Nordstrom Hit With Class Action by Ex-Employee Over ‘Phantom Ship’ Charges

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Nordstrom, Inc. is facing a class action lawsuit by a former employee, who claims that he was fired from his job because he called attention to situations in which customers were charged for online orders that the retailer never shipped.

Plaintiff Bronson Turnquist, a Washington state resident, worked as an entry-level customers service representative for Nordstrom when he claims he noticed that the retailer was charging customers for items that were deemed undeliverable, instead of waiting to charge for items when the items actually shipped.

The Washington man says that Nordstrom “knowingly and willingly engaged in a systematic and systemic pattern of fraudulent behavior against certain customers purchasing merchandise from [Nordstrom] using their website: Nordstrom.com.”

Turnquist claims in his Nordstrom class action lawsuit that when he drew attention to the “phantom ship” practice that he was fired for blowing the whistle on the alleged practice.

“Over a period of several months, and potentially years, the defendant specifically created and then utilized a software script against plaintiff orders received from the website which purposefully misrepresented the nature of the transaction in a fraudulent way,” Turnquist said in the class action lawsuit.

“This caused harm to probably hundreds and potentially thousands of impacted customers,” he claims.

He claims that the “phantom ship” process works like this: customers place an order on Nordstrom’s website, and they receive an email confirming the order.

However, if Nordstrom was unable to fulfill the order, “the defendant used the software script they had created” and informed customers in an email “that their desired merchandise had shipped without validating that a ship event had occurred” by not providing any “tracking number information” to the customer.

But Nordstrom allegedly would charge the customer anyway, while Nordstrom “had great confidence” that the item in question “had not shipped, and was not planning to ship” the item out.

If a customer who was affected by the “phantom ship” practice and “noticed the financial irregularity and contacted the defendant’s Customer’s Service Group, the Customer Service Group (which included plaintiff Turnquist) was required by [Nordstrom] via documented procedures to dishonestly represent the Phantom Ship event to the customer as being one in which the item was lost in shipment,” the Nordstrom class action lawsuit alleges.

“The Customer Service Specialist was required to utilize a process known as ‘No Product Return – Lost Package’ in [Nordstrom’s] Order Entry System and either replace the desired item or refund the plaintiff’s method of payment,” Turnquist explains.

The Washington man says that he noticed this practice and “reported the problem to his leadership,” but “his concerns were ignored.”

“When he continued to advocate for an ethical resolution to the matter, his leadership subjected him to retaliation,” the Nordstrom phantom ship class action lawsuit says. “This retaliation was characteristic of the the ‘workplace bullying’ that is common amongst those targeted by their leadership for whistleblowing.”

As a result, because “Plaintiff Turnquist continued to insist on an explanation or other form of resolution of the problem of Phantom Ship, his leadership’s retaliation against him culminated in termination for the stated reason of failing to follow procedure and/or performance,” the Nordstrom class action lawsuit says.

Turnquist is looking to represent a “phantom shipped” class for those who purchased and were charged for items on Nordstrom’s website but never received the item. He also wants to represent a “whistleblower” class for those who were fired for calling attention to the alleged phantom ship issue.

Nordstrom issued a statement responding to the allegations in the class action lawsuit.

“When our customers place an order at Nordstrom.com, our goal is always to get them their merchandise as quickly and efficiently as possible,” the retailer said. “We believe that we have put the right systems in place to do that. We don’t believe the filling has merit and plan to defend ourselves as necessary.”

Attorney information for Nordstrom is not yet available.

Turnquist is representing himself.

The Nordstrom Phantom Ship Class Action Lawsuit is Turnquist v. Nordstrom Inc, Case No. 2:15-cv-00710 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.