I ordered costumes for my kids in early October, they never shipped them out. I contacted guest services at their email (which is not easy to find - it is not on their site anywhere) because they DO NOT answer the phone - you can stay on their hold line all day and they will never pick up.
I was told on November 3rd my refund was going to be issued and as shown below they give you the run around for MONTHS. It is December 20th, and I haven't gotten a refund - it is absolutely unacceptable that a company of this size treats customers like this. NO REFUND system takes that long, and a PayPal transfer is instant. They keep your money and refuse to return it and after waiting 3 months they give me the same number they don't answer. "Not having any guaranteed date of when the refund will be sent/received" is equivalent to STEALING. This company should be sued and prosecuted for theft. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY OR TIME.

Spirit Guest Services <*******@spirithalloween.com>
Fri, Nov 3,6:16 PM

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Guest Services. We have issued a refund for you order. Please keep in mind that shipping and tax refund in separate, smaller amounts than the item itself. Please allow 7-21 business days for funds to repost. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Best wishes,
Amilah M. | Guest Services Representative

Spirit Guest Services
Attachments
Fri, Nov 24,9:35 AM
To me

Good morning,

Thank you for reaching back out to Guest services!. We can confirm that a full refund is being processed for this order. The refund for the order was applied on November 3. Please be advised that this is done in two parts so you will receive an automated email stating a lower amount than the total of the costume - this is the sales tax and shipping cost. You will see the full amount reflected onto your original payment method within 7-21 business days. This does not include weekends or holidays. Please let us know if you have any additional questions.

Have a wonderful day!

Sincerely,

Adryana S. | Guest Services Representative

Spirit Guest Services
Fri, Dec 8,10:04 AM (12 days ago)
To me

Good Morning,

Thank you for reaching out to Guest Services. We want to offer our apologies in regard to you having not received this refund. Unfortunately, we did encounter a filtering issue within our system causing delays in processing. This issue has since been identified and resolved; our team is working to get all awaiting refund requests approved and processed as soon as possible. We ask that you please allow an additional 5-7 business days to see the funds reflect back onto your original payment method. If after that time this is still now showing, please reach back out so we can look further into this. As well, if you have any additional question, simply let us know.

Regards,

Emily W. | Guest Services Representative

Spirit Guest Services
Attachments
Tue, Dec 19,8:29 AM (1 day ago)
To me

Good Morning,

Thank you for contacting guest services. There seems to have been an error in the system as to why you have not received this refund yet. We can refund you either by mailing a check from our corporate office, calling you to collect card information, or by refunding directly onto a PayPal account. Can you please confirm your first and last name and full mailing address? If you'd like to receive the refund by PayPal, please include the email address associated with your account as well. We look forward to hearing back so we can resolve this issue.

Regards,
Emily W.| Guest Services Representative

Spirit Guest Services
Tue, Dec 19,5:30 PM (17 hours ago)
To me

Good Evening,

Thank you for providing us with that information. We have processed a refund to your PayPal account with our secondary refund system. We have also provided your information to our finance team for further review. Unfortunately, we do not have a guaranteed timeframe at this time. We apologize for the delay and any inconvenience caused. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out.

Kindest Regards,

Holly J. – Guest Services Representative

Spirit Guest Services
Wed, Dec 20
8:44 AM (2 hours ago)
To me

Good morning,

Thank you for contacting Guest Services! We have successfully processed a refund to your PayPal account using our secondary refund system. Your information has been forwarded to our finance team for further review. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the delay and understand your frustration. We do not have a guaranteed timeframe at the moment, but we are working diligently to resolve the issue. If you would like to speak with a helpful representative, please let us know your preferred time for a call. You can also reach us at *******595, where our team will promptly connect you to a supervisor.

