The Avenue Avenue Stores, United Retail Group Cheated me out of a return Rochelle Park, NJ Internet

i placed a fairly large order for clothing ($400), received the clothing and decided to return many of the pieces for size issues.  Upon receipt, I tried on and started marking off on the shipping form the ones I had hoped to return.  I realized at that time, that one shirt was missing a tag, but didn't think much of it because I could narrow it down to the line item it matched.  I carried the items to a store location to return, but the manager promptly told me that if I returned all those items ($250) I would ruin her whole day and she would get in trouble for not making her daily goals.  I decided to not ruin her day as I worked retail for quite a while when I first began my career.  Rather, I decided I would swallow the $7.95 return fee.

I returned the items and thought nothing more of it.  I received an email that my return was received and assumed everything was fine.

About a week later, I received a call from a customer service rep that one item did not have a tag and that it would not be accepted.  I found that a bit odd and called customer service.  I explained to the representative that I didn't think the shirt had a tag on it when I received it and that I had no reason to remove it as it didn't at all fit.  He said he would contact me back. 

Again I assumed all would be taken care of at that point and then I received this response:

Dear XXXX

We are contacting you regarding your previous request: That you sent items the way you received them (no tags)
We have looked into this matter, unfortunately, we have not been able to grant your request because 

If you have any further question or concerns feel free to call us at Avenue customer service: 1-888-843-2836 and any agent will be more than happy to assist you.

We apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused you.

Sincerely,
Joseph Herrera
avenue Customer Service

Notice that he didn't even bother to fill in the "because" section of his quite personal form email.

So, once again I called customer service to resolve.  I got an agent named "Diego" at X3015 who claimed to be a supervisor.  He basically said that nothing could be done.  So - they now have a shirt that I paid for and they will not credit it, but rather return it to me for the small shipping price of $7.95.  They are holding my merchandise hostage and refusing to credit my account.  Seriously?  You have the same shirt in the warehouse - I am most certain this is not the first item to have been shipped without a tag - they fall off all the time.  Further, are they incapable of making a replace tag?  The number is right there on my return sheet.  The item was clearly not worn and able to be resold.

This is definitely the most reduculous situation I have encountered in a long time - and I do quite a bit of online shopping.  I will be closing this account and most certainly not shopping either online or in store.