Complaint Review: Wolf Camera

I paid cash for a camera and returned it. They won't give me cash back on the refund. Instead they are mailing a check a month later.

I purchased a camera from this store a little over a week ago and the sales associate who helped me out (Dustin), told me that I had 30 days to return it with a full money back guarantee if I wasn't happy with it. I felt that 30 days was a sufficient amount of time to test out the camera so I bought the camera for $107.71 and paid CASH for it. After about a week of testing out the camera on different scenes, I decided that I wasn't happy with the type of pictures that it was taking. So yesterday (8/9/10), I took the camera back in to return it and found out that I won't give my cash back. In small print at the bottom of the receipt it says that items purchased with cash, over $50, will receive a refund check by mail. I have never heard or seen of anything like this before.

Traditionally if you pay in cash, you get a refund in cash. You pay with a credit card, they refund it to your credit card. Not happy with the false information that the sales associate (Dustin) gave me at the time of purchase, I asked to speak with a manager and there wasn't one on duty. I was fed up with the whole ordeal and asked the sales associate how long it would take to get my refund check and she told me no longer than 7-10 days. So I returned the camera and she took down my information on where to mail the check. After I left the store, I thought to check my receipt this time and see what this one said in the small print. It stated that the refund will take 10 days to process in the office and then the refund check would be mailed out 21 days after that.

Not only do I think that it's bad business practice to treat customers this way with that type of return policy, I also think that it's ridiculous that I was given false information both times I was in the store by two different employees. So right now as I type this complaint, I am out my $107.71 and also out the camera that I had to give back. I'm sure they wouldn't let me walk out of the store with the camera if I said I would mail them a check 31 days from then. That is MY money and it should be in MY account collecting interest, not theirs. I could understand if I originally paid by check and they wanted to send me a refund check, but that's not the case.

It was so easy for them to take my money, but now they act like it's so hard to give it back. Today I contacted the store manager (Grant) and all he kept telling me is what store policy is. He had no intention on trying to help me out or make the situation right. He is definitely not the type of manager who is trying to keep business and keep his customers happy. I suggested that the store could give me cash back and that the store could wait on the refund check, but that wasn't an option either. I find it very annoying that the store doesn't want to be without the merchandise or money, but that they have no problem putting their customers out.

I am writing this in hopes that this issue will not happen again to another consumer who decides to shop at Wolf Camera like I did. They are not a bank and they shouldn't be able to hold onto my cash or anybody else's and collect interest on it while I am losing interest from it not being in my account. Hopefully, you may be able to help me out with this issue and help me get the CASH refund that I am deserving of. It is a matter of opening up the cash drawer and counting out $107.71 which nobody is willing to do. It's not that they can't, it's that they won't.

All I am asking for is a simple cash refund like any other store would do for a cash purchase. That was the way I purchased the item and that is the way I should be refunded. As a consumer it's my responsibility to return the merchandise in the same condition as when I purchased it. It is now going to cause me an inconvenience of going to the bank and having to deposit the check into my account and waiting for the check to then post to my account.I would also like to see the company change this policy and put their customers first. I couldn't imagine if I was one of those consumers who didn't have a bank account and had to use check cashing places to cash my employment checks. I would be charged a fee originally for cashing my employment check and then I would be charged another fee for having to cash a refund check for cash that I had already had in my pocket. That is not fair to the customer.