Sincerely,

Alnisa V. | Guest Services Representative

Hello. So this is a very disappointing transaction with you guys all around. I had ordered the Light Up Ghostbusters Proton Pack on March 8th and had selected overnight shipping for it to arrive Thursday the 9th. That never happened, 1 rep told me they don't know why it didn't ship but it would ship by the 10th and arrive the 11th. That never happened. Then another rep kept telling me there was a delay with the warehouse and my package kept getting delayed over and over again and myself being told it'll ship within the week to the end of the week to next week. I had even signed up to receive texts or emails from you guys with any delays and I never received a single one. You guys just kept extending the shipping date and delay anytime I'd ask the online chat reps what was happening with my package. Then I noticed the item was no longer in stock so I asked a customer service rep if that meant I would be screwed out of my order. One of your reps told me no, since I put my order in before the stock said OUT of stock that I had no worries and once the warehouse delays were finished my item would send. Well I just got an email from y'all saying exactly what I thought would happen. I got an email this morning saying you cancelled the item cuz you're out of stock and I am screwed out of something I wanted so desperately get for my autistic son who has been saving up his money for years to get an item like this. You guys straight lied to me multiple times saying it's gonna ship it's gonna ship, we promise your item is for sure gonna ship and there is one for you since you placed the order before being sold out. Absolutely all lies and now all you want to do is offer me a 20% discount on my next purchase? I want the item you guys swore would not have issues sending. Not a 20% discount. Why after the constant lies of saying have no worries it'll ship tomorrow, it'll ship in a couple days, it'll ship by end of week, it'll ship next week, your item will definitely not be cancelled or out of stock since you placed your order before it said out of stock. All lies and a 20% discount won't remove the extremely bad taste from my mouth. I want my item please that you promised I would have shipped my way instead of having to break my 6 year olds heart.

Applied for this position on June 28th did not get call for interview till last week had interview scheduled for Thursday 7/28 how convenient 1 month to the day we'll on Wednesday 7/27 I get a call from Chad can we move your interview too the 1st of august and oh by the way we filled the position you applied for he says well I can put you in Wexford I say that's okay a little to far he says well I can make you an assistant manager at the mills and that some changes are coming and that the manager at the mills may be going to Wexford which then I could move into the manager position at the mills I asked the question of how did I apply for this job a month ago just get a call a week ago and the day before my interview I get a call that position is filled get ready for this response you know we are owned by Spencer's and we have to take anyone from Spencer's first no matter ok I get this to a point but I can smell bull s$&@ a mile away been in management for 28 years who in there right mind for any company is going to send employees from there 365 day a year stores to a 2 to 3 month pop up it's hard enough to get ppl to work these days let alone take from an existing business I was a store manager for Christmas tree shops last year and we kept some of the existing managers and employees from spirit they were by far the worst employees you could imagine we had 4 from spirit by our 2nd week I had terminated 3 of them as they spent more time hiding and goofing off only reason I even applied for this job was I had the pleasure of meeting and working with Jett Croisant one of spirits directors who was an amazing gentleman well other than Jett pretty much everything I have heard about spirit is true was willing to give it a try but spirit Halloween is a big disappointment in there actions.

I placed an order with spirit halloween for an animatronic "Halloween Sam" figure on September 13,2021. The order was processed, and showed as shipped on Sep 15,2021. That was where it ended and stopped showing any tracking of my order.
I called customer service initially about 2 weeks after shipping, and was informed it would take up to 21business days to receive. After 23 business days no order, I called and was advised it was an extra 3-4 business days and should be here soon. When that passed, I called back on October 17,2021. Customer service hung up on me 4 times without a single answer, just disconnecting when I would say hello; I was furious.
I finally sent an email complaint to customer service and a better business bureau claim, because they would not even get on the phone with me to discuss when I would receive the item as shipped or give me any further tracking information. The following day, the company merely refunded my order, cancelled it, and responded to my email by contacting me asking for my order information "to investigate my concern" when I told them I was angry at the refund with no explanation; when what I want is the item I ordered and was supposedly shipped and better customer service with a returned phone call. The only response they provided me was a follow up email confirming a refund and order cancellation, with a "thank you for understanding sorry for wasting your time" corporate brush off. I was beyond angry, and requested a manager call and explain this as I had a LOT of questions.
The phone call I received the following day, was a young frontline customer service rep with no real ability to help, that Spirit Halloween decided to use as a shield so they didnt actually need to. What she explained was that my order had been sent, and was processed by their shipping warehouse, but then fell through the cracks was completely missed, and they sold out of the item, so when I had emailed on October 17,2021 and someone realized because prior calls had not been documented or reviewed, merely brushed off with order delay information, they had then realized they needed to cancel and refund my purchase because it would never be fulfilled. There was nothing the young girl could do, and Spirit Halloween Guest Services managers were too lazy and scared to actually deal with a customer complaint they messed up, because they dont intend to fix or do anything either.

