Two Stores.
By Maxine Jasmin-Green.
- 590 reads
I Bought a cat bed, climbing frame, scratching post with three hanging golf ball sized balls, combined unit from a well-known shop on Friday. I paid twenty-five pounds for it; the cats love it! Two days later the hanging rope that was also wrapped around one of the balls, unravelled and within the hour the ball that was stapled onto the board fell off! There were two more hanging balls but for twenty-five pounds, I needed it to last longer than two days! I decided to take it back and get a refund I had to wait until no cat was on the unit, bed, toy for there was a bottom, middle and a top. I unscrewed it all and put it unto the narrow box, which they also loved, in fact as much as they loved the unit, bed, toy they loved the box more. That did make me smile. I put the broken ball on the top and didn’t seal it, so that I could show the Staff at the shop.
Years ago, I would have been nervous and all worked up about returning items, and usually because of the stress and because I was very shy, more often than not I would keep the item rather than face the sales assistant, who might have given me grief or not.
In this shop the tills they are near the entrance of the store, I walked in, confidently and surprisingly there wasn’t anyone at the tills, I went up to the staff and said, “I bought this on Friday and it broke two days later, can I have a refund please?” She replied, “Yes of course, can I see your receipt?” It was already in my hand, I showed her the broken ball that had almost unravelled and the rope that was attached to it, and gave her my receipt. She looked at it, and asked me to, “Put your card into the machine,” I did, then I saw it say, remove your card, I did. She said, “Thank you all done,” I replied, shocked, “Thank you, have a nice day and keep safe.” I could not believe it; I was in and out of that store in twenty seconds. That has got to be a record for a returned item.
I then drove a few miles to a large retail shopping mall, to a huge pet shop. I did think I would have more choices, and in a way I did, but prices started from ten pounds way up to over one hundred, I decided to buy a unit that also had a soft padded bed at the bottom, a post for scratching in the middle and a soft platform on top with a small soft hanging pom pom, hanging from it, it was priced at thirty pounds, that was my maximum budget. I saw a black mark on it on the soft material and hoped like most of the others that I could see that the store would have another already boxed up in their store rooms. It looked really good, not as perfect as the one I’d taken back but there were elements I’m sure they would like and love, for each cat would like different parts.
I took it to the till and asked, “Have you got another one of these, as this one has a mark on it,” I showed the sales assistant the mark and she said to me, “No, this is the only one left, I can ask if you can have a discount on it," I replied, “Yes please.” Another Staff was behind her at another till, and she asked him, “Can this customer have a discount on this item, it has a mark on it and it’s the last one,” He turned around and looked at it, and said, “Yes, you can have it for twenty-five pounds and fifty pence,” I smiled and said, “Yes, that’s fine.” I showed the sales assistant my loyalty card, paid my money and left the shop happy with my purchase. The cats loved it.
Last year, I was given some money, I decided to buy my husband Paul a new two-seater leather sofa. The one he sat on was very, very tatty, it too was leather and I’d bought it from a charity shop, for seventy-five pounds that one of our kids had given us, many years ago. The cats and dogs had wrecked it!
I saw an ad on the telly and decided to go to that particular furniture store. I’d never been into this store before, because we never had this kind of money before, the shop was massive.
As I walked into the store, I could see it was a one-way system, because of covid and I was greeted, with a smile and the pleasant sales assistant showed me with her hand which way I needed to go, when I was near her, she asks, “How can I help you today?” I replied, “I’d like to buy a leather two-seater sofa please,” She called over to her colleague who was nearby, he quickly came over to her and she said, “This customer would like to buy a leather two-seater sofa.” The sales assistant said to me, “Good morning, my name is Raj, please follow me I have just the sofa for you.”
