KMART SEARS HOLDING Overcharged, Fake Gold, Lied, Police, Refused Return, Kmart, Costa Mesa, Accused customer of fraud Costa Mesa California

BUYER BEWARE ofKMART JEWELRY FALSE ADVERTISING!!!;Management's "Customer Service"aka Lies and Abuse, as well as Return Practices are nothing short of ABUSE!!

September 25, 2013 - I recieved a "Members Rewards 75% off Fine Jewelry" coupon. (Mind you, I'm the daughter of 2 jewelers-- one parent worked for a ritzy well-known Newport Beach jewelry store that sells $100,000 watches and diamond encrusted peices hourly, so I like to think I know what I'm talking about when it pertains to jewelry)

I wanted to get the most bang for my buck and was looking at the highest quality gold they had--"super special" 14 karat gold. I ended up purchasing 2 items:

1. 14 karat gold earrings (reg. price)$874.99 (75% disc, $10 rewards, tax = $124.19)

2. 10 karat gold plated earrings (reg. price) $75, now $16(didn't charge me tax??)

TOTAL PURCHASE: $809.99 worth of gold for $150.19

 I thought I made out like a bandit. I never actually touched my purchases before buying them. I looked in the case, saw what looked to be SOLID gold (one would assume for $874.99 + Kmart labeled the box and marketing around the item as 14 karat gold) that it would be legit.

Slightly weary, I took the earrings to an appraiser. They first tested the $16, 10 karat gold plated earrings and told me the gold was not 10 karat, and whatever it was just covered a pot metal, so those held zero value. Ok-- $16.00 not a huge loss.

Then they tested the 14 karat gold almost $900 earrings... repeatedly they asked, "Are you sure this is real?" I kept answering "YES! and made sure they knew the difference between the plated earring and the "solid" 14 karat earring. Test after test, after test... the nearly $900 earrings weren't even coming up to be 10 karats-- a totally hollow 10 karats!!! I asked what it's value was, Ha! They said they held no more than a $10-$15 value!

Immediatly I returned them-- but didn't write Kmart off just yet. I gave them once more chance-- stupidly. I went with a 14 karat gold chain. I figured, how badly could you botch a 14 karat box gold chain... oh dear lord...

Now my 3rd trip to the store for the day, while crusing around looking at chains, I told the sales girl to only pull 14 karat chains-- which she was having trouble doing because there was no rhyme or reason to their merchandising.

We found out that Kmart was selling boxed jewelry labeled and priced as 14 karat gold peices, but when you looked at the stamped metal, majority read 10 karat!!! I ended purchasing a:

3. 14 karat, stamped as such, gold chain with a sticker price (literally sticker on the chain) (reg. price) $749.99 and paid $233.02 (after tax, rewards).

Exhausted, I went home and didn't even take the box out of my purse, let alone the chain out of the box. 

September 26, 2013 - THE NIGHTMARE CONT'd... then EXPLODED!

The next day I appraised the chain, and to my disbelief... again, we found out that the almost $800 14 karat gold chain that I just paid $250 for, weighed less than 2 grams!! Mind you, the cost of gold is currently about $15 a gram. Ummm, rip off!! I was lucky to have the peice hold a value of $30. 

Furious, I wanted to be done with this bs and get all my money back and forget the whole thing happened. 

I waited at the register for 20 minutes waiting for someone from jewelry to confirm it's authenticity. Finally, whenthey figured out the person was at lunch, an associate had to walk the chain to the manager who was too lazy to come to the return desk. I asked if they wanted to take the recepit that they said they didn't need to. 

GOOD THING! While leisurely waiting, I reviewed my recepit... the $749.99 chain I purchased was actually incorrectly rung up at $999.99!! Kmart has the nerve to charge people $500 a gram for [bs]gold(wow, they're doing better than drug lords!)when the rest of the world only gets $15 a gram! But wait, it gets better...

The girl returned with the chain to inform me that it wasn't their merchandise and they were not going to return it!!!!!! WHAT?! Obviously, not a single person that was helping me last night was on duty and could not confirm that was the merchandise they sold me. 

The store manager came out, reviewed the item and said, "I know my merchandise, we don't sell this!" Unbelievable. Again, refused the return. I threated to call the police. The manager said, "Fine, I'm not going to talk to you until the arrive."

I stormed out, dialed 911 and waited in the front of the entrance. I got on the phone with my friend while waiting, hysterically re-capping what just happened. I wanted water from my car, so I unlocked my car door, grabbed water, didn't even sit in the car for more than 1 second (literally) then went back to waiting the front of the store for the police.

The police arrived, and assisted in getting the schedules of the employees orig. helping me with the sale--the store manager looked at my chain one last time and asked to speak to the officer privately. 

Upon her return, I asked what he said to her. She informed me that she would tell me outside. I felt like I was in trouble as I walked out side by side with the police officer. I felt people looking at us, probably assuming I stole something. Mortifiying.

We got outside and she told me what he said: That jerk manager had the audacity to tell her that upon re-checking the chain, he believes that I pulled a "switch-a-roo" on him. That I switched the chain out when I went to my car to get the water!!! Believe it or not-- THAT pissed me off more than every occurance along this whole story of insanity! Now, I get to make my 6th trip to Kmart today to have the employees verify the chain they sold to me is indeed the chain I am returning AND was incorrectly charged $250.00 MORE than the sticker price on the chain.

Because I'm smarter than your typical Kmart employee, (who isn't), not only am I walking in with a demand letter, the precursor to filing a lawsuit should my needs not be met, as well as photos I took of my receipt and chain while in my 20 minute wait for a manager-- prior to the return deny, and prior to calling the cops and going to my car to get water. I even have the time stamp of when the photo was taken, proving that the chain I was returning was in fact the origional chain I purchased, the same chain they denied, then said I had switched the actual chain to-- and are now claiming that this "new chain" was now their merchandise, still refused to return the item.

It's on Kmart! On so many levels it's ON... See you in court!