So at the end of the day, My Halloween Decoration that I saved up to buy this year, excited and eager to be able to put up for the neighborhoods and kids; was just a HUGE WASTE OF TIME. AND I get to pay the exchange rates difference, the interest, etc. While spirit halloween wrings their hands and says heres your refund, like there is no expectation of accountability or integrity from their sales team because they dont actually care.

I Will NEVER buy from this cheap, fly by night, pop up store; because just like its customer service, its nothing but cheap, fake, expensive crap they probably wont even fullfill sending you once you pay. They hope you're going to merely wait, hound them, and let them have your money, time, and the interest on that money, until they figure it out and probably blow you off with just handing it back with a "Woops" statement, like all is just forgiven and forgotten; cause it sure as hell is on their end.

DISGUSTING CUSTOMER SERVICE AND NO FOLLOW THROUGH ON ORDERS. COMPLETE SCAM!

Hi this is Herbert from Antelope Valley Community Farm. I want to let you all know rhe experience we had today at The Corporate run Spirit Halloween store. We started October off by purchasing over $3000 worth of decor for our haunted maze to benefit the animal rescue and provide an awesome experience for our community. Right off the bat the first thing out of the box was a bkack light which started sparking and smoking... yikes. Then we set up q of the thtee fogger we purchased... tiny bit of smoke then nothing. Tried the other 2 but no smike and no working. This is frustrating as its basically the back bone of the ambience for our maze. Plus hundreds of dollars wasted. Frustrated we did some decorating but had to return the defective equipment and any thing that was going to be associated with it. We kept 1000's of dollars of merch though as that would be useful still. We go to the location today which is prior to their Oct 20th deadline for returns only to be told by Cheyenne that she isnt going to accept the foggers as there is some dust on o e of the caps and obviously we must have burnt them out. Ask anyone who jas been through our maze so far... it has been fogless. But back to the situation at hand. She make my workers and daughter feel horrible and basically is calling them liars in front of other customers. She tells my manager that she could be a $#*! and not just accept anything back so be happy with what she is accepting. How is the right. We follow all protocols and bring it back before deadlines, we tried our best to make due with the other stuff we purchased instead of bringing it all back when the most important elements didn't work. We have reciepts. We took extreme care to keep all parts safe. And you refuse to take them back and stand by your product. Costing a rescue hundreds of dollars and depriving the community of an amazing experience. Shame on your corporate attitude and rudeness to my daughter and staff. Especially since you are part of our community Cheyenne and knew our story from when we purchased everything. I am sorry we cut into your bottom line but you sold us crappy equipment that didn't even work for 1 minute. I will be posting this everywhere to protect my community and warn everyone so they can make a conscious choice. You have lost a customer that would have been spending 1000's year after year. But I am sure that will not bother you. Myself if I lose a customer over even $5 I am devastated because here at Antelope Valley Community Farm community is part of our name.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: Bill xmas <*******@hotmail.com>

Date: 10/9/21 2:56 PM (GMT-05:00)

To: *******@email.spirithalloween.com

Subject: District Manager's Failure to Honor company's and stores return policy with physical receipts for just store credit,
too buy something more expensive and spend a extra $150 cash out of pocket to do so
So
"Future Customers"
Beware of their Policies,
That they will not honor at least at my local store which is listed below even thought I was going to spend more money?
Something to be very Aware of,
Anyone else run into this,
The following is my 2nd Email in 2 days to Spirit Halloween
On October 8th!
Why did my Spirit Halloween store in Conyers, Ga.,
Today October 8th at approx: 7:35 est.
Refuse to honor your store and Company's,
So call Return policy with Physical original sales receipts and returning new unused items, tags everything new condition.
Or give me store credit,
Which is all I wanted at that Time,
So I could add a $150 dollars to that store credit and buy a more expensive item,
All Merchandise was new with attached tags and with orignal sales receipts for the 5 items I was wanting to return,

