K-Mart, Sears Lay Away Rip Off Longview Texas
On Sunday, Nov. 8m, 2008 I went to K-Mart to cancel a lay-away that I had put there for Christmas. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I had to cancel it.
I knew from the receipt that I would have to pay a rediculous $10.00 cancellationg fee, and I had the lay away for less than a week!! I thought this was bad enough, but then I was told I had to pay an additional $5.00 for a layaway fee.
Not any where on the receipt under the terms was it written about this and I complained and was told by the rude manager, and I mean rude, that I had to pay it, or I could pay the lay away off then return it and not pay anything. If I had the money to do that then I would not have needed the lay away in the first place. I did argue the point but, was just ingnored.
I feel that what K-mart is doing is taking advantage of people and their money and I will no longer shop at any k-mart or Sears. If people would start standing up to companys and ridiclous rules and refuse to pay these outrages charges, then the consumer would have more buying power and more say in where their money goes.
Companys tell us, the cosumer what we will do and not do according to them, when the consumer should be telling companys that we've had enough of your bull, and you will please us or you no longer will benifit from our money.
Please, boycott K-mart and other company's who take advantage of you-there a few out there who do appreciate your shopping there and show it. K-mart and Sears are not amoung the few.
Laura
Marshall, Texas
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
The Layaway Associate
Abilene,Texas,
U.S.A.
It is not a ripoff
#3UPDATE Employee
Sat, January 17, 2009
I am a layaway associate, so I know the entire process. There are posted signs explaining the layaway process. The receipt you sign has all the rules and those rules are on the copy of the receipt you keep. You can mail in payments with your contract number. The receipt says that you have a payment due every two week, you have a 7 day grace period but after that the merchandise can be returned to stock, and during Christmas time especially they will return it to stock. You cannot blame Kmart or shame them for trying to help you. You don't have to shop at Kmart, but if you do follow the rules. If you want someone to think you are not the average scam artist that tries to hold merchandise back for consumers who actually have intrest in the products then pay your bill on time.
Edgeman
Chico,California,
U.S.A.
I'm not sure what the ripoff is...
#3Consumer Comment
Tue, November 11, 2008
Kmart discloses their layaway fees upfront and all of the customers particapating in the program agree to it. Here is a pdf file from their own website that clearly details how layaways work. The $5 fee is prominently listed:
http://content.kmart.com/ue/home/Kmart_Layaway.pdf
They also state that the layaway fee and the cancellation fee will be withheld from the refund.
In short, everyone agrees to that fee and their money goes to it before it is applied to the item's cost. It only became a problem when you changed your mind.