Funny, kid, funny...

My witty, sometimes droll 17yo son walked in a bit ago and said:

"Mom, I am not sure about the color of those pants. Can we return them?"

I about socked him.

Why, you ask?

In a nutshell..

-Confirmation is 2 weeks away.

-Boys must wear Sunday Best. (Cardinal DiNardo sez so!)

-We attend life teen. Their 'best' is jeans and sneakers.

-Shopping is a bear. They are so slim-waisted and tall, that is one reason I gave up on suppling anything other than jeans and sneakers. I have to mail order the jeans to get their size.

-Today was shopping day. Kohl's had two-for-one sale on men's dress wear.

-We spent 1.5 hours digging through unorganized men's wear, all sizes and styles mixed up, searching for the elusive 30 inch waist slacks, that hopefully were more than 30 inches long.

-FINALLY we found them, not quite long enough, but they will do.

[Note: The boys did a great job and we had some laughs.. especially in picking ties... pink, green, polka dots, oh my!]

-On to shirts, ties, belts, socks and dress shoes.

Whew.

-Checkout. Bored clerk. I asked if I got the two for one on all the items. Yes, she said. May I use my 20% off coupon? No, she said. That starts tomorrow. oh.

-Can I put these on hold and come back tomorrow? Will the 2-fer sale still be on? Yes, she said. What time do you open? 9am she said.

-She dumped (and I mean DUMPED) our carefully chosen items in a bag, put my name on them and stuck them under the counter at her feet.

-I was very, very uncomfortable. Are you sure those will make it to customer service? Yeah, she said.

- I drove home . (25 min). I started geting more uncomfortable. When I got home I checked their website. It said store opened at 9, not 8. And the two-fer sale ended today.

-I called the store. Yup. Sale ends today. I have to DRIVE BACK IN RUSH HOUR TRAFFIC to the store to buy them today to get the big saving. ARGH!

- I was mad. I don't usually get mad. I usually stop and get perspecitve. I left and even kinda slammed the door. My dh was heading off on a business trip, and I told I had to leave- Bye. Nice, eh?

-Driving there, I figured I better calm down. It is really sad to see irate customers, taking out their anger on a clerk.

-But then, I realized.. NO. The manager needs to know! I let my anger build again...

-I walked in, found my clerk who still my $300 bag of bunched up clothes and shoes under her feet at her register. I asked her for it and went to customer service.

-I found the manager and said. I am sorry, but you now have an irate customer. Here is my story. She braced herself.

-I told her everything- from the disorganized inventory which took us an hour to dig through with NO assistance offered from staff... to the careless clerk. She was great. What can I do? She asked.

-I would like to buy this and get the twofer sale, and also my 20% off coupon.

-Ok. she said. I give her credit.

-As she rung it up, she said.. oh... the pants are not two for one. One was on clearance, so doesn't count. Would you like to get another?

-I started laughing, bitterly. We had made sure to find the same brand of pants so we would get the deal. Well, I said, my sons are home now, and there is no way I can look through all that inventory again anyway. So, she gave them to me for free. With the flick of her finger on the computer screen, $50 dissapeared...

-I ended up $100 ahead in the end. For 'channeling my anger' as I told my boys.

-Thinking on the way home.. yes, I was tired. Yes I was angry. But anger is NOT a sin. What you do with it can be the sin. I knew I was right, and I know enough about business to know that feedback from customers is crucial. I think my controlled anger emphasied my story. I could tell that for sure, as the other staff would not wait on me but waited for the manager, and they all watched from the wings to see what I was going to say!

I finally got back home, sat down, put my feet up and my son made his request. I could've killed him. :-)