Breaking up with R.H. Macy

I’ve been a Macy’s girl since I moved to Albany and finally had one just a bus ride away. As a kid growing up outside of NYC, Macy’s was the mythical place of parades, magical cosmetics and fragrance counters, and brand name merchandise that I aspired to one day be able to afford. It was kind of the retail dream.

Over the years, I’ve bought an incredible array of items from Macy’s – home furnishings, rugs, housewares, luggage, shoes and, of course, clothing. There have also been a few pieces of jewelry purchased, a tennis bracelet (when those were all the rage), a necklace, and a pair of perfect gold hoop earrings. In February, the day I left for Rome, I realized I was only wearing one gold hoop earring, instead of the two I had put on in the morning. Bummer.

Having lost one of these earrings previously, I was overly optimistic that it would reappear as it had done in the past. By the end of April, I finally accepted that my lost earring wasn’t coming back and began searching for a replacement pair. This led to my (fulfilled) wish for new earrings for Mother’s Day and my own self-indulgent purchase of a second pair because A. They were on sale and B. I was greedy and I wanted both yellow and rose gold hoops.

So, I’ve worn the earrings a combined total of maybe 10 times, usually opting for the rose gold ones because my kid bought them for me and that’s what you do. I reached for the yellow ones the other day and was disappointed to see that they were broken. The piece that goes through the ear had fallen off leaving a useless and incomplete gold circle. Today, I took the earrings back to Macy’s fully expecting them to either replace them, offer to fix them or take them back. None of that happened.

Instead, it was explained to me that I could purchase (for an undetermined price somewhere between $16-60) the insurance plan they offered and they would back date it to the purchase date. With their plan, I would be eligible to potentially have the earring repaired. Now, I paid $70 or so for the earrings (although the tag inside the box said $360), obviously not a lot of money. I spoke to the manager and she said it was their policy and since they’d been worn and the tags were off and that’s all she could do. And then she apologized for “the inconvenience.”

The inconvenience? Really?

I replied that it really wasn’t that I had been inconvenienced, it was more that I was disappointed by Macy’s lack of responsibility for the quality of the items that they sell. The earrings had not been mishandled, abused or even slept in. Nope, what they were was poorly made. And what I was, was a former shopper. Bye, bye, Macy’s.