Dear Restoration Hardware: I do understand that you cannot find it in your tiny little soul (if a corporation can be said to have a soul, which is doubtful) to work with me on a deal to exchange the couch I bought from you because I ordered the wrong color. Yes, I know: times are tough. I made the mistake, not you. Yes, you have your rules. Yes, I understand. You can't give even an inch on your principles, not a sou, not a penny.
I also have rules. One of my rules is that I don’t continue to patronize stores that refuse to work with me to make me happy when I make a mistake in a purchase that I freely own up to, and when I call and pleasantly discuss the options with you WITHOUT pitching a nasty fit on the phone. Which I could do. And have done before, with success. But I don’t want to harass anyone. I want to be pleasant, and reasonable. I want to catch flies with honey, not vinegar. So the fact that you apparently mistook my calm, polite, and reasonable manner for lack of spine was a mistake on your part.
It was a mistake, because what you apparently didn’t realize when I spoke to one of your representatives on the phone about this, is that I like to buy furniture. And I like Restoration Hardware’s furniture. And have bought a fair amount of it over the years. But when you make it so very clear to me that you value your corporate rules more than you value your relationship with me, a loyal and frequent customer, then I have to re-evaluate my relationship with you. And make some hard decisions.
Like, you are off my vendor list. For good. I don’t do business with people who don’t negotiate.
And I’m going to blog about this, and Facebook about this, and Twitter about this, to get the word out about how Restoration Hardware values (or fails to value) loyal customers. Given that Smith and Hawken is shutting down most of their stores, and retail in general isn’t doing so well, I think you might want to re-think your corporate policy on exchanges, and your very ill-thought-out corporate policy on how to handle nice, loyal customers.
Because you just lost one.
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Carol Bly, who
got me all fired up about connections between neuroscience and morality and art.
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- From 1700s Italy, "dilettante" originally meant "lover of the arts," but became a pejorative when professionalism took hold during the 18th century. A dilettante became a mere lover of art as opposed to one who earned a living from it. Today, the word refers to a poseur, or one pretending to be an artist. synonyms: dabbler, sciolist, dilettanteish, dilettantish, sciolistic Usage Examples “It’s better up here away from the phonies and the dilettantes. Here I can do what I want and no one comes to sneer. You’re not a sneerer, are you?” - Flowers for Algernon ‘There were no scientists in Stuart England,’ we are told, ‘and all the men we have grouped together under that heading were in their varying degrees dilettantes.’ - The Invention of Science Charles wasn’t a dilettante; he was serious about the breeding and created his own new lines of pigeons. - Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith source: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/dilettante
They won't deal because:
ReplyDeletea) they already have your money.
b) the local store doesn't want to or doesn't know how to return/exchange your couch for the color you want because their back office is a complete mess.
c) by returning such a large purchase at the store, the manager must cut payroll accordingly to match the $2000 or so the couch cost as a sale.
As a former employee I suggest you escalate your request all the way from the district manager to the regional manager. Write letters, make phonecalls. The company has never responded to disgruntled customers who threaten boycotts or internet blogger bashing. They simply ignore those who don't put up a fight. The more misreable you make the CSR's life the more likely they will do what you want to get rid of you. Ultimately someone will give you what you want, and unfortunately you will have to fight for it. What I learned from working for Restoratin Hardware is that they don't care about their employees and they don't care about their customers....good luck.