As posted to their customer service department, in a second e-mail that was in response to their "second" non-reply to me.

In a message dated 6/10/2007 6:47:35 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, help AT customerservice.kmart.com writes:

Please include the following line in all replies.
Tracking number: UT20070610_0000000062

Dear David P. Beavers,

Thank you for contacting Sears Holdings Corporation. We would be glad to assist you with your concern. Please reply with the following information:


Customer Phone Number:

What part of - respond in writing! I do not give out my phone number, nor do i wish to discuss this over the phone - do you not understand? Below is the first e-mail i sent! The one you need to respond in writing to:

June 9, 2007

Watsonville, CA K-Mart
Associate at register failed to ensure all purchased merchandise was placed in elderly couple's cart.

Today my parents, who are elderly, went to K-Mart as they usually do to purchase their prescriptions and other items. The associate who cashiered did inform my mother of a rebate, and that the register receipt had to be sent in to obtain the rebate. However, the associate failed to ensure that all goods my parents purchased were in their cart as they left the store. Upon returning home, my mother filled out the rebate and mailed it off. She was afraid she would forget about it. However, being elderly, they were unaware of items missing as they gradually put away the goods they bought. Later in the evening, they were looking for some of the items they'd purchased and spent hours going through the house and car looking for them. They couldn't find them. I asked if they were sure that the cashier had placed the items in their cart. They were not sure.

I then went to K-Mart to see if their paid for merchandise had been left at the register. That's when I encountered the service manager. I explained to her that NO I didn't have the receipt because it had been mailed off for the rebate. I did list what items my elderly parents recalled purchasing that they couldn't find. Well, apparently K-Mart's policy is to NOT hold onto bags of paid for merchandise for more than an hour. After that time, the items are rather haphazardly logged into a book, primarily by Skew numbers and quantities, then the items are restocked.

A) K-Mart's policy is to restock and resell items that customers ALREADY paid for but were NOT given upon their egress from the store? Isn't that akin to ripping the consumers off?

B) I noticed just HOW MANY items were logged in the book as "forgotten and returned". This is inexcusable. HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE AN ASSOCIATE TO SCAN HIS/HER REGISTER BAGGING AREA TO MAKE SURE THAT PEOPLE - ESPECIALLY THE ELDERLY AND DISABLED - HAVE ALL THE ITEMS THEY'VE PAID FOR? Five seconds? Ten seconds? Answer - The sheer volume of products logged in K-Marts forgotten and restocked items book indicates to me, THE CONSUMER, that your Associates are NOT properly trained and that K-Mart ENDORSES such acts, which can be construed as Fraud.

C) The service manager I spoke with started to give me the corporate policy rhetoric, which caused me to become unhinged. Yes, I started YELLING. In my view, K-Mart's "policy" absolutely reeks of ripping off consumers, particularly the elderly or disabled or anyone who has attention or memory problems. I MADE MY VIEW KNOWN TO EVERYONE WITHIN EARSHOT IN THAT STORE. This upset your manager, who started to pull away, saying she was just an employee and didn't have to be subjected to my yelling.

WRONG!!! When a customer YELLS it MEANS THE MANAGER ISN'T SEEKING AN IMMEDIATE SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM!

I've been in customer service. I have been yelled at. Logic dictates WHY this emotional response occurs.

Spewing corporate policy at me IS NOT SEEKING AN IMMEDIATE SOLUTION.

Yes, I apologized to her for shrieking. I also HAD TO INFORM HER THAT the sale was LOGGED in K-Mart's register tapes.

After much time, the issue got resolved. We found the items logged that my parents did not receive in their cart when they finished their purchases.

Because the descriptions were relegated to Skew numbers AND SINCE THERE IS NO IMMEDIATE ACCESS AT THE SERVICE DESK TO INVENTORY CONTROL TO ASSOCIATE SKEW NUMBERS WITH SPECIFIC ITEMS FOR CROSS REFERENCE, it took over an hour to re-pick everything.

BOTTOM LINE:

1. Your associate cashiers NEED to take the extra 5 to 10 seconds to scan their service area to MAKE SURE that K-Mart customers receive ALL the items they purchase.

2. Only holding bagged items left behind for an hour at the Service Desk then restocking them is simply BAD POLICY. There IS room to hold the bagged goods.

3. In the event that the associate cashier FAILS to give the consumer his/her purchased goods, then the associate cashier should immediately check to see if the customer paid by cheque or credit card. If the consumer PAID by one of those means, then there IS a name attached to the sale, WHICH CAN BE LOGGED onto the bag, or in the book. Granted, this would not work with cash transactions, but would with cheque or credit card purchases.

David P. Beavers
Freedom, CA