All I wanted was store credit and was going to spend another $150.00's cash to purchase something that was late coming to the store that is more than likely now sold out it was the Baphomet animatronic,
My store recieved 2
The District regional manager said it could only be done with a debt card?
No store credit or cash refund,
STORE CREDIT WAS ALL I WAS ASKING FOR, so I could turn around and add another $150 dollars to purchase a item that had been held up in back deliveries since the start of the season, now here it is and the Manager will not give me store credit on "NEW" Still tagged merchandise that I want to exchange

This makes Absolutely no sense to me,
And TOTALLY CONTRADICT YOUR Store and Company policy thats clearly at every cash register?

I Did not get the Managers name but she also over see's the Tucker, Georgia store of Lavista Road.
She did not even have any information on who I could contact that would be HER DIRECT SUPERVISOR about getting this right,

MY Store WHERE this happen was store #******* in Conyers, Ga. ******* at ROCKDALE SQUARE,
Phone *******155

I have shopped this store for years and I have never had any issues with this store or any other close by local stores in a 40 mile radius,
Always very nice and very friendly staff,
And at no time was this manager Hateful or Rude, she was just Useless and seemed to Absolutely have no training accordingly to what your return policy states at every cash register and your Website, like I said I just wanted store credit!
I left that store very negatively, not angry just very very disappointed, and shaking my head because atleast in my case you store and company policies Absolutely mean Nothing, which as along time spirit Halloween consumer it made me feel like nothing, if that is the new marketing model you guys have now, why should I continue after years and years give you my business.

Alot of the older employees that are still with the company know me by First name from all the previous years I shopped there throughout each season from start to finish,

Any way what was the problem here does spirit "No Longer" honor their posted policies,
No longer gives store credit on new with receipts and tag refunds like posted and stated at every cash register?

Thanks for any help with this very "INCONVENIENT" and 1st time
"VERY DISSAPOINTING" issue with Spirit Halloween after years of being a constant and previously satisfied content happy customer,: Bill Christmas

I ordered back on August 25th a "Jumping Spider" from Spirit Halloween- or so I thought. After like a month of the spider not arriving I decided to contact them on September 29 via email because my package hadn't even been shipped. They replied with " We have reached out to our warehouse for reshipment of item ******* and hope to have that information to you within 24-48 business hours. If you don't hear anything by that time frame, please reach back out to us."

On October 15th I asked for a refund since the spider would come in time for Halloween since I live in Puerto Rico. They said they would do so because the spider was out of stock... which obviously the whole situation could have been fixed if they told me that from the start- but they didn't. And they "issued" a refund to my bank account on October 18 saying on that same email that it would take 7-10 business days. But oddly enough I received another automated email saying this "refund" would only take 3-5 business days. Still I waited the 10 days+. On Halloween I contacted them because obviously I hadn't received the money. And after having to give them all my information again- a screenshot of my bank account- and talking to like 6 different people (because every email I had someone different; they all have basically told me this...

"We do apologize for the delay in your refund and have contacted the finance department for a update on your refund status, it does take 24 to 48 business hours to get a response from finance. We will contact you once we have received the update."

But the thing is they don't contact you back! They just don't- it's been months now and they don't even have the decency to acknowledge their mistakes.

On November 3rd they said...

Thank you for reaching out to Spirit Halloween I see refund was processed on 10/28 it could take up to 14 business days to reflect on your account

Sorry for any inconvenience.

It's November 17 now. The last interaction was on November 13/ talking to them and they again saying- they would contact the finance department and get back to me...

This is obviously a scam- but I will give them an extra week to give me back my refund because I know Covid has really screwed everything up (but still this is unacceptable). If they don't I will be reporting them to the Federal Trade Commission.

