A Warning.
I just wanted to let anyone who is a fan of shopping at the Friendly Stranger know the following. Cory got me a rather pretty stone-pipe for my birthday (i really adore pipe tobacco on occasion and I may have had LARP in mind a wee bit). It has different sized bowls which screw in to the stem, I went to change the bowl to a smaller one as I wanted to try it out and lo and behold my shock, when after a few small, careful twists, the part of the pipe holding the thread snapped off.
Understandably, I called the store immediately, asking about their return policy for clearly unused items - tobacco has not even touched the thing. So I called, and was rather rudely informed in a voice which insisted that is MUST BE MY FAULT, that they have a no returns policy. Never mind it was purchased less than twenty for hours ago. The most they will do, is give a twenty five percent discount on a future purchase.
Understandably, I am miffed, and now ask to speak to the manager. Who continues this tone of 'clearly it is your fault, all of our merchandise is absolutely perfect when it leaves the store.' To this I say, bullshit madame. Either way, after a few rather non-professional attempts at justification on her part, logic and understandable customer dissatisfaction seem to honestly dumbfound this woman, she hung up on me.
Cory and I have been going there because it was right by his work, despite knowing there were less douchey-places in the city to go, it was just easy. Fail place is fail. There's no shortage of similarly themed stores in Toronto, take your money elsewhere.
Maybe I worked in really good stores in the past, since anyplace I've *Ever* worked, fragile or not, expensive or not, policy or no, if the item was clearly not manhandled/abused/used/etc. when it decided to FAIL, we took it back, and at the very least gave full store credit. No matter what though, we NEVER thought it was appropriate to *hang up* on a customer, and we definitely never called them 'fucking liars.'
Understandably, I called the store immediately, asking about their return policy for clearly unused items - tobacco has not even touched the thing. So I called, and was rather rudely informed in a voice which insisted that is MUST BE MY FAULT, that they have a no returns policy. Never mind it was purchased less than twenty for hours ago. The most they will do, is give a twenty five percent discount on a future purchase.
Understandably, I am miffed, and now ask to speak to the manager. Who continues this tone of 'clearly it is your fault, all of our merchandise is absolutely perfect when it leaves the store.' To this I say, bullshit madame. Either way, after a few rather non-professional attempts at justification on her part, logic and understandable customer dissatisfaction seem to honestly dumbfound this woman, she hung up on me.
Cory and I have been going there because it was right by his work, despite knowing there were less douchey-places in the city to go, it was just easy. Fail place is fail. There's no shortage of similarly themed stores in Toronto, take your money elsewhere.
Maybe I worked in really good stores in the past, since anyplace I've *Ever* worked, fragile or not, expensive or not, policy or no, if the item was clearly not manhandled/abused/used/etc. when it decided to FAIL, we took it back, and at the very least gave full store credit. No matter what though, we NEVER thought it was appropriate to *hang up* on a customer, and we definitely never called them 'fucking liars.'