Neiman Marcus / The Neiman Marcus Group

The worst experience I had during my stay in the US was shopping at Neiman Marcus on Michigan Ave. in Chicago. I bought a dress there for my wife for $420, which I paid for in cash. Unfortunately, the dress turned out to be too big for my wife and we went to return it to this store. Unfortunately, the manager did not want to return the money to me without an American driving license. I explained to her for 20 minutes that I'm a tourist from Poland and I can't do them because I'm here as a tourist. I tried to give her a Polish passport and a Polish driving license, but the manager didn't even want to look and demanded only American documents. Unfortunately, the manager's intellectual capacity to understand the whole situation was beyond her and at the end of the conversation she only said that I could sell the dress on eBay. In my opinion, this woman's completely unprofessional approach to the whole situation. At the end, the manager started behaving rudely and just smiled evilly at my anger at the whole situation. Finally, a piece of advice for tourists from outside the US... never pay cash at Neiman Marcus because you will not get your money back if you return the purchased items without a US ID or US driving license.

I had bought several hair products from Neiman Marcus in Chicago and was blatantly misinformed about one product (I would assume so the sales woman could make some cash on an inaccurate sale). I was told I could use a product without having to blow dry my hair which was completely untrue. I was given good service the day I bought the products (most likely because I was dressed "well" so they could believe I was of a status they should respect…), but during my return I was treated like I was lesser than. They spoke down to me and refused to let me me return my products (which I suppose is policy, but I do know that at a store like Neiman Marcus those policies are very grey and option. I was also not informed of this policy upon purchase). I have never in my life been treated with so much disrespect. As a young woman of color that does come from a wealthier class this was something I expected may happen to me at some point, but to the level it did and to be spoken down to so severely was incredibly disappointing and overall appalling and shocking.
They were very immediate in their assumptions that I must have stolen the product (implied by their aggressively asking to see my receipt after I had asked for a refund), they were very clear about expressing their disapproval of my presence in their store, and at no point did they give any type of respectful or proper customer service to me. Regardless of ones financial status they shouldn't be treating anyone like that. It was a black woman, Asian woman and white man (the manager). They were all working at the Chicago Michigan ave location at approximately 4:00pm on August 2nd of 2021.
I would absolutely qualify this interaction as racist, ageist, and classist. Their was clearly an assumption that I was of a lower class and therefore deserved less than premier service (something I have come to expect from Neiman Marcus).