JC Penney

On Saturday, October 14, 2023 at about 2:00 pm CST, me (57F) and my mother (80F) walked into JC Penney in Southaven MS to return an online order. There were 2 cashiers up front and the line was very long. As we were walking to the end of the line, I stopped to ask an employee (2 employees were talking on the floor) if returns were still made at the cash register. She confirmed that was true, so I thanked them and walked to the end of the line. The same employee called me over a minute later and said that, for a simple return, I could go to the cashier in "Beauty". There was a very short line there.

I was sure that she was mistaken, so I asked her to repeat it. She confirmed and repeated a third time when my mother walked up, so we walked to the Beauty counter. There was a young black lady at the counter who spoke to us kindly as soon as we entered the area. We told her we were there to make a return and she went from pleasant to very angry in a fraction of a second. She wanted to know who told me that. I told that two employees confirmed with us 3 times and I pointed to them, although you could not see them through the partition. She was obviously very angry and it made me very uncomfortable. I quickly said, "You know what, she must have been mistaken. We'll go back to the registers and wait in line. Let's go Mom!" Just then, she backtracked and told us to wait (she had 1 customer) and she would look into it. When she got to us, she acted like she did not know how to do a return. Again, I told my mother that we needed to go and get back in line at the cash registers. Just as I grabbed my Mom to leave, she completed the return and confirmed the balance would return to the card. I was beyond confused by then and had a really sick feeling in my gut. I felt like we were still in danger. I thanked her and grabbed my Mom to leave. Another customer approached the register as we were walking out. The cashier yelled out to us "HEY! Who did you say told you to come in here to do this return?". We told her again, but I was more concerned with trying to get us out of there! I heard her say to the next customer as we were leaving, "I'll be back!" I told my mom that we should probably never ordering anything from JCPenney again.