong! Calm voice gone. “I don’t want store credit! I want my money back!” Now, all I was thinking was “Poor, Sarah. She’s standing there with maniac man while he tries to force the manager to change the store policy.” Well, it didn’t work, at least not yet. (Sarah told me later that she thought it was funny....she agreed it was a stupid policy) In the meantime, I did e-mail Burlington to ask why they offer a full cash refund in their online store but not their “real” stores. They sent me a nice form letter that said, “We do not offer cash refunds or credit charges to credit cards. We do however offer a store credit.” So I sent the e-mail back and said, “That was not my question. My question was……..” They never e-mailed me back. Doug is still going to call their corporate office. He insists that he’ll get his money back. But don’t be too surprised if you see a crazy guy in front of Burlington with a boycott sign.