Boscov's — Local services in Meriden

Today, my girlfriend and I decided to visit Boscov’s for the first time. We were excited, and our first impression was good. As we entered the store, we noticed the vast selection of merchandise, cleanliness, and the prices were very affordable. When we were ready to leave, we had a very different experience.

My girlfriend was able to find a few items she was very interested, and excited, in purchasing. After we finished browsing, we were ready to check out. This was the first problem we encountered. We had to search the store to find out where a check out register was, and the few we did find, nobody was working the register. Finally, I asked two associates, who were talking to each other around the corner, “Where we can check out?” I got, in my opinion, a rather rude response as one of the ladies pointed to an empty register and said, “Here”. I said, “Thank you” and walked over as she also walked over and went behind the counter.

Her mind seemed very busy chatting with her associate friend about some other customers in the store who were running around. The cashier seemed confused about my girlfriend‘s items at first, and inquired if she was returning them. We were not returning them, we wanted to purchase them. We had only three items: a backpack, purse, and cat toy. We did not have a cart, so we were carrying the purse and cat toy inside the backpack and had taken them out and placed them on the counter. After the cashier scanned everything, she decided instead of a bag, she would shove everything back inside the backpack. As she aggressively shoved the purse back in the backpack, the sales tag flew off. She did pick it up and throw it in the backpack. She also put the sales receipt in the bag, even though my girlfriend had been clearly trying to get it to put in her wallet.

After she got the items inside, she then tried to zip up the backpack. From my observation, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was her first experience with a zipper device. She struggled with the zipper and was forcing it to close. We tried to politely say it was fine, we’ll just take the items, but she was still talking to the other associate this whole time rather than focusing on checking us out. Any harder pulling on the zipper, and she would have damaged the backpack. Again, rather than provide us with a bag, she used an orange “Thank You” sticker, and stuck it around the backpack tags in a way that covered the manufacturer warranty information.

Finally, after the checkout ordeal, we left the store with less excitement than we had hoped for our first experience here. After we were home for a couple hours, my girlfriend was excited to put her work items in her new backpack, and retrieved her new purchase. It was at this point, she noticed the security ink tag was still on the backpack. We live far away, and it’s too late to go back to the store today. We now need to spend almost two hours of our Sunday to return and ask to have the tag removed, presuming we can find someone to help us right away.

Our overall experience was very discouraging. While we were initially impressed with the store, this cashier was a disappointing, and possibly last, impression of Boscov’s.

UPDATE - 1/27/209

When we returned the following day, we were able to find an associate much easier. The associate assisted us in getting a manager to speak with, and removed the tag and provided us a bag for the previously purchased backpack while we waited. The manager on duty was Giorgio. He listened attentively, seemed genuinely concerned about the negative experience, acknowledged and appeared to fully understand our frustration, and offered to discount the backpack via a credit (a pleasant surprise).

It is because of Giorgio, we have updated this review from 2 stars to 3 stars, and will likely return to Boscov’s again...

I purchased a Serta Mattress and a few other items from Boscov's in Meriden.

When making the purchase the salesman wanted me to buy a Mattress cover pad. When I declined he said that if i bought the mattress cover, he would "throw in a free pillow". We got a total of two pillows, but only had to pay for one of them. fine.

A month later I went to Exchange the mattress because i thought it was too hard for my back (not the sales person's fault), and not the point of this discussion.

I picked out a Sealy mattress. He went and filled out the paperwork for my exchange.

Then he tells me that I now have to pay for the other pillow that he gave me for free because I'm buying a Sealy mattress, and the reason I got a free pillow before was because it was a Buy-one Get-one free promotion from Serta.

I was very annoyed about this, so he agreed to give me the pillow at half price ($49.99)

So apparently he was LYING TO MY FACE when he said he was "throwing in a free pillow". He wasn't "throwing in" anything. He was using the manufacturer's buy-on get-one promotion as a means to trick me into buying a mattress cover that I DID NOT WANT ($89.99).

So now I paid $90 for a matteress pad that i didn;t want, and $50 for a pillow that i really didn't need. I spent over $2,000 total and feel ripped-off.

Also...their Monthly Billing is absolutely ridiculous.

I made this purchase on a 36 month payment plan. Just got my bill and the amount I pay is going to be DIFFERENT EVERY MONTH. I called Customer Service and was told this is the way it works. The amount you pay Each month is based on your current balance. I have used payment plans at other places for other items and have NEVER had a situation where i didn't know how much my payment was going to...

The worst experience ive ever had. I was called retared twice and told i need to take meds. From an employee. My wife and I went to boscovs in the merden mall. She got talked into buying a bed and spent 1100.00 on it. Which to me was crazy enough. Then when we got the bed it felt like laying on a rock. Went back to the store and the lady in the bed department. ( i hope noone ever has to deal with her ) not only ignored me completely as if she hates men. She refused to talk to me would only speak to my wife and told us there was nothing she can do we have to talk to customer service. So we went back home and called at this point was told we have to go back to the store there was nothing they can do. We went back to the store on a day the lady store assistant said the original salesmen we talk to would be there. He wasnt and only she was there. But after the was she treated me the first time i was avoiding her. However this time she wouldnt leave us alone. She kept following us around the store bad mouthing her coworkers and telling us she cant help which was fine because we didnt want her help. She followed us around for what seems like an hour in this time she implied that i was mentally retarded twice and told me i need to go home and take my meds at which point i walked away. At no point in the conversation did i do anytging to deserve being called retarted or told to go take meds. In fact the vast majority of the time i stayed silent because it was clear she did not want to talk to me. The store its self is fine. However i will never shop here again untill she is fired and i stongly erge everyone to stay clear of the the...