Oh my Gord! If I didn’t have enough stress in my life…
I went to the mall to go get a hair extension (not real hair and not the kind of extension that you need to glue to your head) There is a little booth there…I have gotten piece for Halloween at before…just one of those [I]in the middle of the aisle[/I] type places…
First I had to wait over 15 mins for the woman to show up. When she showed up she looked like a bag lady. (hate to say it but her breath matched her appearence) - She didn’t seem to understand what I wanted despite the fact that I was holding pieces in my hand and making hand gestures to the effect (She may not have had perfect english, but I was being very clear). I finally choose something, and in my memory she said $47. She then threw taxes in and it came to $67…thought it sounded a bit steep, but just thought fine…
I stepped half way down the mall (literally still in view) and decided perhaps I would wait…went back and asked to return it. She says “all sales final” I reply with “but I was just here, and you didn’t say it was a final sale” She then proceeds to unbury a little black sign that read “All Sales Final”…when I say unbury, I mean the sign itself was not visible, let alone the words!
I got a little upset but kept my tongue and went home. I realized that the price didn’t seem right with the taxes, so when I was greeted by my dad, launched into how unfair the whole thing seemed and he suggested I talk to mall management…
I whipped off back to the mall. I went to her and appologized for being emotional. I asked how much the item was. She said “you have the receipt, it was $67 (and change).” I said “no, I mean how much is the item?” she said “$59”. I thought it was wrong but I didn’t have a receipt (this store writes them out, and she did not do it- other than to give me the debit receipt from before) so I just went with it…but added that even $59 with 13% tax still did not add up to $67. She said “it is only a dollar or so, and last time I talked with you, two girls came and stole from me, $78 worth of merchandise, that comes out of my pocket.”
I told her I was sorry for her loss, but I wanted a receipt. She went on to tell me I had a receipt, and I told her again, it was only a debit receipt, I wanted one with the break down. She tells me “You will have to wait while I put this stuff away, I can’t afford to lose more stuff, go and come back in $15”
This got me going so I marched myself straight to Guest Services to ask who to talk to.
They were super nice. Two girls behind the counter and the mall security that just happened to be there chatting. I was a mess of frustraition tears, so I appologized for being so emotional and explained the above. They said there had been a change of management in that booth and that it had been complaints on it recently.
The girls handed me a kleenex, and had me fill out a report, while the security guy made notes and then offered to walk me to her to get my receipt appologizing to me that he can not get my money back or dispute price (which I admitted to him that any price dispute was my fault for not asking sooner for a receipt) and before I went the girls also handed me a meal voucher (good for 10 days and $10) and a $10 gift cert. That was all unexpected but very nice!
The security guy (who also was very handsome!) politely instructed her to provide me with a receipt, which she was clearly not happy about…(she explained to him that she had been robbed earlier and he replied that she should have called him at the time!) She proceeded to write out the date, item and the same price as the debit receipt.
He had to tell her 3 times that she was doing it wrong, that she needed to break down the tax.
In the end the receipt was still wrong, but he definatly got to see that I was being truthful. He said that the mall takes it very seriously and that I should be getting a call about my report tomorrow!
sigh man…it has gotten me so worked up…
I worked for 10 years in a LIVE theatre. Tix are “all sales final” but when I had ppl come back to me, even in the same day, I could usually rectify the situation. Given tix are not hygenically the same as underwear or hair products, seeing as I had not even left her sight, I don’t see why she couldn’t help me. I really think it is because she really just didn’t know the job!
I don’t like ratting anyone out…but here is the punchline…for all the fogginess earlier with the price, when I told a friend about it…she said she had a really nice girl a few weeks back and bought the same piece for approximatey $47…
