GNC

I received a coupon for a free gold card and shaker bottle for teachers and coaches. This GNC store would not honor that coupon. Also, I printed a coupon for buy 1 get one 50% off. The picture showed items that were included in the sale. This store would not honor those items either. I normally love patronizing family owned businesses (this is a franchise store), but from now on I will drive a little farther and go to the corporate store at 75^th and Lemont. A store that carries the name GNC should honor their advertised specials and prices… corporate or not.

Had bought a few things here before and the staff wasn’t friendly nor particularly helpful. However, the thing that made me never want to go back to this location happened on this past weekend (7÷7÷2013).
My wife had bought a supplement but then decided that she didn’t want it. She had her receipt and it was well within the 30 days since her purchase, so there shouldn’t have been any hassle but there was one snag, she had lost the debit card that she used to purchase it. We went in and explained our case and the guy working wouldn’t let us return it. I said that they allow giving cash back on debit card returns because there was a big mat right on the counter at the checkout that said something along the lines of «debit card refunds will be issued as cash or put back into the account». I figured since we don’t have the card, there shouldn’t be an issue getting cash back. I was wrong.
The worker was very defensive and told me he needed the card and it was policy not to give cash back, which was very confusing since there was something right at the cash register saying otherwise. It stated right on the receipt that it was a debit card purchase, so there was no confusion. My wife asked if we could get store credit then since she wanted to pick up some protein powder but the worker said no, it had to go back on the card. Yet if you return something without a receipt, it says that they will give you store credit. At this point I was upset and confused. The worker was pulling out a small notepad looking through it as if that had all of the corporate rules. Then the worker called the manager to see what could be done.
When on the phone, the worker gave the bare minimum of information and neglected to tell the manager we would’ve also accepted store credit. In the end the worker said the manager had the same response, they don’t do cash back on returns with a debit card. The worker didn’t bother mentioning that it is posted in the store that you can get cash when returning a purchase made with debit, nothing. He did the bare minimum and didn’t seem to care.
It was lucky for GNC that another location had much friendlier staff. We went there with the same product and receipt and he issued the same response: «we can’t do cash back on returns». But instead of stonewalling on the issue and just reiterating «It needs to go back on the card» he said that it wasn’t because he was being a «jerk» but because he was trained that it wasn’t possible. He ended up giving us a store credit and we bought our protein powder from that location (Bolingbrook at the Promenade mall). Overall, I had an unpleasant experience from GNC and this location in particular. I’m going to be hesitant to go to one of the stores again and will never visit this location again.