Carson Pirie Scott

Worst customer service. I bought a watch that had a crack on the face of the crystal and they would not exchange or offer me a discount. There was a 90 day return policy with receipt even if it’s bought on the store credit card. I did not keep my receipt, did not think that I would be bringing it back. The manager Brianna was rude and did not care. She acted like she was doing me a favor trying to find my transaction through my credit card. It turned out that I was 97 days past the purchase date. This is why Carsons can not compete with Macy’s or Nordstrom. This is not even a case of you get what you pay for, the same watch costs the same in all three stores. Loyal customer since 1990. Goodbye Carsons :(

Not what it used to be in the 80s. Carsons used to be a bustling department store. I remember my mom buying her first mink coat at Carsons downtown. Now it’s a step above a bargain store like marshalls, or t.j. Max. The shoe department can be very annoying, selection of mens shoes is shameful. Can’t ever find my husband shoes. But darned store constantly increases my credit limit, so I’m forever indebted to them. All in all the coupons and sales are great, but there’s no clothes I’d want to buy there. I can always find clothes for my husband, and they do have cute sandals there, and it’s only 5 minutes away from home. But then I feel. kinda like a sucker, because to pay my bill I have to either mail it in (who does that anymore), pay 10 $ to call it in (rip off) or physically go to the store and pay it (like I will today, I have the stinkin flu). Wish I would’ve known that before I got the card. So then you walk in to pay, see a sale, one thing leads to another. Clever ploy guys.

This is all you need to hear…
This is a clothing store with clothes that are «unwearable!!!»
Somehow they found a way to make cotton feel burnt, dried, and irritating to the touch.
A while ago, not sure exactly when, I had given 25 pieces of clothing to the homeless, and received 25 coupons to get clothing somewhere around 50% off. After searching in the men’s department for an hour or so, nothing was worth buying.
Although now looking back, I should have purchased some for the homeless, I think they are the only one’s cold enough not to complain wearing anything from here.
I wonder if Carson pirie scott resewed and reheated our old clothes to redistribute those clothes on false pretenses… Either that or reused the cotton. That wouldn’t be a surprise at all if you feel the material.

I suggest you NEVER get their Carsons reward card that’s like a credit card. Your monthly payment is as low as $ 25 but they interest you $ 22 a month also. So your only paying off $ 3 a month. Their staff is clueless and it’s hard finding someone to help.

If you are wanting to get any attention at all from an employee u better dress to the nines if you even want a ice cubes chance in hell ! I went to the Lancôme counter to buy a product and receive their free gift. I had just come from working out and was dressed in sweat pants and a long sleeved t shirt, there were three or so workers at the counter all happily helping older more formally dressed women. When those workerswere free I anxiously awaited my turn to get one of them to help me. I waited and waited, several of the workers glanced at me then walked away to the other side of the counter. After several minutes, I finally had to directly ask for help. Ok so if may be a small part my fault for not taking more initiative in the first place, but I had the items I wanted in my hand so it should have been pretty obvious! Finally I got some help, but when I handed the lady my products it took her another good five minutes to find them behind the counter, really lady? it is a small make up counter not a huge storage room! U barely have a smile on your face n e ways, is it that much of a burden that I am giving your job business? I guess I am to young and «unprofessionally dressed» to b taken serous by u Lancôme !? Two stars instead of one because when u finally did get rung up she did manage a smile and apologized for the wait, but seriously I was two minutes away from sayin F’it to the free gift and storming out! Will not be rushing back or recommending this place!

Whats wrong with the employees? They think they are thugs that own the place, such a rude and harrassing manner of treating people. An old lady at the fragrance counter and a young guy at the same section, I cant seem to explain it people but just the manner in which they act i think they have been their too long and they think they own the place. Its time Carsons starts to look at these reviews and choose better employees to run their badly handled store.

You have to be kidding. They send you what seem to be Great coupons for either a certain percentage off or, $ 20 off if you spend $ 50. But when you go to use them they get out a magnifying glass and a Secret Decoder Ring to read the Very Fine print and explain that just about nothing in the store is included. Not Super Duper Specials, not early morning sizzlers, nothing with a yellow dot. Nothing with a vowel in it’s spelling. It goes on forever and is ridiculous!!!

Things that are nearly impossible to find in the Lincolnwood Town Center Carson’s:
*the Goodwill donation counter
*intimate apparel for someone who is not a teenager or that teenager’s grandmother
*anyone born after 1975

Score!!! Bought a long beautiful teal dress, with wooden beads halter top for only $ 19.90. It was in the Yellow Dot Sale Rack and it was the only one!!! Original price — $ 89.99!!! Because I am 5′ 2″ I had to alter the beads on the halter to shorten the straps and it worked! The cashier was very courteous and expressed joy that I scored such a great find!

