What’s your problem? A few small problems with Casual Male XL

Question: I have two small problems with Casual Male XL that I was hoping you could help me with.

Problem 1: My husband and I went to Casual Male XL’s website and tried to use a coupon that offered $75 off of a purchase of $100 or more. It didn’t work.

I contacted the customer service line and was advised that they could give me 20 percent off but that was the best they would do. My husband and I are very loyal customers to this company. We spend a lot of money each year in your stores. To be denied use of a perfectly valid coupon code is ridiculous.

Problem 2: My husband was able to use the coupon to buy a gift certificate worth $102. He decided to do that in order to take his time with the purchase. But when Casual Male XL discovered it, they not only canceled his order, but also charged him the full $102.

We contacted the company and first the agent said that it was a gift card and was not refundable. I demanded a supervisor who finally and reluctantly agreed to refund the money once they received the gift card back. He told us to return it to the nearest store. We still have not received this gift card, and we just want our money back. — Jeni Wilson, Indianapolis

Answer: Casual Male XL should have honored a valid coupon and it shouldn’t have charged you for a purchase you didn’t make.

This is a real comedy of errors: An invalid coupon that you were allowed to use and an arbitrary cancellation and then a forcible re-purchase of a gift card. My head is spinning!

In order to fix this, let me separate these two issues. At my suggestion, you sent a brief, polite email to Casual Male XL, asking about the coupon.

It responded in writing, saying the coupon was valid for a “very specific customer group” and not the entire big and tall customer base. It was illegally distributed by coupon websites and therefore, the coupon was canceled.

“There were many individuals who fraudulent attempted to use the coupon multiple times,” the company said in a statement.

In other words, Casual Male was targeting a specific group of customers with the coupon — perhaps a single ZIP code or mailing list — but somehow, the coupon code got released into the wild for anyone to use. So he company simply canceled it. Sorta.

Is that fair? I don’t know. I can tell you that $75 off a purchase of $100 or more is ridiculously good, and if enough customers take advantage of it, the company would have to declare bankruptcy. The 20-percent-off offer makes up for it a little.

As to your second problem, that kind of clerical error should get fixed right away. I don’t understand why the company would withdraw $102 from your account for a card it hasn’t even sent you yet. They should put the money back.

I contacted Casual Male XL on your behalf, and it refunded the $102 immediately.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_HMW3OTJSBDWWRKIEKEKWWM7BEA bc

    Chris, a little something you should know about that coupon. Here is the link to an image of the coupon. http://slickdeals.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=742528

    It was a targeted coupon for certain Casual Male customers. It was posted on a deals website (fatwallet.com and slickdeals.net). Casual Male did the right thing by honoring the coupons for those that presented a single order but many many many people abused this and tried to order multiple times. Your OP also was one of those abusers, as you ( and presumably she can read) it clearly says Excludes Gift Cards. Shame on your OP for complaining about something when they clearly were trying to use the coupon fraudulently.

  • Bill

    One shouldn’t realistically expect a coupon for $75 off a purchase of $100 or more.  I wouldn’t even try to use one if i saw it.
    Secondly, percent off coupons generally (always) do not apply to gift card purchases.

    Think of things from a realistic perspective and you won’t get so upset when they don’t work.

  • Bill

    One shouldn’t realistically expect a coupon for $75 off a purchase of $100 or more.  I wouldn’t even try to use one if i saw it.
    Secondly, percent off coupons generally (always) do not apply to gift card purchases.

    Think of things from a realistic perspective and you won’t get so upset when they don’t work.

  • http://profiles.google.com/chazowen Charles Owen

    The flaw in your reasoning is that Casual Male DID release a coupon for $75 off a purchase of $100 (admittedly, not for a gift card). I’m sure they meant to send this to a select group of customers, probably regulars who spend a lot and they want to really keep pleased, but it got out into the wild. They messed up. They should have individually coded the coupons to customers. But, there is no doubt that an offer did actually exist, so 75% off can occur.

