In the “More bad news for Kmart” department, Consumerist.com has the story of a situation brewing with Kmart shoppers who utilized Kmart’s layaway to pay for Christmas gifts.
There’s an unhappy wind blowing toward Kmart right now, and it’s coming from the direction of disgruntled customers who say that after the retailer notified them of a Dec. 14 deadline to pay off layaway balances in order to have their items delivered by Christmas, the retailer has been canceling orders left and right, saying items are “out of stock.” Not only that, but some shoppers say they’ve been told their refunds won’t arrive until after it’s too late to buy new Christmas presents to replace the canceled layaway items.
…check out Kmart’s Facebook page, where indeed, the rage over canceled Christmas layaway items is in full effect.
Customers want to know, among other things, why items weren’t placed on hold when they they were put on layaway? And how does Kmart expect people to pull the money out of thin air — money they already paid to Kmart’s layaway program — to replace those gifts that won’t be coming?
Indeed, Kmart’s Facebook page is blowing up with comments from shoppers who paid their layaways off on time, only to find that there are no gifts to pick up. What an awful time of year for shoppers to go through this.
Bargain Babe says
I just can’t understand this at all. This is not what I remember “layaway” to be. It’s simply inconceivable that something like this would happen. You accept the money as part of a layaway program, you put aside the item until it’s paid in full, at which time the responsible, made-the-payments-on-time-and-in-full owner gets to take it home (or have it delivered, in the case of online purchases.) It’s prey-like on the part of KMart to treat customer’s money as though strangers were willingly floating them cash to run their operation. Scratch that. It’s criminal.
Add me to the non-layaway customers who are outraged by this.
rswehrle says
It is so sad that this has happened. Unfortunately, this issue will not be resolved quick enough for most families. However, I would strongly recommend that these families contact their States Attorney General to file a complaint and hopefully that will give them some sense of power over such a powerless situation. If we as consumers stand together, we may just save a families Christmas next year.
Coupon Maven says
Reader Kelly just emailed this story over: https://www.theindychannel.com/news/call-6-investigators/nightmare-before-christmas-for-some-kmart-layaway-shoppers
From this article:
So, if this is true, their layaway really is like putting things into an online shopping cart, then hoping those items are still there weeks to months after you added them. They really “don’t get reserved until the customer pays the final payment”?
Coupon Maven says
Here’s another news report — this one from Kansas City:
https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/investigations/nightmare-before-christmas-for-some-kmart-layaway-shoppers
A statement from Kmart: