"Not my problem" said the local gaming store.
Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2017 2:43 pm
So last weekend I bought one of those MDF laser cut terrain pieces from one of the local gaming stores... a house with 2 levels that you can take apart so miniatures can move around inside it and such.
One of the parts sheets was the wrong part, and isn't really usable. I mean, I could build the house with these parts, but it wouldn't be as sturdy as it should be and it would be wrong on the inside.
So I went to the manufacturer website to use their Contact Us form to get some help. A week went by, and all I heard back was crickets.
So I took it back to the store yesterday to see what they could do. I didn't really want a refund since I like the model. I was hoping for an exchange but I didn't see any others when I bought this one so I wasn't too hopeful about that. Still, I figured maybe they could order another one for me or something, I dunno. They're the place where I bought it, maybe they'd have a better idea.
Apparently their response to "Hey, I bought this item from you and there's a problem" is to throw their hands up in the air and say "Not my problem."
Wut?
What he literally said was that I needed to contact the manufacturer. I told him I'd done that already, a week ago, and heard nothing back, so here I was. He said there's nothing he could do.
Pausing the story here... That's a load of horsecrap. This is the retail outlet where I purchased the item. I would be well within my rights and reasonable expectations to demand a refund. I didn't want a refund though, all I wanted was some customer service. I repeated that I needed help and he repeated what became his mantra for the entire conversation: "There's nothing I can do." With variations including "I'd help you if I could" and "I don't have any others." I responded to that last one by asking, hypothetically, if that meant I could get an exchange if he had another one like it. At this point be backpedaled and went back to the mantra.
Now, at this point, I'm becoming angry. I've spent a LOT of money at this store over the many years I'd been going there. I've bought things there, knowing I was paying a higher price, just for the sake of supporting the local gaming facilities. Almost every single thing I've ever bought at that store can be had for cheaper online. I felt like I deserved better treatment than this. Frankly, as a customer, I have a right to expect better treatment than this even if I had never been there before.
So I said "look, I'm not trying to be a problem here and I don't mean to be argumentative" at which point he cut me off and said "But you are being argumentative."
30 year old Chris would have told him to go $*#! himself at this point, because I was in the right here, and struggling not to be a jerk. This whole time I'd been maintaining a smile and trying to keep my tone friendly and constructive, when the response was this mantra I was getting. And by the way, at not time did this dude look me in the eye throughout the entire conversation. I'm 43 year old Chris so I'm rather more in control of my temper these days, so I kept my cool.
I said "No offense, but aren't you supposed to support your products that you sell, man?" Again with the mantra. At this point he did offer to contact the manufacturer on my behalf and see if he could get a better response, since he did say at one point that this particular manufacturer was generally very good about being responsive to customers.
Why he couldn't have suggested that off the bat, I don't know, because it is a reasonable thing to do. Like I said, I wasn't after a refund, I just wanted some customer service. So I wrote down all my contact info and the details of the kit and part that was wrong. He promised to send out an E-mail and CC me on it to the manufacturer just as soon as he had a break.
I browsed a bit after that, but as you can imagine my desire to spend another dime at that store was in the toilet at that point. I did seek him out before I left to shake hands and try to smooth things over somewhat, to improve the odds that he'd actually do what he said he'd do. I don't know if he's the kind of guy who would keep his promise even if he'd mad at you, or if he's the kind of guy who would "accidentally" lose that slip of paper.
It was Black Friday yesterday, so I figured it would be a while, and that was okay.
Well I saw no E-mail. So either he didn't send it or he just forgot to CC me.
In a world where online retail is killing local gaming stores, we in the gaming community have an interest in shopping at the brick & mortar stores so that we have a place to meet other gamers, buy things we need right away, attend events, etc. Yes, it costs more to shop in person. There's always sales tax, there's the fuel you spend driving there, and the prices tend to be higher, (especially at this particular place.) but we do it because we're investing in our local community. But is this how it's going to be? No customer service and a "that's not my problem" attitude when they sell you something that isn't right? Can you imagine going to *any* other store with a problem you're having with an item you bought there and being blown off like this guy tried to do?
In a world where online retail is killing brick & mortar stores, customer relations is EVERYTHING.
