Bloomingdale’s is scrambling to rectify a mishap that mistakenly left some loyal shoppers believing they were entitled to as much as $25,000 in store credit — with at least several cashing in on spending sprees that may be reversed, according to published reports.
Some members of the store’s “loyalty program” received emails Friday that apparently confused reward point balances for dollar amounts on gift cards, according to BuzzFeed, which detailed one man’s spending spree.
The shopper, who spoke with the website on condition of anonymity, said he bought about $17,000 worth of merch at the Bloomingdale’s flagship store, including a $10,000 pair of earrings, a $5,000 watch, a new Louis Vuitton bag and a tie, “all of which cleared on his card.”
He received a call from Bloomingdale’s on Saturday telling him to return the items and said he was told he would receive a $100 gift card for doing so and would be banned from the store’s loyalty program if he did not.
“A small subset of Bloomingdale’s Loyalist participants were accidentally issued rewards gift cards with amounts that were clearly incorrect,” Bloomingdale’s said in a statement. “The company caught the mistake last week and is reissuing replacement gift cards with correct amounts. The company is in contact with its customers and has apologized to those affected,” it said.
The shopper who spoke with BuzzFeed said his wife was reluctant to part with her new handbag and that he wished “they’d offer me a real reward” for returning his booty.
Several Reddit users said they had also received too-good-to-be-true offers. “Bloomingdales tricked me into thinking I got a $5,000 rewards card. They corrected it by the time they rung up my Chanel bag,” wrote one.
