Nightmare at the Scrapbook Store

This week in Mommydom I had been featuring scrapbooking, and I was planning on doing a really nice post about my local scrapbook store, R Scrapbook Store, especially since I was planning a trip there this weekend. However, that option is off the table. I had planned to attend a crop there on Friday night, but I wound up with a conflict, so I couldn’t go.


I did the mature and responsible thing and called to cancel. That’s when it began to go downhill. I politely explained to the woman who answered the phone that I needed to cancel my enrollment at the crop, because of a conflict.

She told me that I was going to get charged for cancelling because I missed the deadline. I pulled up the website and searched for a cancellation policy, and found none. I looked at the email newsletter I had received, which clued me into the fact that there was a crop in the first place, and saw nothing listed, other than the fact you had to pay in advance for classes. The woman on the phone, obviously exasperated by the fact that I had no idea there was a sign by the cash register stating this policy, told me that no way would I refunded my deposit. Granted its $5, but at this point it was the principle of the matter. I politely explained that I did this over the phone and I had not been informed that there was a cancellation policy.

I was told that crops that charge “hundreds of dollars have a no refund policy too”. That was great, I told her, but I would not be attending one of those either.

This is when the freak out began.

I politely explained that I had an unforeseen conflict, and that since nothing was stated either via email, phone or website, I was unaware they had any cancellation policy. I politely asked for the manager, and found out she is on medical leave, so the person I was talking to was in charge. I asked her to check the website, that maybe I am missing something. She barked at me “Hold on”, put me on hold for what seemed like an eternity (it was really 6 minutes and 42 seconds, but who’s counting) and gave me a sliver of hope.

“You’re right. There’s nothing there with the policy”.

As I was ready to thank her and be on my merry way, with the $5.30 (don’t forget the tax!) credited to my credit card, when it really went south. “You know,” she said, “I am paying for you out of my own money since you obviously can’t afford five dollars and thirty cents”.

Ouch.

After I caught my breath because I was so stunned, I asked her to repeat that. She did, and I did hear her correctly. I called her on being rude and condescending, and she told me that she was doing me a favor.

I did mention that my experience was going to get mentioned on social media, since at this point I was hoping she realized how rude she sounded, but she stated that I could tweet it to thousands of people, she really didn’t care.

So I did.

Its been retweeted.

Its on Facebook.

I blogged about it here.

I have already mentioned it personally to numerous scrapbooking friends.

And they lost me as a customer, sorry to say, because I did like the store. They make it clear that they are a Christian based business (closed Sundays for the Lord!) and independently owned, so that fit into my model of shopping local. In fact, I was willing to spend a little extra on things because they were a locally owned business. However, I will be using mail order to my LSS in New Jersey, because of one employee’s rudeness in a local store. I don’t like to be spiteful, but I am not going to spend my hard earned money in a place that is disrespectful to their customers.

Have you had a situation where you received such horrible customer service that you never went back to that store/restaurant/whatever? If so, I want to hear your horror stories. Email them to me at mrsdimemmo AT gmail dot com and you can be featured in an upcoming blog post!