A mea culpa from Sam

Some months back, Sam’s Club — the bulk-warehouse-shopping chain owned by Walmart — advertised a new-member promotion where, after paying your $45 first year membership fee, you would receive an instant $45 credit on your first qualifying purchase of $45 or more (not counting special discount items). Basically, you would be getting your first year’s membership for free.

I had been a Sam’s Club member in the past, but dropped it about the time I went into credit management. I’m not sure I’m the ideal Sam’s Club shopper, but this offer intrigued me enough to try signing back up.

I signed up for the offer, then made my first visit to the store, bought just a little more than $45 worth of stuff, pre-tax … and no credit showed up. I had to pay for the whole basket. No problem; it was routine stuff anyway, stuff I might have bought with or without the promotion. Once I got home, though, I e-mailed customer service, and they looked at my receipt and told me that one of the things I had bought had been on sale, and so it was probably one of those special discount items, and excluding it was probably just enough to take my purchase down below the threshhold.

They could not, however, look at my account and tell me definitively that I was or wasn’t properly signed up for the promotion.