Kohl’s fired 3 employees for violating store’s policy
BY MEREDITH BONNY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Friday, April 15, 2005
Rikki Groves wasn’t the only employee fired from the Kohl’s
department store in Mechanicsville and asked to pay
restitution for reusing coupons and passing the savings on to
customers.
Rebecca Hagen, 20, of Sandston and Katie Kombacher, 21, of
Mechanicsville said they were also interrogated,
photographed and asked to sign documents barring them
from returning to the store or shopping there after they were
told they misused coupons.
“I was pretty mad about the situation,” Hagen said. Kombacher said her firing was “a
big ordeal.” She said store officials “made me walk through the store while I was
crying.”
All three women are looking for new jobs.
Earlier this week, The Times-Dispatch ran a story reporting what had happened to
Groves.
Dozens of people responded. The newspaper received more than 50 e-mails and
about 40 phone calls, complaining about the way Groves was treated. Hagen and
Kombacher contacted The Times-Dispatch after the story ran.
Many readers who
contacted The Times-
Dispatch said they planned
to call the store’s corporate
office to say they would
never shop at a Kohl’s
again. Others said they cut
up their Kohl’s credit cards.
A few questioned why the
newspaper ran the story,
calling the incident minor.
When they were dismissed
from the store, all three
women were told they
would have to repay the store for discounts taken with the extra use of the coupons.
Hagen said store officials “told me if I did not pay, I would have been arrested for
embezzlement.”
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Kohl’s fired 3 employees for
violating store’s policy
Groves said she was told she owed the store $1,000. The evening before the first
story went to press, Lori Sansoucie, a spokeswoman at Kohl’s headquarters in
Menomonee Falls, Wis., said that while Groves violated company policy, the store
would not require her to pay back the $1,000.
At that time, Groves had already paid the store $100 and was scheduled to pay $150
each month for the next six months.
She has since received a $100 check in the mail from the store.
Hagen, who had been asked to pay $214, and Kombacher, who had been asked to
pay $600, said they have also gotten their money back.
Sansoucie yesterday confirmed that three employees had been fired for the same
“policy infringement,” but she would not comment on the way the women said they
were treated.
Groves, Hagen and Kombacher all said that they were originally told by a security
employee there that they could be arrested if they did not pay the money back.
However, a Henrico County police spokesman told The Times-Dispatch that to his
knowledge the matter in question was not a crime and rather an internal store-policy
matter.
The controversy stemmed from a recent “friends and family sale” at the store.
Groves said Kohl’s employees received 15-percent-off coupons in the mail — one for
their use and 10 for family and friends.
All three former employees said they had extra coupons and in some cases were
reusing them at their registers. They said they were not told what they were doing
was wrong until it was too late.
“I don’t think I was treated fairly,” Kombacher said.
Looking back, Groves said that while she is glad she won’t have to pay back the
$1,000, she’s still angry at how Kohl’s handled the issue.
“I never received an apology,” Groves said. “But at least now I know for sure now
that they were wrong.”
Contact Meredith Bonny at (804) 649-6452 or [email protected]
This story can be found at:
icArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031782158244
