Flashback Fight Friday: Beaba’s Kids

From the archives, this is one of my favorite interactions with a corporation (Williams and Sonoma) mainly because an employee decided to go rogue and write a sarcastic note back to me on Yelp!

My initial email:

To Whom It May Concern:

I recently purchased the Beaba Babycook Machine from your store at the Santa Anita Mall in Arcadia, California.

baby food, poppycock.

baby food, poppycock.

I paid over $180 for the machine. Upon opening the box, I noticed the cookbook was missing and the instruction manual was marked with dry-food stains, presumably indicating prior use.

When I called and spoke with the manager on duty, she notified me that it was IN FACT Williams and Sonoma policy to sell open-box items at full price  (without disclosing such information) if the item in question was never used.

Is this in fact your policy?! If so, why not provide your customers the common courtesy of knowing they are purchasing previously opened goods?!

Many luxury stores like your own refuse selling open-box items.  And those that  do they offer full disclosure and a discount.

It’s a shame you don’t do similarly.

Sincerely,

CA

Then came their corporate response:

Thank you for contacting Williams-Sonoma.

We are disheartened to hear about your poor retail experience.

Please know we have contacted the store manager at the Santa Anita Mall in California. She has verified that you have exchanged your original Beaba Baby Cook for a new one. She indicated that she did check the replacement to be sure that it had not been used.


For future reference it is not our policy to resale used merchandise.

We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience that this has caused. We thank you for your patronage. Your business is appreciated.

That was straight-forward enough even while side-stepping the fact they in fact sold an open-boxed item.    But then came a response via Yelp where I posted my letter.

I work at that Williams-Sonoma and am sorry about your experience. Unfortunately we are low volume store with a small amount of associates. We often take the word of the customer when they return an item and ask if they “had a chance to try it out” a polite way of saying did you use it. Any item that comes back to the store is suppose to be checked for use. This particular one slipped under the radar. What you failed to mention is that we rectified the situation immediately. 

Just an FYI. Most customers get extremely upset when we ask if they have used the item that they return. They take it as an insult. If more people where honest these types of mistakes would not be made. Also when items are retuned to our store it effects our bottom line therefore the more items returned the less money we have to operate efficiently, like adding more associates.

I hope you won’t allow this one incident to detour you from shopping with us in the future. Oh and by the way the Beaba is 149.00 not 180.00. Sorry for your inconvenience.

Oh, no, she didn’t! Pass the mic back over here!

I appreciate the response. And I empathize with the challenges of working with customers who aren’t always honest. But when you say you ‘rectified the situation immediately’ what that really means is I had to make the half hour drive to return the item, walk half a mile around the mall and into your store, explain the situation, walk the half mile back to my car and drive another half hour home. In all candor, you didn’t do much. 

With regards to returned items effecting your bottom line, that seems to me precisely the reason your store doesn’t more thoroughly inspect returned items. You have a vested interest in selling as many as you can.

Lastly, I paid $180 total (tax included). If you’d like refund me the difference I paid then I’d be more than happy to collect.

Big. Brown. Dad for the win!

 

Shark Bites Pt.1

To Whom It May Concern:

Cheers.  My name is Carlos Aguilar.  Yesterday, I called your customer service line and created a file re: my Shark S3101.  

I recently took up the inglorious task of maintaining the tile throughout my home.
While I’m happy to report that my Shark S3101 has served me well,  I’m sad to report that it hasn’t serve me always.
We bought our Shark at the local Target over a year ago.  We considered it an investment.  Sadly, the hook piece on the handle snapped thereby rendering the pole inoperative.
Inline image 3
This meant I had to continue the job on my hands and knees.
Inline image 2
As you might recall the temperature in LA was in the 90’s that week.
Inline image 1
I called in hopes of redeeming my experience by having a replacement piece sent to me.  I was surprised to learn though that you do not provide a replacement for this part.  While you were courteous enough to offer a great discount on the S3251, I’m afraid even then I would have to come out of pocket over $50.
Inline image 4
I’m hopeful you might redeem our purchase by replacing our S3101.
I’ll be happy to document our correspondence on my parenting blog,www.bigbrowndad.com
I look forward to hearing back.
Big.Brown.Dad

 

Review: Bark Place Dog Grooming

This is our dog, Birdie Covarrubias Aguilar.

