Shoppers say Saks Fifth Avenue refuses to refund money for items they return

Debra Winters bought a head-to-toe outfit for a special event online at Saks Fifth Avenue, including a dress in two sizes.

The price tag: $1,500.

Winters kept one dress and returned everything else. The tags were still attached to the dress that didn’t fit; the shoes were unworn, the soles scuff-free and the handbag she’d ordered arrived in the wrong color -- pink instead of black. 

After stalling on a refund, Saks eventually rejected it, claiming Winters had worn the items. 

“This is a higher-end store. How could they do this to people?” said Winters.

Stefany Ortiz bought $800 Prada shoes online at Saks – a huge splurge. They were too big, so she returned them. But the company refused to refund her and eventually shipped the shoes back to her. 

“I was calling every day, being on hold for 30-plus minutes and just not getting an answer. I was very scared,” she said.

After NBC4 reached out to Saks, it refunded Ortiz’s money. As for Winters, she said Saks finally refunded her, but she hounded them for months. 

“Is everybody going to spend four months doing this? I don’t think so,” said Winters.

Customers across the country have shared similar stories with NBC. Sonia in New York returned an unworn dress in February and is still fighting for a refund. Jenny in New Jersey also returned an unworn dress and said she battled with the company for more than a year to get her money back. 

Hundreds of Saks customers have complained online, too. Recently, a TikTok video went viral. Saks rejected this woman’s return, saying she’d worn a dress she was trying to take back. 

“There’s literally nothing wrong with it. I wore it for five minutes while trying it on in my apartment,” she said in the video.

Saks clearly states online that refunds can take up to 30 days to process. But these shoppers say they’re waiting much longer than that. And in the meantime, their credit card bills come due. 

Aimee Drolet Rossi, a marketing professor at UCLA, says Saks’ behavior is wrong. 

“They’re simply holding your money hijacked,” she said.

Drolet Rossi said returns cost retailers a lot of money, and some shoppers abuse the system. In fact, the National Retail Federation estimated that return fraud contributed to $100 billion in losses for retailers last year. 

Still, Drolet Rossi said that’s not an excuse for Saks not refunding customers right away. She believes their behavior is suspicious. 

“If they’re holding onto the money consistently, then that suggests something... bad, as I would say. If I’m holding large sums of money and I can put that in an interest-bearing account, I'm effectively making money off of money that’s yours, the consumer’s, that should have been returned to you,” she said.

In a statement, Saks said, “This assertion is completely inaccurate.”

Instead, it said delays in refunds are due to “increased product quality inspection and authentication” to help combat return fraud. As for returns it’s rejected, it blamed “human error” and said it happens less than 1% of the time. 

Drolet Rossi believes Saks needs to make changes to how it processes returns. 

“It’s an unfortunate decision that I think will alienate a lot of customers,” she said.

Winters agrees. She said Saks has lost her business. 

“I don’t want this to happen to others,” she said.