Kmart apologizes for layaway fiasco

The retailer is scrambling after many customers received cancellation notices–even though their purchases had been paid in full.

Ragan Insider Premium Content
Ragan Insider Content

But you probably won’t. Let me explain.

Several people who put items on layaway at Kmart this holiday season received notice recently that their contracts had been cancelled. There was no word on when—or even if—refunds would be processed for the orders.

It took a few days, but Kmart seems to have finally gotten things sorted out.

The company issued an apology Wednesday, and later issued the following statement to Consumerist:

We deeply apologize to our customers affected by this online layaway issue. Some of our online layaway customers received inadvertent cancellation notices on their layaway contracts and have not received certain items they ordered through online layaway. This issue is specific to layaway contracts online for ship to home and does not impact in store layaways. We are in the process of contacting those customers who have been affected and are working with them to resolve the issue.

To read the full story, log in.
Become a Ragan Insider member to read this article and all other archived content.
Sign up today

Already a member? Log in here.
Learn more about Ragan Insider.