Personal shoppers should know their client's tastes, but it may be best if they don't share some of them. Like taste in men, for example.
Patricia Walker of University Park, Texas is suing luxury retailer Neiman Marcus for not taking back $1.4 million worth of merchandise that her husband bought through her personal shopper with whom he was having an affair, ABC News reports. Walker was laid up from 2007 to 2010 after a car accident and during that time sales in her Neiman Marcus account skyrocketed as her husband allegedly lined the purse of his mistress Favi Lo with commission money from the purchases he disguised as gifts to his ailing wife.
"The product of these sales is sex for merchandise,” Walker’s attorney Mark Ticer told KHOU.
Walker only found out about the affair during subsequent divorce proceedings with her husband and immediately attempted to return the largely unwanted merchandise, according to ABC. Neiman Marcus promised to take action but never followed through on evaluating the merchandise which remains in storage, the lawsuit alleges.
Walker's claim isn't the first lawsuit Neiman Marcus has faced in recent years. In 2008, two of the company's former workers alleged in a lawsuit that they’d been secretly videotaped having sex at work, a dalliance they were both fired for. More recently, an employee in the jewelry department sued the luxury retailer alleging that the store cheated her out of return sales and accused her of stealing because she is Muslim, according to OCWeekly.
But it's not just Neiman's that faced criticism over its return policies, tech companies have been in hot water as well. A class action suit against Apple alleges the company double-billed purchases on iTunes without refunding them due to its “no refunds” policy, Justia reports. Google, meanwhile, is facing a lawsuit claiming it gives too little time for customers to return faulty apps downloaded for Android phones, according to PCMag.com.