STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

5 days before I left for vacation, my car mysteriously had a flood inside of it and I got the bottoms of my cream-colored Express Editors stained with filthy water. 

4 days before I left for vacation, I brought the pants to my dry cleaner, who said there was a good chance this huge stain was not going to come out.  The quickest they could get them done was by Saturday, which was 2 days before I leave.  So, I rushed off to Express to see if they could hold another pair of these pants for me so I could be guaranteed that I would not have to live without these pants.  These pants filled a long-standing void in my wardrobe.  I have so long needed cream colored pants that are this exact kind of fit, color, material, etc.  They couldn't hold it for the 2 days it would take for me to find out if the pants could be saved so they suggested I just buy the pants and return them if the stain came out.  That was fine with me.  I am a follow-the-rules, doesn't expect special treatment kind of gal.  If they can only hold things 24 hours, I'm not going to argue with that.

So, the stain DID end up coming out and I didn't get a chance to return the pants before I left since I was really busy on Saturday and the stores by me are closed Sunday and we left for vacation early Monday morning. 

Somehow I ended up losing the receipt although I purposely saved it knowing there was a good chance I would be returning the pants.  I also lost my registration, insurance, and ID to get into my building at work, all of which I would have in a similar part of my purse, but that's another story.

I went to Express today.  I explained to them this whole story and brought a printout from my credit card of all the details of the purchase (which is very close to being exactly like a receipt-Thanks Nordstrom Bank!).  I explained that I understood their policy of only giving store credit when you don't have a receipt and normally I would just take full responsibility for losing the receipt and accept the store credit, but I really, really would appreciate if I could just get a credit on my card because I honestly DID keep the receipt.  The girl went and spoke to her manager, who was actually the woman I had spoke to when I bought the pants that had suggested buying them and returning them.  She recognized the story of the freak car flood and together they went through some computer in the back.  The saleswoman came back with a printout of my purchase and credited my account.  Everyone was just really nice and it went a lot smoother than I would have thought.

So, thanks Express!  Thank you for being so understanding about the ridiculous circumstances that brought me to your store receiptless and returning a pair of pants that I already own.  I really tried to follow the policy, I swear!  And now I can use the money to pay the inevitable fees of replacing my insurance and registration cards.