I went in to return some items that I would regularly not even attempt to return. I warned the employee at the register of that preemptively and clarified that I really only wanted to exchange the pants I lost the receipt for (but still had the tags), as I wanted the same pants, just different size...reasonable enough, I thought. Now, with a lot of life transitions and big obligations lately, I let my returns sit for far too long in a bin in my bedroom, which is why I was fully ready to be told I cannot return some of the items, not a problem, but it would eat me up if I didn't at least try before tossing them as I was still in the 90 day window I read of online and had the receipts. Mind you, I wouldn't even bother returning 75% of these items, but I lost my wit's end when LITERALLY the last of every electronic I ever purchased from this place had broke in an extreme fashion. I read online that you could return defective items, so, well, I was going to give it a shot because even my Dollar Tree products are still going strong and I thought that this company should be held responsible for their extremely poor products being that not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 of 4 electronics I'd ever bought from here didn't even last 3 months. So the manager comes to approve or deny the returns, and instead of simply saying, no, or like most places, asking why I'd like to return or if there was something wrong with the item, she verbally projects how I "used this item for months," and "clearly dropped that item." Honey, why on Earth would someone use something so cheap for MONTHS and then try to return it in it's original packaging with the receipt later on? It was a light strip that I didn't realize needed to be plugged into the wall until AFTER I opened the bottom of the box and I needed a cordless battery powered one. Yes, I let time slip by, but I was still within the window, and like I said, I would have taken 'no' without question instead of being berated in third person in front of my face as a line of customers grows behind me and watches it take place. The other defective item was a phone remote that I waited over a month to unbox because I knew I didn't want to return it, only to find out from the jump that it didn't even work! It didn't scroll up and down through videos as described and only had the capability of taking me to the home page, don't know what help that does me. I could have literally shown this to her face as I had connected it to my phone previously and could show the malfunction, but didn't want to make people behind me wait for such a dumb cause, and she didn't even speak to me anyways to allow me to explain or defend myself, she just spoke about me constructing several narratives in front of me lol. The last item was the biggest stretch, and I knew that, but I was already taking the trip and it bothered me that it broke in such a short time through no fault of my own. The item was a car phone charger and it literally broke into 3 pieces one day, like I'm not talking unscrewed or fell apart in a way that could be put back together, no, this thing literally broke from the circuit, as in, if I could fix it, I would need a soldering tool. Now, seeing how I have a car phone charger from walmart from about 10 years ago that costed $5, I figured that it wouldn't be such a wild expectation for this charger to last me more than 3 months and that the employee I encountered would understand that the degree of the breaking was clearly faulty manufacturing. No, this was the one I "clearly dropped." I wouldn't have tried to return this item if I didn't have the original receipt that clearly indicated the description of the item (as I didn't have the original packaging anymore because I had no intention of returning), if the return policy did not clearly outline "or if it's a defective item with receipt" as it seems this wasn't an unusual occurence with their products and would be no biggie to return, and if my solar panel that I had bought not even 3 months ago from there had not literally just busted off the side of it's structure and ejected its internal contents. That was really my last straw, and I was going to see if I could actually return a defective item as I had never tried to with the solar panel (and had wished that I had). All this being said, I really can't believe I took the time to write such a long review over $17 worth of product, but geez that lady really made me feel degraded. If I ever return to a five below, it will only be for clothes as I can't trust that the rest won't break (but I guess we'll see if these pants make it through the washer and dryer first lol), and it will definitely not be from this location. Shame on you, Five Below. read more