I looked at the beautiful black sofa and it did indeed look like just what I had in mind, I quickly said, “My budget is five hundred pounds,” Raj said, “That’s fine, this sofa is four hundred and seventy-five pounds.” I was very impressed, Raj said to me, “Sit on it, it is really comfortable,” I went up to it and sat down on it, and it felt luxurious, I couldn’t believe I was just about to buy it. Raj told me, “We have a sample book here, so you can see different textures and colours.” I said to Raj, “If you do it in this texture leather, and dark grey then I will be very happy.” He said, “Yes we do it in dark grey and he showed me the colour of the sofa next to it, it was a three-seater, now the sofa that myself and the kids sit on at home is also robust black leather, given to us from our neighbour when he decided not to be a landlord anymore, he called us over and said, “Now that I’ve sold the house, you can have anything you see, free. This even included the cooker, washing machine, the beautiful, thick pine, coffee table, and the amazing black three-seater leather sofa! We were skint and couldn’t afford someone to remove the oven and install it into our home so we had the fabulous coffee table and the three-seater leather sofa. Everything was in perfect condition. The house was like a show home.
So now over the years, the black leather sofa is scratched up due to the cats, but that’s ok, its very comfy and I have had many hours of sleep in the evenings watching telly and sleeping on it. Now as I looked at this brand-new leather sofa and knowing I had the money I asked, “How much is it?” Raj quickly replied, “Only five hundred and ten pounds.” I was very surprised and confused and asked, “Why is it SO cheap compared to the two-seater?” He had a fabulous answer for everything. I had brought the measurements with me for both sofas in our lounge, I thought really, it’s now or never, So I said, “I have the measurements of our three-seater at home,” and I showed him the measurements, it was not meant to be, for the three-seater in the store was one foot longer! I was honestly gutted, but we have no extra space, and it would have looked lovely, both of them in our home. He then added delivery and sliders to make it easy to push the sofa, so the price went over my five hundred pounds budget. But he did throw in a ‘free’ leather cream nourishing kit. The biggest shocker though was that it would take MANY weeks to arrive! I said, “If I knew that when I walked in, I would have gone to the other sofa shop opposite,” Raj said, “They take even longer,” So I just accepted it, I was in no rush I suppose. I was a happy, a very happy customer. Raj asked, “Please can you leave your feedback by email after your sofa arrives,” I told him, “I certainly will, you’ve been amazing, I will give you ten out of ten.” That was last year.
Last week, I had a reminder and decided I would leave my feedback, it was all still fresh in my memory. So, this is my feedback that I left.
“The Staff was very friendly and helpful, I knew what I wanted before I went to the store, I came out with a fab two-seater leather sofa. He was that good, I almost bought two! 10/10.” I was limited to how much I could write, otherwise I would have written more. Then I went to bed, the next morning the sofa company sent me an email this is what it said, “Our Staff have read your review and values your contribution even though it did not meet all our website guidelines. Thanks for sharing, and we hope to publish next time!”
I was furious!!! What was wrong with my feedback? Was it negative? No. Did it say anything horrible about the store? No. I showed my Husband who told me, “Go on Trustpilot, you can speak you mind there and say exactly what you want and there is nothing they can do about it.”
I was really annoyed, and thought of what I would say, I decided I would say all of the feedback above and then I would add what their reply was to me and also add that now I wouldn’t shop there again, nor would I recommend them to anyone. It seemed to me they only wanted robotic like reviews, where everyone says the same thing, but not real reviews, from real people.
I haven’t written my review yet, I will give myself time to calm down first, that’s the best way, not to write in anger.
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Comments
I wonder why they wouldn't
I wonder why they wouldn't publish your review? Did you ask?
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It sounds so frustrating!
It sounds so frustrating!
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Was very interested to read
Was very interested to read your account of the cat climber as we nearly bought one at Christmas.
When I was looking to buy a mattress a little while ago, a lady walked in and asked if the shop had any sofas, and the man showing me mattresses had to say they had not been able to get any sofas for months, and she went away with nothing. He was very frustrated, and said it was Brexit, which I had not expected, so I am glad you got your lovely new sofa. I really enjoyed your account of the experience :0) Do the cats prefer the new climber or the new sofa?
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