WWF Intercontinental Champ: The British Bulldog!

bow wow wow yippy yo yippy yay!

Maya named her and we still don’t know where she got the name.

But it is of some linguistic interest to note that 8 of the 10 top female dog names of 2013 had a similar phonetic ending as our beloved Birdie (e.g., Lucy, Bailey, Daisy, Maggie).  Theories?

The sobering truth about Birdie is she sometimes stinks.  She’s a big girl with a big head who seriously sweats.

images

sorry, couldn’t resist the chris christie dis.

While I’ve bathed her,  she’s never as clean as when she returns from the groomer. The same truth that governs sandwich making, whereby a sandwich always tastes better when someone else makes it, can also be applied to dog grooming.

I’ve tried out a few places in the area but was referred to Bark Place by a fellow Covina bulldog owner.  Wudup, Frankie Bulldog?

Bark Place 934 N Citrus Ave Covina, Ca

Bark Place 934 N Citrus Ave Covina, Ca

I knew Bark Place was a different kind of joint as soon I walked in.  It didn’t smell like bad perfume, wet towels or dog piss.  In fact, for a second,  I thought I’d walked into a photo studio in Santa Monica.

yes, i’m here for my close-ups.

Kathy, the co-owner,  is knowledgable, nice and has a genuine love for dogs.  That was apparent after watching her interact with customers.  Kathy worked at a veterinarian’s office for several years and is fast to share knowledge gleaned from her time there.  Did you know that bulldogs can get acne from playing with plastic toys?  Dammit, neither did I!

Kathy & Birdie.

Kathy & Birdie.

 Bark Place uses organic shampoos, hand dryers and freshly washed towels (uhum, which is apparently an exception in the area).

Their prices are eminently reasonable. I paid $25 for the Birdie bath and met a couple who travelled from San Dimas to get their large, Golden Retriever some love.  Their price was $25 less than what they were charged at a pet-store.

And this summer, Bark Place is throwing BBD readers a bone! Tell them Big Brown Dad referred you and you’ll get a 5% discount!

Now, excuse me, I have some dog poop to scoop.

Big.Brown.Dad.

Review: Kids Styles Hair Salon (The $100 haircut)

How much is too much to pay for a good, kid’s haircut? $15?  $50?  $100?!

Joaquin needed a haircut, badly.  His quasi-hipster steelo was impinging on his cuteness which, in turn, impinged on any trickle-down love I might receive.  We needed an immediate remedy.

Joaquin looking like Samson.

Joaquin looking like Samson.

 

About a week ago, we stopped by two ‘standard’ barbershops wherein Joaquin had his haircut previously.  Both places charge $10 for a haircut.  At the 1st location,  Joaquin was moving so much the barber couldn’t finish the haircut (hey, a free partial haircut is better than no haircut at all).  At the 2nd, it never even got started.

So, yesterday, I decided to pay the 60% mark up at Kids Styles Hair Salon in Covina to see if one of their stylists might work some of their tot-targeted talents.  To my pleasant surprise, they did.

As the name suggests, Kids Styles caters to kid styles by having actual kids cut your kid’s hair!

I kid.

Each child sits inside a race-car, barber-chair of choice.  As soon as we we walked in, Joaquin ran to a car.  Once seated, the stylist asked him to choose a DVD that would play in front of him while getting his haircut.  Brilliant.

The stylist asked if we wanted to use scissors or clippers or both, something never asked at the other shops.  She then went ahead and spoke calmly and pleasantly to Joaquin as she wet his hair by first wetting her hand and then her hand on his head.  She was nicer than Greg Nice, smoother than Smooth B.

Whenever Joaquin seemed to get bored, she placed one of over a dozen small toys at her ready in his lap to keep him occupied. Shake this. Squeeze that. And on and on, ad infinitum.

15 minutes later and the universe was made right.

So fresh and so clean clean.

So fresh and so clean, clean.

 

Joaquin liked the place so much he wanted to stay and play.

play on, player.

play on, player.

The haircut was $15 + $3 tip = $18.  Not bad considering our rate of one haircut every 8 months!

What’s the most you’d pay for a kid’s haircut?  Your haircut?