Problem Solved: Sam Clubbed Her Refund

Brenda Franzman can't get a full refund for the furniture she returned to Sam's Club. How can she get the company's attention?

Q: I have tried for two months to get a refund for four Adirondack chairs and a footstool from Sam's Club, and I keep getting the runaround.

I've gotten a refund for one chair and one footstool. I need a refund for the three remaining chairs. I have returned all the products and still have not received my refund. Every time I call Sam's Club, I get a different representative, and I have to explain everything all over again, even though I give them the reference number.

I've talked to two supervisors who have told me that the refund was coming back to my original form of payment. I have not received that refund, and I want to know why. Can you please help? -- Brenda Franzman, Angola, Ind.

A: Sam's Club should have refunded all of your furniture when you sent it back. It looks like the company made a mistake when taking inventory of the return and only registered two items. And despite your repeated efforts to fix the problem, Sam's Club was keeping your furniture and your money.

It looks as if you spent a lot of time on the phone, explaining your situation to Sam's Club. Phone calls are not that helpful when you're dealing with an issue like this. You're far better off with a paper trail, which documents your efforts to get a refund and the company's response.

However, if you decide to call to get an update, make sure you always get a reference number or a case number (which you did). If you're not sure what's in your case file, ask someone to review it with you by phone and if it's incomplete, make sure you request that they add a notation. That way, when you call back, you can always ask a representative to look up your case. Then, the employee can review your issue instead of you having to waste your time explaining everything again.

This seemingly endless back-and-forth is not unusual in corporate America. I've spoken with countless other consumers who get trapped in a "customer service" vortex from which there appears to be no exit. I've been in one of these a few times myself.

I publish the names, numbers and email addresses of the Sam's Club customer service executives on my consumer advocacy site, Elliott.org. A brief, polite email to one of them might have resulted in locating your missing refund -- but based on your past interaction with the company, I can't be sure.

I contacted Sam's Club on your behalf. It looked into your case and found that there were multiple orders, multiple returns and multiple forms of payments involved. Hence the confusion.

"We refunded the total amount, after tax, to Ms. Franzman's Sam's Club credit card," a representative told me. "Because the refund is going to a form of payment different from the one used on the original orders, the refund process may take 7 to 10 business days."

As an apology, Sam's Club also sent you a $100 eGiftcard. You also received a full refund of $481, as promised.

Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy (https://elliottadvocacy.org), a nonprofit organization that helps consumers solve their problems. Email him at chris@elliott.org or get help by contacting him at https://elliottadvocacy.org/help/