Whether I shop at that store again depends entirely on the outcome of this situation. There are alternatives, though less convenient. Even so, I can only imagine how much money and time I'll save if I just start buying online instead of going there in the future.
One of the parts sheets was the wrong part, and isn't really usable. I mean, I could build the house with these parts, but it wouldn't be as sturdy as it should be and it would be wrong on the inside.
So I went to the manufacturer website to use their Contact Us form to get some help. A week went by, and all I heard back was crickets.
So I took it back to the store yesterday to see what they could do. I didn't really want a refund since I like the model. I was hoping for an exchange but I didn't see any others when I bought this one so I wasn't too hopeful about that. Still, I figured maybe they could order another one for me or something, I dunno. They're the place where I bought it, maybe they'd have a better idea.
Apparently their response to "Hey, I bought this item from you and there's a problem" is to throw their hands up in the air and say "Not my problem."
Wut?
What he literally said was that I needed to contact the manufacturer. I told him I'd done that already, a week ago, and heard nothing back, so here I was. He said there's nothing he could do.
Pausing the story here... That's a load of horsecrap. This is the retail outlet where I purchased the item. I would be well within my rights and reasonable expectations to demand a refund. I didn't want a refund though, all I wanted was some customer service. I repeated that I needed help and he repeated what became his mantra for the entire conversation: "There's nothing I can do." With variations including "I'd help you if I could" and "I don't have any others." I responded to that last one by asking, hypothetically, if that meant I could get an exchange if he had another one like it. At this point be backpedaled and went back to the mantra.
Now, at this point, I'm becoming angry. I've spent a LOT of money at this store over the many years I'd been going there. I've bought things there, knowing I was paying a higher price, just for the sake of supporting the local gaming facilities. Almost every single thing I've ever bought at that store can be had for cheaper online. I felt like I deserved better treatment than this. Frankly, as a customer, I have a right to expect better treatment than this even if I had never been there before.
So I said "look, I'm not trying to be a problem here and I don't mean to be argumentative" at which point he cut me off and said "But you are being argumentative."
30 year old Chris would have told him to go $*#! himself at this point, because I was in the right here, and struggling not to be a jerk. This whole time I'd been maintaining a smile and trying to keep my tone friendly and constructive, when the response was this mantra I was getting. And by the way, at not time did this dude look me in the eye throughout the entire conversation. I'm 43 year old Chris so I'm rather more in control of my temper these days, so I kept my cool.
I said "No offense, but aren't you supposed to support your products that you sell, man?" Again with the mantra. At this point he did offer to contact the manufacturer on my behalf and see if he could get a better response, since he did say at one point that this particular manufacturer was generally very good about being responsive to customers.
Why he couldn't have suggested that off the bat, I don't know, because it is a reasonable thing to do. Like I said, I wasn't after a refund, I just wanted some customer service. So I wrote down all my contact info and the details of the kit and part that was wrong. He promised to send out an E-mail and CC me on it to the manufacturer just as soon as he had a break.
I browsed a bit after that, but as you can imagine my desire to spend another dime at that store was in the toilet at that point. I did seek him out before I left to shake hands and try to smooth things over somewhat, to improve the odds that he'd actually do what he said he'd do. I don't know if he's the kind of guy who would keep his promise even if he'd mad at you, or if he's the kind of guy who would "accidentally" lose that slip of paper.
It was Black Friday yesterday, so I figured it would be a while, and that was okay.
Well I saw no E-mail. So either he didn't send it or he just forgot to CC me.
In a world where online retail is killing local gaming stores, we in the gaming community have an interest in shopping at the brick & mortar stores so that we have a place to meet other gamers, buy things we need right away, attend events, etc. Yes, it costs more to shop in person. There's always sales tax, there's the fuel you spend driving there, and the prices tend to be higher, (especially at this particular place.) but we do it because we're investing in our local community. But is this how it's going to be? No customer service and a "that's not my problem" attitude when they sell you something that isn't right? Can you imagine going to *any* other store with a problem you're having with an item you bought there and being blown off like this guy tried to do?
In a world where online retail is killing brick & mortar stores, customer relations is EVERYTHING.
Whether I shop at that store again depends entirely on the outcome of this situation. There are alternatives, though less convenient. Even so, I can only imagine how much money and time I'll save if I just start buying online instead of going there in the future.