Ps: while gathering up the information I realized they even called me Spencers from a Copy and Paste automated reply. Wow.

I don't complain very often, unless it's to my girlfriend's& that's totally different ‍, but I have to put it out there that if you are shopping for a costumes at this point AVOID Spirit Halloween at ALL cost! Other than the OVER priced costumes, at this point, if an outfit doesn't fit, & you can't even try them on due to Covid, they will not allow ANY exchanges... not even to trade it for a larger size for the exact same costume. Literally walked back in the store 20 mins after spending $125 to exchange a costume for my 5 year old & the manager said there was nothing that could be done. So, I'm willing to spend all the money back to this company, & maybe even more, but there's nothing you can do. HORRIBLE HORRIBLE policy! I will never shop there again. Anyways, just putting it out there so you don't get caught with a $50 costume you can't use. #pissed #themessengergotanearfull

This place is full of incompetent, rude, disrespectful "worker" if that's what you want to call them. They have this ridiculous policy that states after the 19th of Oct they don't do refunds for ANY reason... even if the reason is their fault. We bought a costume for my toddler who wears a 2T on Oct 25th (go figure), we grabbed a costume with 2T-3T on the bag, The lady who checked me took the costume out the bag and "checked" it, she didn't notice or say the costume was 4T-5T she also didn't mention all sales were final NO MATTER WHAT. Long story short we had event to be at the next day so my son couldn't wear the costume because it was way too big so I had to run to wal-mart and get another costume because 1 it was too early and far to exchange or return it. I bring the costume back and explain to them what happened and they all giving me blank look like oh well because of their stupid return policy, customer service sucks there should be exceptions esp when it's your employee fault too. They just was trying to force me to exchange it for another POS costume they had in there. The "manager" some black girl just walked off from me with a bad attitude and then some black dude tried to play good cop be end up damn near crying trying to explain to me why he couldn't do the return because he would get "fired" i'm thinking to myself this a temp job bro... you will be jobless in few weeks anyway lol. I guess that explains the terrible customer service and scamming people. You have to get ignorant, rude and low educated people to work in places like that because once Oct 19th hits you need people like them to be slim balls. Don't buy costumes here... Just go to Party City, Walmart or something where people actually care about their jobs and have some intelligence. Spirit won't see my money or anybody I know money (im telling everybody I know how terrible this company is)... oh yea the teary eyed cry baby dude suggested I "donate" the costume they scammed out of. I guessed that's a good idea since they stole my money.

Please listen to the reviews. I seen the reviews and still went ahead and ordered. The only reason why I ordered was because shipping date was promised on 10/29. I ordered 10/24. When tracking the order, it was scheduled to arrive 11/3 after Halloween. When trying to call, we had no answer after an hour. Then it hung up on it's own. Called back and finally answered. They'll have you call Fedex and USPS. The worst. Expect to be on hold all day. They're all going to blame each other so you dont know who to blame. Start with Spirit Halloween though. They are the false advertisers. Since I couldn't get a straight answer, I ordered the same costume and paid an extra $20 for shipping because the costume was important for my God daughters school. I ordered the 2nd costume 10/29 ("overnight shipping") and was supposed to get it 10/30. When tracking it, the costume said it'll arrive 10/31@ 8pm. At this point I was just super mad. The worst experience ever. If I could find that costume anywhere else I would've, but I had promised the costume already. Anyways, both costumes are still not here, one says arrival 11/3 and the other 10/31@ 8pm. When tracking, I seen that they would get to a local Fedex. I had to track it before it got to USPS, and asked to get it picked up at Fedex before it takes too long. Waited another hour with Fedex just to tell them to hold it because I was over it and I'll pick it up myself. My God daughter didnt ger it on time for her school activities and she was sad. I tried everything I could but I had maxed out my money. Thank you guys for the worst experience ever. You made me fail a loved one and you showed no signs of caring. GO $#*! YOURSELVES BECAUSE I KNOW YOU STILL DONT CARE. I WILL LET EVERYONE ON MY SOCIAL MEDIAS KNOW AND TRUST ME I HAVE FOLLOWING.