This is a vintage Carson Pirie Scott.
I remember a day when this kind of store was a happening place.
I also remember that you could return anything and I mean anything from Carson’s for a full refund even if you did not have a receipt.
My friend was in the men’s department trying on some shorts (whole other story) and as I stood at the doorway (I did not cross the invisible line) asking him if he wanted a different size I was almost tackled.
A little girl with a Carson’s name tag had this intense look like she wanted to jump off the tope rope and body slam me… not in a good way.
I slowly backed away from her and left my friend to his own devices.
The store does not have a great selection of stuff I am in to.
There is not bike parking at the Carson’s entrances. Not cool.

As diverse as the area is with so many different nationalites and languages, I have to say how surprised I was at the racism and bigotry. While doing charity work, I was asked by three people what my nationality was. I felt like I was being targeted in some type of ethnic turf war. Just sayin’…

Worst shopping experience of my life. I bought several things from several different departments. On my way out, I spotted a tunic and went to the counter to pay with my credit card. The clerk asked to see my ID. I didn’t drive that day and didn’t have my ID with me. She told me that she would not be able to sell me the item. When I pointed out to her that I made three separate purchases with my credit card and nobody asked to see an ID she said, «Well, they shouldn’t have done that. I’m going to have to take those items back.» Rather than argue, I asked to speak with her manager. The manager came out and told me the same thing. I then asked if she could please call her boss and ask. She did, and her boss told her to just sell me the tunic and let me keep the previous purchases. I apologized for not having my ID and told them that I would make sure to always have it with me in the future now that I know it is their policy. Well…the clerk was really upset that she had to sell me the tunic. She rang it up, literally crumbled it into a ball, put it in a bag and THREW THE BAG AT ME. She threw the bag at me right in front of her manager and her manager did nothing, like this was normal behavior. I just laughed and walked out. Later, I found that they had charged me twice for the tunic. It seems she never voided the first purchase, and then charged me again after she was told to sell it to me. I called Carson’s about the mix up, and they never credited me back the money. I got stuck paying double for one tunic. Avoid this store.

I wish I could give this Carson’s 0 stars! Specifically the shoe department. I have been there several times and always had the same experience. The most recent shopping nightmare was last Friday. I wandered into the shoe department to buy new boots. There are always at least 20 people standing around waiting to be helped in this place. I found a pair of boots and waited by the counter for one of the sales girls to be available. They both walked in the back and never came out again!
I waited for 20 minutes and then walked to the other side and tried to get waited on by the only other sales girl who was working at the time. The twenty people who were waiting for help were now all standing around the counter trying to get shoes. I decided that I’d had enough, put the shoe back, and walked out of the store. I won’t shop at this Carson’s again. The store management should really think about looking into the people that they hire, and possibly adding some additional staff. If you can avoid this store you should for your own sanity!

Not sure what happened to this store, this mall, the people. Everyone seems sad to work here and they hate you for it.
I’m not sorry that I finished my education and found a job outside of retail, retail does suck. Not everyone was made for it. Yes you have to deal with spoiled brats, princesses and those that you’ll never please but you sort of chose this route. I know it sucks but get over it. Have pride in what you do. Have pride in your store.
I know it sucks to have to go pick up after people since they move clothes around and you need to put them back and refold and straighten up the racks endless times. But rather than just standing around or walking away from customers, maybe you can burn some calories and make your store more inviting and get over the fact that part of your job is to put things away, even if it’s not your department. Has the management heard about cross training? Every department should be your department. I don’t care if I have a dress and I’m trying to pay for it in the shoe department. If you’re free, ring it up! WTF, I shouldn’t have to get charged 5 different times in different departments, it’s one store.
I hate giving low reviews since I try to avoid places that have said low ratings. But, I’m willing to go back again if I hear that their fixing these problems. I want to love you again. Good luck.

This store lacks organization.
Many, many, many, many items in the Home Section have no price tags/​labels. I asked the lone employee I saw in the area, who was transporting boxes to a store room, how I can determine the prices of their items. He said I should ask the counter staff. There were no counter staff. None. None. None. And it’s unbelievable that you have to carry each item you’re interested in to a counter so an employee can check the price for you. So that means that if there’s actually a human behind the counter and there’s a line of people waiting to pay, you’ll have to fall in line every time you want to check the price of an item.