    We get coupons from JC Penny and Kohls on a regular basis that are $10 off any purchase of $10 or more. You can go into the store, buy a $10 item, and pay only the sales tax. Should I toss those because I shouldn’t realistically expect a coupon for 100% off? Companies can be very creative in their promotions and a large discount is not that unusual. The Casual Male promo does seem unusual, but it really did exist, so this attitude that I am never going to try to use what “appears too good to be true” may cost you money.

  • Brhi

    I believe, from reading the article, that this person did not purchase a gift card, but that her husband did.  Now whether this is right or wrong, it remains that the company charged one price, then went back and charged more.  If they had gone into a store and paid one price, the store would not go back and charge them an additional amount because of a screwup that the store had.

    I saw this coupon listed on many deals sites and on those sites, which may be where Ms. Wilson got this coupon, there were no limitations stipulated.  This might be why her husband tried to buy the gift card, because it did not show any limitations.

    I know that most guys do not use coupons.  Maybe he just did not know what normal limitations are because he did not use coupons regularly. 

    Sounds to me like this woman stood up for what was right and did not let this store take advantage of her.  I believe that I have seen this story on another blog http://www.whereismyreallife.wordpress.com where this woman had posted up what had happened and her conversation with customer service.  It was not just this woman that was taken advantage of by this company, but many others out there as well.  From what I had seen on Casual Male’s FaceBook page and twitter pages there were many angry consumers who were taken for a ride.

  • Andi330

    Online images of the coupon clearly state that it excludes gift card purchases. The husband shouldn’t even have tried to make that purchase. Should Casual Male XL have charged the whole card without calling and asking? No probably not. But the OPs husband caused the problem by trying to use a coupon for something that did not qualify. Additionally, people who try to use coupons to purchase items that are excluded ruin coupon use for the rest of the population Casual Male XL cancelled this coupon because people were using it inappropriately. Many stores have started severely limiting the use of coupons for the same reason. There are some that won’t even take printable coupons anymore.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_HMW3OTJSBDWWRKIEKEKWWM7BEA bc

    Hey Brhi, in interest of full disclosure, I also used this coupon online and used it ONCE, according to the rules of the promotion. A link to the coupon that was available for review on all the sites for everyone when the deal was posted. I linked to a copy of the coupon in my reply as you can see It CLEARLY states that it excludes gift cards. Furthermore, just because some schmuck online posts a coupon code and doesn’t list all the exclusions doesn’t mean there aren’t any. The place to look for those exclusions is on the coupon, which as I pointed out was and is still available online. If Mr. or Mrs. Wilson had done the least amount of research the would see this (My guess is they knew it excluded gift cards, virtually ALL coupons do, and tried to order anyways). 

    I too could argue that the company was “standing up for themselves” when they decided they had a customer who decided to take advantage of a flaw in their online ordering system and ordered something that was excluded on the coupon and claiming that “guys do not use coupons” is no excuse for violating the rules of a coupon. 

    It’s very typical of companies when they have in invalid coupon code on an online order to simply remove it and charge the correct price when they have issues like this. Their other option is to just cancel the order. Which action is right, is a topic for another conversation but Mr. Wilson caused the problem when he ordered something in violation of the promotion rules. So your the customer is always right mentality holds no water in this situation, in your argument you’re holding the store to a higher standard than you are the consumer. This is JUST NOT FAIR!

  • Andi330

    Actually, the link in your reply is a 403 Forbidden Error.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_HMW3OTJSBDWWRKIEKEKWWM7BEA bc

    Actually, if you click on the first link, it goes directly to the coupon. 

  • Andi330

    I did click the first link. I just clicked it again to be sure. It is going to a 404 forbidden message. Perhaps it is posted on an area of the site that is available to members only.

  • flutiefan

    Andi is right, i am getting the same error.