Monday, April 21, 2008

Charm Bracelets


Charm bracelets.
Every girl wants one, especially if they have never had one.
Puppy dogs and kittens, ballet slippers & music notes, footballs and years, Statues of Liberty & Leaning Towers, airplanes & trains, lucky clovers & Italian stallions, hearts. peace signs & flowers.
No two charm bracelets alike... like no two girls are quite alike. A reflection of experiences, desires, dreams, past times & times past or yet to come.
I never had a charm bracelet & thought it would be a good idea to get all my nieces one along with two charms for Christmas several years ago. Making my purchase at a large, national retailer I inquired about warranties and was told 'one year: replace or repair if you retain the receipt.'
Four months later, I took two of my nieces & a broken charm bracelet back to the retailer along with my receipt. The girl at the counter said that there was nothing they could do. She happened to be the same exact person who sold me the bracelets and charms. Reminding her of that and still denied, I asked for the department manager. Yet, again I was told that there was nothing that could be done, as they no longer did repairs and the bracelets were over thirty days old.
I asked to speak to the store manager.
He repeated the same thing.
Hmmmm.....
After spending entirely too much time discussing the ins and outs of them changing their company policy, I finally asked the store manager if they accepted returns from other locations.
He said, ' Yes for any reason at all ... as long as they are within thirty days & accompanied with a receipt.'
'Oh, Ok. Great. Thanks for your time... C'mon Girls.'
Off we went, six skinny legs in long stride.
We went into the far-side location of this national retailers and picked up a replacement charm bracelet. Then we went on a glorious little shopping spree. Picking out & up anything and everything that three young ladies could ever want & never really need. When our buggy was full, we smooshed the stuff down. When it got full again, we took out a ten dollar item and replaced it with a similar sized fifty dollar item. We giggled and laughed all the way to the counter.
Cha-Ching, Cha-ching, Cha-ching...the wonderful sound of profits for the far-side retailer.
Cha-ching...the short-term sound of the power of plastic.
Back at the truck, we loaded the bed up and then sat on the tail-gate and opened one package... a silver charm bracelet. The broken one got dropped back into the package provided by the far-side and new one got placed on the wrist....
Thirty minutes later...
'Ma'am, are you returning all these items?'
'Yes'am.'
'Goodness. What's the matter with it all?'
'Oh, we just bought too much. I was told by your manager we could return everything for any reason as long as it was within 30 days and I had the receipt.' Passing her the receipt,'Most of it hasn't even been taken out of the bag.'
'Oh, Ok.'
The final Cha-Ching of the day. With credit in hand...'Oh, tell your manager that the charm bracelet is broken.'

footnote: Yes, I could have just eaten the thirty bucks and just replaced the girls bracelet, but it was the principle. In between my personal spending & corporate spending, they had made about a hundred bucks a week off of me for years and possibly years to come. When this retailers changed their policy, they were no longer honoring their word. In their world, words are worthless but money is not. Words should never be worthless.
Smart Cars Incorporated aka Smartcarsinc.net have proven their word to be worthless. But words are never really worthless.

10 comments:

singleton said...

You are the charm. Muah, my sister love

Mel said...

Words should never be worthless--this we'll whole heartedly agree on.

And I can't say that I've not thought about making your very actions my solution.....more than once---LOL

My word is sometimes the most powerful thing I have to offer.

SHE said...

your wonderful words, very valuable indeed! "cheers! to you, your nieces, your style, your principles.. your blog!"

love, big smiles, high fives ~s.

skinnylittleblonde said...

Lol Sister Sing...not the most charming tale!

Mel...I know my actions seemed 'out there.' But the principle remains the same & I guess the girls were at an age where I thought that it was important for them to see and to learn & experience that we, as individuals and as consumers, do matter and we can have an impact. So that little 30 dollar bracelet cost that location a few hundred bucks immediately & many, many thousands over the course of time. Sigh... words, they never should be worthless. P&L

She... You are so kind & I have a terrible confession to make to you. Perhaps I should put it in writing and send it via snail mail. Love, Hugs & Solo Dances in the Shadows of the Moon...xoxoxo

skinnylittleblonde said...

I'm sure you gals don't mind or care, but I really didn't like that post and was hell bent on burying it before the end of the day... peace & love to three beautiful souls.

Shimmerrings said...

You go girl! There's more than one way to skin a rabbit, as my Dad used to say. The trouble with the world is just exactly what you have pointed out... nobody wants to honor their word, anymore. And what you did was not skin off their back... and what they could have done would not have been, either, had they had the good common sense to honor the customer, by keeping their word. I'll have to keep that in mind, nice little trick.

skinnylittleblonde said...

Shimmerings... yes, deceit & dishonesty have become all too common, just about everywhere. I guess at the time I thought it to be educational and entertaining. I remember when I was a kid, my mom would say 'if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all' and one time, I refused to speak for a couple of days(angry little beast) but anymore, I find myself thinking 'If you can't speak the truth, then just don't speak to me.'
The truth sometimes can be hard to swallow, but it does get swallowed and lies rarely do. We try to swallow them, we choke on them, we eventually spit them back out & feel sick with our own gullability. Or maybe it's just me...

Me said...

You did EXACTLY what I would have done! Well bloody done, Paiger. I recall once hiring some videos and was served by this snob-nosed little teenage girl who wouldn't let me hire the videos because I hate late fees. Gave me a real hard time about it. Came back with the fifteen dollars or so of late fees in five cent pieces.

skinnylittleblonde said...

Thanks Orhan...You guys are really making me feel better. I dunno why, but this post bugged me. I guess, in hindsight, I look back and I think...it was just thirty bucks, I could've just eaten it. Really, it was the principle. Lol @ you and the five cent pieces. hey! Money is money & that's what they wanted! I guess the way I look at it is someone is gonna get my money until the day I die...the question is who? If someone wants to defy their own word with me, then it won't be them. P&L

John-Michael said...

I loved You before ... and now I jubilantly celebrate a new aspect of your Spirit that I had not yet known. So ... MORE to Love!