This is one of my Ma’s favorite stores. And if you were a card holder you might like it more. Carson’s isn’t like any other department store. They reward their customers with awesome multiple use coupons, a marketing ploy which Macy’s has recently started copying. Ma can walk in, walk in circles for hours and walk out happily with a new outfit and luggage because she saved a butt load with her coupons which work on top of current 40% off sales. Sometimes the customer service can really suck, I think that has more to do with management and leadership. Anyone can see that their employees are sometimes overworked and the lazy ones make it bad for everyone else. I’ve been able to pick up a few shirts, ties and in one instance worked with staff from another store to transfer a CK suit over for me to try. I saved a lot of cash on that suit which I would have paid a lot more on if purchased at Macy’s.
It’s all about the coupons! Ask your Moms for them.

On the plus side, there were way more upscale cosmetic companies (like Perscriptives, Clinique and Estee Lauder) than I thought, and there was an extensive collection of perfumes.
But it really doesn’t end up mattering because the sales women WILL NOT LEAVE YOU ALONE!
I went there to go pick up a (hopefully) discounted perfume that would suit me for summer (I love Stella McCartney, but it’s a bit too heavy for summer and I thought I’d maybe try something new at least for a little while). Well, I walked into the cosmetics/​perfume section and was instantly hounded to get a «free» makeover and the sales lady would not take no for an answer.
Then I walked over to the perfume counters and I could not just sniff anything by myself. No matter where I went, there would be a lady with a bottle of perfume just waiting to hose me down. I finally had to sternly tell one who came at me asking if I wanted to try the new Juicy Couture scent that there was nowhere left on either one of my arms to try it!
All of this may have been amplified by the fact that I was there on a Saturday. But still, I left the place smelling like six different perfumes. I hate being rude to sales people and I know that they have to do their jobs, but here, you do have to be kind of rude and should probably know exactly what you want, so you can just make a bee line to it, pay for it and get the hell out.

I used to work at this location many years ago.
Pros: It’s convenient.
Cons: Staff is not very helpful, the store is SUPER cluttered (at times unsafe) and many fixtures date back to when the store was open over 15 years ago. It needs a remodeling badly. Also, their restrooms are nasty.
Also, If you are looking for more «upscale» merchandise, visit Edens Plaza. This CPS does not carry high end fine china and crystal.
This store is one of the top income generating stores as well as one of the top instant charge card stores in the company. Also, CPS is the best (and only) reason to shop at Lincolnwood Town Center… but that is not saying much.
Also, Carson’s private label brands are very well made and very well priced. I cannot say the same about Macy’s brands… Macy’s store quality is sinking fast like the Titanic.

Screw you Carson’s, screw you and your bitchy ass staff. I cant believe I wasted an hour and a half in this place — most of it just trying to find someone to help me! Then when I finally do find someone and try to check out, she flings two items back at me and says «I cant help you with these. One wont scan and the other is untagged. You have to go back to the departments they came from.»
OK, but there is noone over there, thats why I am here, in this department! And those two things are the whole reason I came in the first place!
Then I get a shrug and an «oh well, too bad — next!» Wow. I cant even think of how fast I would have been fired had I ever tried to pull a stunt like that when I worked at Marshall Field’s.
Dammit, isnt there anyplace decent to shop anymore!

OK, this is really more about the Clinique counter in the Carson’s, but I didn’t want to start a whole new topic.
I should know better to start with. I had run out of my signature fragrance (Happy for Men), and decided «well, I’ll just stop here on my way home from work.» That makes sense, right?
I arrived at the pot holed parking lot, which is really more the mall’s fault then Carson’s, but for today, I’ll blame them too.
I got inside, and went to the men’s fragrance counter. I guess Monday night is the night to shop for Men’s fragrance — as the desk clerk didn’t even look at me — while 3 other attendants walked around, rubbing cloths on the counters.
I guess wearing white collar work clothes under a tailored winter jacket makes you look homeless, or like you aren’t really shopping. Finally, I decided to just go to the Clinique counter.
Bad idea.
Two desk clerks were waiting on one woman — and ringing her up together. Great team work, way to go Cliniquers, NOW WAIT ON ME. Just as I was about to get some attention, a group of women came bustling past me at the counter, and again, the attention was lost.
Literally, 5 minutes later, one of the clerks said «Did you need something?»
No. I thought I’d just stand here and look in the display cases.
I wanted to say «Yes, bitch», but thought better of it. Maybe she was having a bad day. Or maybe she just lost a race in the special olympics. Who knows. I said I needed a bottle of cologne.
She actually asked if I’d mind waiting a few minutes, as she had to finish something up. I said «Sure» with a pure cashmere grin on my face.
The other desk clerk quickly rang me up, and lavished me with apologies, which at that point I didn’t want. I wanted my cologne and to be on my way home.
This should have taken approximately 5 minutes — I used to run to Fields to buy my cologne on my lunch. Not an option anymore.
This took almost 20 minutes… and that is just not OK with me.
I will not return to this store to make my quarterly fragrance purchases anymore.
Someone else can help me smell better. Not that I stink.