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Monday, January 18, 2010

The Notebook

On Saturday, Mallory and I took a trip to Marion to do some grocery shopping. But first, we stopped at a locally owned home accessory and furniture store (because I decided that it was time I finally used the gift certificate I had been holding onto for two years). Mallory had never been in the store, so we spent some time looking around. I picked out a cute "thingy" costing $13.99 and proceeded to the check-out. The man rang up my purchase and I presented him with my $10 gift certificate and a five dollar bill. He was told by another clerk to "look up the certificate in the notebook". Whatever He searched and finally found the number of my g.c. and said, "this gift certificate has already been used". I asked, "what do you mean, already used? How could it have been used when I just handed it to you?". He said, "well, it's been crossed off the list". Again I asked, "how could it have been used when I have it, right here?!". He showed me the list and sure enough, there was a squiggly line through my name. I said, "I haven't been in this store for over 2 years" and again, "how could it have been used when I have it right here?" . He said, "well, sometimes people forget to bring their certificates with them so we look it up in the notebook"(at this point he's getting gruff with me). For crying out loud!!!! Mallory and looked at each other with open mouthes, in shock and disbelief. I said, "give me my five dollars back". I took my fiver, calmy put it in my pocket and walked out the door. I walked out with my head held high but I crumbled the second I got out the door. I felt humiliated and judged! His demeanor and attitude screamed "lady trying to pull a fast one on us!!!!". I was DENIED the use of my gift certificate.--treated like a common thief, a low-life cheat. My eyes stung with tears and I was shaking. Mallory comforted me but I felt upset about the incident the rest of the evening. I just could (cannot) comprehend why a business would squabble with a customer over $10 when they don't have a consistent g.c. policy, plus I was going to spend a little extra money! I never would have imagined that I could walk in and say , "Hey, I forgot my g.c., just check your notebook for my name". This is what I think happened; someone went through that stupid little notebook, saw that the g.c. was 2 years old, and wrote me off, with a squiggly line. Two can play that game, Comforts of Home.

6 comments:

Momma Truitt said...

And I love the line through the stores name. Get 'em tiger!

Momma Truitt said...

That is horrible!! I don't understand why the didn't just let you have the gift certificate. Better to have a happy customer! I am sorry you had to go through that. No one deserves that.

Tresa said...

LOL--thanks for the comments. I had to search the internet to learn how to do the crossing out words thingy.

Smart Mouth Broad said...

ACK! I hate it when businesses don't give you the benefit of the doubt. I had a run-in with Amazon over an online gift certificate that was used by some unknown person. I guess not everyone was raised in our small little town where people did business on a handshake and trusted one another. Comforts of Home must be run by PBHs.

Tresa said...

If the guy hadn't been so snotty about it, I wouldn't have been so upset. PBH's, is right!

Sandy said...

Tresa,
I SO can relate....poor poor business practices, that is why place like that go out of business! They lost a customer over 10.00 ?????? Shame on them! Sandy