Brookline promised to refund my sheets. Why won’t it?
Why won’t Brooklinen refund Tracy Brom’s “hot and scratchy” sheets? After all, it promised her a refund.
Q: I bought sheets from Brooklinen.com a few years ago. The bottom sheet had a tear and they sent me a replacement.
But every two years or so a new tear would appear, so they’ve replaced them three or four times.
The sheets I got from them this time are not the same quality as the ones in the past. They’re hot and scratchy. I’ve returned those, but since the credit card I used to pay for them is now closed, they refuse to give me a check.
Brooklinen.com has repeated, ad nauseam, “We can only refund to the original payment method.” They will give me store credit, but since they don’t have any cooler sheets, the credit is worthless to me. I’m a disabled senior citizen and could really use the money. — Tracy Brom, Jasper, Ala.
A: Tracy, I think you’ve gotten a lot of use out of your linens. Hotels replace their sheets every two to three years because of wear, and some of them more often. Chances are, your sheets were ready to be retired, too.
But I decided to take your case because Brookinen promised to refund your sheets. That’s great customer service. But what’s not so great is the company saying it won’t refund you because it has a policy to only refund to your original form of payment.
Let’s talk about that policy for a moment, because it keeps coming up in my columns. I understand that refunding only back to the original credit card protects the business. But it is unrealistic for customers who often switch their payment methods or get new credit cards.
Bottom line: If Brooklinen is going to issue a refund as a goodwill gesture, why not go all the way and send you a check? After all, there is no law that says it has to refund to the original credit card. That’s just company policy.
I understand your misgivings about your sheets. I don’t like scratchy sheets either. But maybe you should buy your sheets from a store so you can feel them and check the quality before buying. That way, you can choose the quality of the linens that you want.
I think an appeal to an executive at Brooklinen might have helped. You quickly found the name of Brooklinen’s chief operating officer (Brooklinen’s emails follow the format firstname.lastname@brooklinen.com). I also publish the Brooklinen executive contacts on my consumer advocacy site, Elliott.org.
I contacted the company on your behalf, and it sent you $136 via PayPal, which you were happy with.
Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy (https://elliottadvocacy.org), a nonprofit organization that helps consumers solve their problems. Email him at chris@elliott.org or get help by contacting him at https://elliottadvocacy.org/help/