I won’t even go into detail about why I miss them. If you shopped there you know how special were Bullock’s, Robinson’s, Buffum’s, and, for a young working gal setting up her first apartment, the Bargain Basement at May Co. I miss them dearly and yet they have been gone long enough that I’m sure most of the shoppers at the mall barely remember them, their quality merchandise, and the way you were treated.
Macy’s is OK, yet even if it isn’t, around here we have few alternatives in full department stores. Macy’s stores vary in quality, much like other large stores, working to fit their offerings into the likes and income of the surrounding community, which I didn’t notice until I was in the Macy’s at Green Hills in Nashville. They have good sales and offer a lot of additional discounts to those with Macy’s accounts. Yet they have this little trick with their credit accounts that can cause you to have a credit in one place and yet get charged a late fee in another, along with having more accounts than you want.
The Macy’s credit card. There isn’t one for everyone. Depending on a variety of factors they come in different colors, with different perks, with or without an American Express account tacked on. I have an American Express credit card – I don’t need another. Other stores do the same I guess. The more you buy the more perks you get. Nevertheless, it is something I didn’t ask for.
Our Macy’s account was in my hubby’s name and I had one of the cards with his name on it. All was well for years until I was challenged by a store clerk a couple of years ago and told that I could not use my husband’s card – the card MUST be in my name. “WHAT!” When did that change? She called a supervisor who checked my ID and checked with someone else and allowed the sale, but warned me that I would not be able to do that again. I went home, told hubby. His reaction was “WHAT!”. He called the store and the store connected him with Credit and Credit told him that I could not have a card in my name on his account and that I would need to open an account in my name. Ugh. He said “Do It, you are the one who does most of the shopping”. I did and there comes a card in my name and one in Hubby’s name. We are not sure whether we have one account or two accounts since Hubby rarely remembers to take his card with him. I guess I need to check on that.
Now, as to paying accounts. All was well so long as I received hard copy bills, tore off the bottom portion, and mailed in a check. Once I started paying the Macy’s bill on-line I started having trouble. Sometimes it was OK, sometimes I had a credit on one statement while owing on another statement. Why two statements? I only had one card. After several glitches and calls to and from Macy’s here is what happens. If you have a Macy’s card with the American Express logo on it you can use the card as an AMEX card when spending money outside of Macy’s. I don’t need that but I guess it comes in handy for others. You are sent TWO separate statements: one for the American Express outside of Macy’s and one for in store Macy’s purchases. WITH TWO SEPARATE ACCOUNT NUMBERS – just to make things confusing, or interesting, or chaotic.
Things became totally confused when I set up on-line banking with a new bank and copied the account number from the Macy’s Card onto the Bill Pay portion of the checking account, which was, coincidentally, about the time I opted for e-statements only. A couple of times I received a call from Macy’s Credit inquiring about whether I was going to pay the bill! I asked, “What bill? It is overdue?” They would give me an amount and tell me that it wasn’t overdue, that they were just giving me a courtesy call. Then I’d make a payment through them. This happened twice; all the while I was getting an e-statement showing a credit. I knew I had something wrong, I just didn’t know what.
You know that bill pay I set up with my bank and used the number on the Macy’s Card? It turns out that is the American Express account number. You can only see your actual Macy’s account number on the statement, the hard copy statement. But I was getting e-statements and those only have the last 4 numbers of the account. I tried putting in the number from my card and changing the last for numbers but that didn’t work. So this month I went to the Macy’s on-line site and made a payment there, to be sure it went to the correct account. Then I un-checked the box for e-statements. I need to get a better handle on this thing.
Have you had a similar situation? What do stores do with their billing that you find odd, nutty, confusing, or just plain annoying?
Have A Good Day Every Day. VJ
everydaywithvj 