17-04-2025
‘I earned it': Kohl's Cash disappeared from woman's account
A Brevard County woman spent thousands of dollars at Kohl's to help children in need.
Belinda Bintemire said, 'Because I feel like every child deserves to have, you know, good shoes and clothes.'
But Bintemire turned to Action 9 for results when nearly $1000 in store rewards just disappeared from her account.
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She said, at first, the store offered no explanation for taking away her rewards and claims one manager told her she would never get the reward money back.
Shopping at Kohl's was a big part of her mission to provide clothes for children in need in Brevard County. She often shopped for deals and bought clothes in large amounts.
'I've always liked to give. I was kind of raised that way with my mom,' she said.
But last year Bintemire upped her game. She started spending thousands of dollars on shoes, clothes and other goods to help homeless children and other children in need at several Brevard County Schools. She hit up Kohl's and other stores.
Bintemire said, 'Last year really triggered me, really wanting to just give back to the community. I was diagnosed with breast cancer.'
Along the way, she showed Action 9 Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal she earned $990 in Kohl's Cash. That's discount coupon money that would have been available for her to spend on more Kohl's merchandise starting March 1st. Instead, she said Kohl's stripped the money away without any explanation. Her initial calls to the business yielded no results.
'Basically, you're not getting them. We closed your account,' she said describing the reaction she got from Kohl's.
The terms and conditions for Kohl's Rewards list corporations, businesses, non-profit organizations and governmental agencies as being ineligible for the program. But Belinda Bintemire insists she's none of those things. She said she's just a woman who likes to give.
'Apparently, they felt it was suspicious activity because I spent so much money. I'm like, okay, but they never asked me,' she said.
When Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal reached out to Kohl's, the company responded with this message:
Our customer service team has been in touch with Ms. Bintemire and is working with her directly to resolve the issue.
Three days later, Kohl's put the money back in her account. That's something Belinda Bintemire wishes the company would have done from the beginning to save her from the frustration and hassle.
'I earned it with, you know, buying it with my money. Nobody gave me money to do this. This was my personal money, you know,' she said.
She was more frustrated because she planned to use that Kohl's cash to buy more goods to help children in our local schools. Now, she's thankful to be able to do that.
