Saks Fifth Avenue shopper issues warning to future customers after luxury retailer refuses to refund her

A social media influencer is blasting Saks Fifth Avenue for allegedly not accepting her dress return, even though she said 'there's nothing wrong' with it.

Brittany Paige, who has just over 30,000 followers on a TikTok devoted to her lifestyle content, posted a video Thursday ripping the luxury American retailer for rejecting her return of a $700 Ramy Brook dress.

It was just one of several dresses Paige bought for her sister's wedding, in which she was the maid of honor.

She didn't end up going with the dress she bought from Saks, so decided to return it. Only, she claims the store sent the dress back after a month without a refund.

'Do not shop at Saks Fifth Avenue. There is something extremely fishy going on with Saks, and they're basically robbing people and scamming people left and right,' she said at the beginning of her TikTok.

She called customer service after getting the dress back. She said an agent told her Saks wouldn't be accepting the dress back because 'it had deodorant stains, an odor and looked worn.'

'I'm investigating the dress. I'm showing my mom, like "Mom, can you smell this?" The dress, not only does have tags on it, but there's nothing wrong with the dress,' Paige said.

She added: 'I wore it for five minutes while trying it on in my apartment.'

Her video has received over 471,000 views and has attracted dozens of commenters complaining about having similar issues with Saks.

A Saks spokesperson didn't directly address Paige's issue when DailyMail.com approached the company for comment but did explain that a rise in online fraud is what prompted a change in its return process.

'Across the retail industry, there has been an increase in online fraud, particularly related to returns. As such, we have added more rigorous steps in our return process, including additional quality checking and stronger authentication,' according to the Saks spokesperson. 

The statement continued: 'In some instances, this has unfortunately resulted in longer than expected return processing times. Our top priority is ensuring our customers enjoy the luxury shopping experience for which Saks is known and we will continue to take steps to improve our processes moving forward.'

After Paige got the Ramy Brook dress back from Saks, she called customer service again to inquire about a remedy to her situation.

She was allegedly told to send pictures of the dress to the company so it could 'open up a case.'

Paige said she sent eight photos of the dress, then flashed the pictures on screen. 

She showed a picture of the top inside portion of the dress and claimed there were no deodorant stains like Saks had allegedly claimed.

Saks allegedly emailed her back and gave the same excuses as to why they couldn't give her her money back: 'deodorant stains and body odor.'

She called two more customer service representatives, both of whom allegedly told her that they didn't have the authority to accept the return.

Paige claimed that one representative even told her that nothing appeared to be wrong with the dress but told her all she could do was wait for another email from Saks.

'This is supposed to be a luxury department store,' Paige said.

She also claimed that she has returned two other dresses from Saks in the past. She said she didn't get her money back until 60 days had passed, despite the company's return policy stating customers can expect 'a full refund within 30 days.'

'I was calling every week to speak to customer service reps,' Paige said, adding that every time she got on the phone to someone, they allegedly told her they couldn’t do anything about the wait time.

'I have not one but two friends who have told me they’ve purchased something from Saks and Saks shipped them a different item. When they tried to return it, Saks would not take the return,' she added. 

'One friend purchased a Gucci wallet for her husband for Christmas, and they sent her a lesser-value wallet, and they wouldn’t take the return,' Paige continued. 

'My other friend purchased sneakers, and they sent her a different pair of sneakers. Different brand, two sizes different. They wouldn’t take the return. She sent it back twice, and it got rejected twice.'

Many of her viewers flooded the comments to share similarly bad experiences with Saks.

'The same EXACT thing happened to me with a very expensive dress also for a wedding. Tried it on like you for 5 minutes and went through the whole ordeal you went through,' one person wrote.

Another wrote: 'The same thing happened to me! But karma eventually caught up to them when I bought a $130 bracelet that was on sale and they sent me a $2k bracelet instead.'

A third said: 'YESSS!!!! Happened to me!!!! It was an expensive $400 dress!!! And they rejected me twice! I had to call the bank and make a claim and it took over two month to settle.'

Paige replied to this commenter asking if her credit card company had refunded her. She claims her credit card is powerless to do anything because Saks said there was damage to the dress.

The commenter said she sent her bank, Chase Bank, evidence of her dress being perfectly fine.

'It took a while but I did get a refund,' she wrote.

Many viewers suggested that Paige go to a Saks Fifth Avenue store to return it. 

In a follow up video, she addressed this, revealing that Saks.com - the online retailer - and Saks Fifth Avenue - the brick and mortar stores - became separate businesses in 2021.

Customers can return items in store, but Paige expressed skepticism that doing this would help.

Paige spoke to the Independent and revealed that her Ramy Brook dress return has now been accepted. 

She told the outlet that a member of Saks Fifth Avenue's executive team called her on September 27 and let her know she'd be receiving a FedEx return label.

Three days later, this person called again and informed her that she had issued the return.

'While I am happy that my issue seems to be resolved – I’ll believe it when I officially see the money back on my credit card - I’m still incredibly frustrated for all the other people who had a similar experience as me,' Paige said.

'Customers shouldn’t have to post TikTok videos publicly shaming a brand in order to get a refund for a purchase that they rightfully returned. 

'If a brand doesn’t want to accept returns, then they should alter their return policy to not allow returns. Instead, Saks is gaslighting their customers claiming their returned items are damaged, when they aren’t.'