Shane Co. Customer Service

[richieb0723]

As I assume we all know by now, Shane Co. has filed for Chapter 11-Bankruptcy. Not a big deal, so I was told repeatedly by multiple Shane Co. employees. Forget the fact that a little known company known as Circuit City filed for the same thing just months before it went out of business. That is neither here nor there. My concern was the way that the whole ordeal was handled. I was one of about 4500 people who put a piece of jewelry on layaway before they filed. Some of us have requested that we cancel our layaway service and get the "guaranteed" refund that we were all promised. All of us were told that refunds could only be given in the form of a Shane Co. gift card (not redeemable for cash). This came as a complete shock to me because I made repeated visits to Shane Co. to put more money down on my layaway purchase, and at no point was I informed of their recent filing or how it affected me. Furthermore, when I finally found out about them filing (I live in Illinois so I don''t get local St. Louis newspapers) I asked them how it affects me. I was told, "It doesn''t affect any of our customers in any way....don''t worry.....it''s just a formality..."
Something else makes me a little uneasy about my "friends" at the "uncommishioned" Shane Company. I was told about the "guaranteed money back layaway program" just two weeks before the company filed for Chapter 11. This is my real question (the first paragraph was just me venting...sorry): Am I wrong to think that I was duped by a deceitful salesperson that simply wanted to lock up my money in a long, drawn out court process? I find it hard to believe that the employees at the company were as shocked as I was.

 

[tlh]

Lots of employees have NO CLUE what goes on in the business around them. They can tell that business is going slow, but they aren''t informed of the legal processes involved, because honestly, would you want to work for a company that filed Bankrupcy?

My girlfriend worked for Go Fig Lipodissolve. Showed up for work, to find out the doors were closed and locked. The company filed chapter 11 and closed the doors. They owe her money for vacation, 2 weeks pay, etc. Patients that still hadn''t received treatments that they had to pay in advance for, THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS, only to get no refund, no service, and in many cases, are still paying bills for this. Apparantly the owner of the company did filed bankrupcy before, and renamed the company... etc. My point is, employees are kept in the dark. I do not believe you were purposefully duped. They probably found out the same way you did, only because they didn''t close the doors- like they did on my friend, and they remained open for business, the employees probably received a memo the day before or even the day OF the bankruptcy filing.

I understand that you are upset, but I''d take the gift card towards amounts already paid, OR go ahead and get the diamond as collateral. At least then you''ll have a tangible object you could sell later if you needed.

Best wishes.

 

[neatfreak]

A lot of employees are fed BS by company execs and have no idea what is going on...I wouldn''t blame the automatically. But if you have a lot of money tied up with them I WOULD either speak to a lawyer ASAP or look into getting your item ASAP. Or else you might be left with nothing.

 

[girlie-girl]

Richieb I went over to the Shane Co. website and found this page about the Chapter 11 Reorganization.

http://www.shaneco.com/About/ReorganizationUpdate.htmx

Here's a snippet:

"Any purchase you make today and in the future is covered by our 60-day Refund & Exchange Guarantee. Unfortunately, the court handling our reorganization will not allow us to issue refunds on purchases made prior to January 12, 2009. However, you may, if you wish, receive a store credit for the full amount of any purchases made from November 13, 2008 to January 11, 2009. I sincerely apologize for this inconvenience."

Did you start the layaway prior to Jan 12? If yes, perhaps this is why you're being told you can only get a store credit.

Good luck.