Tuesday, July 17, 2012

You Don't Have To Try Harder - But At Least Try ...

This afternoon I ordered some wall sconces from one of the big box home improvement stores.  After the order was complete, I was content to wait for the email saying that the order had been filled and was ready to pick up.  Instead, I got a phone call asking when I was planning to come and pick up the order.  I told the person on the line that I thought I would wait until I received an email telling me to come in, since I didn't know if they would have the five sconces in stock that I had ordered.  The person assured me that they had them, to which I replied that I would be down to the store soon.

When I arrived at the store, the clerk checked me out and another clerk loaded the sconces into the cart.  We finished my transaction, and I hauled my cart out to my car.  Sounds perfect, right?

As I was loading the sconces into the car, I thought I heard one of the boxes make the sound of broken glass.  I picked it up to confirm the sound, then did further research by opening the box and determining that indeed, one of the globes was broken.  I thought it a bit strange that none of the various salesclerks that took the sconces off the shelf, loaded them into a cart, transferred the boxes to the secure cages that held orders, transferred the sconces back into a cart, and then reloaded the cart at least twice because that particular clerk was unsure what to do with the sconces, that none of the clerks heard the broken glass, especially since I had to only pick up the box to hear it.

Anyhow, I promptly took the offending box back to customer service and explained my dilemma to the clerk.  I was told to go get another one, and when I asked where to go, was told to go to Aisle 8.  Except that the sconces were not on Aisle 8.  After wandering around the lighting section for several minutes, I finally located the sconces in question, only to realize that there were no sconces left.

I returned to customer service and explained my dilemma, to which they asked if I wanted a refund.  Thinking this would be a better alternative to a broken light, I replied that I would.  After a few more moments and swipes of my credit card, I was headed back to my car less one sconce.

I guess it would have been nice if someone would have let me know that a sconce was broken, or gone to get another sconce for me, or known that there were no more sconces left, but maybe that was too much to ask. 

I think I'll ask another store next time.

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Today's blessings:  4 miles with KB down Belmont; napping with Everley; chatting with the remodel team

1 comment:

Denise in PA said...

What is it with customer service these days? i had a particularly unpleasant experience this morning at hubby's new cardiologists office.