Stand Your Ground

I know you were not happy with my last post so here's a better one.

About a month or so ago, I was at K-mart and saw they had some kid's bike helmets in the Clearance section. They were just a few dollars and were real cute. But I restrained myself and didn't buy one because even though they were a great price - Jonah didn't have a bike.... aren't you proud of me?

Last weekend was the Huntington Woods City Wide Garage Sale and I made it for the last 20 minutes on Friday (and of course some time on Sunday but most of the good stuff was gone by then). The 3rd and last garage sale I stopped at had a little boys bike for sale. It was in good condtion, had training wheels on it and looked the right size for Jonah. $10!!! Definitely the right price. So I ran home and got Jonah (and his friend) and we went back to try it out. They both approved it and it came home with us. Jonah has not wanted to get of it since we bought it!! And he's doing very well with riding it!!! But then he needed a helmet.
I didn't think K-mart would have them anymore but when we were driving by Kmart on Sunday, I asked Shu if he wanted to stop in and check if they still had them. We went to the back of the store and there they were!! Not only that but they had dinosaurs on them. Jonah was so excited! I was so excited!! He thought it was silly that they had cavemen on them also because everyone knows dinosaurs were around long before people....
They had some other helmets and I checked if there was one or my niece because I knew she needed one. They had some for bigger kids but they were like $16.00. I checked the other 2 Toddler helmets and they were marked $4.00 also so I figured it couldn't be a mistake. THey must be cheap cuz they are smaller. That was the retail person in me. Checking to see if the cheap price was a mismark!
We went up to the front to pay and the lady rang up our other two items and then the helmet. It came out to $10 too much. I asked her what she charged us or everything and she said $15.99 for the helmet. I showed her the sticker and she took it and walked away. She went over to Customer Service and then came back. Then another woman came over and said no, that's not the right price. I said, well that's what it is marked. And she said I'm sorry it's incorrect. I told her there were a few more back there with the same price and that's not my fault. So the second lady went back to check it out. I should have gone with her......
She came back and said no, she didn't see any others marked that back there. I told her I was pretty sure there were at least 2 more back there and I was almost positive they had a $4.00 sticker on them. She said no, too bad. Do you want it or not? I said no way. Not if they aren't going to honor the marked price.
I was annoyed about the situation but even more annoyed about the attitude! They gave such attitude and were SOOO obnoxious!! That made me even madder than everything else. Also, I am used to working at Kohl's where customers come first and we basically do whatever they want. :) But we keep them happy.
We walked out to the car and my blood was really boiling. I was pretty sure I had seen other helmets with the same price and really felt the woman was lying to me. I canNOT stand when people lie to me and I canNOT stand when people give me attitude when it is uncalled for. But I wasn't sure what to do about it. Well, first step is I wanted to go in and check the helmets. I asked Shu if he minded and ended up sending him home with the kids because who knows how long it would take.
I went back inside and back to the helmets. I saw one hanging there which had a sticker scratched off it. How conveniant..... I was annoyed because I KNEW she had taken the sticker off. I would have remembered if there was one without a sticker on it. Oooooooooh, I was so mad. But what was I going to do? Well, I was pretty sure there was another one so I started looking for it. And G-d must have been on my side because there was one all the way in the back. And lo and behold, it had a $4.oo sticker on it. Oooooooooooh I was mad. Who is she trying to mess with???? The Customer Service Queen???
So I marched back to the customer service desk and waited....and waited.....and waited..... finally it was my turn and I explained very calmly the situation. I said I was here earlier and tried to buy a bicycle helmet that was marked $4.00 but rang up full price at $15.99. I said I would understand if it had been one helmet but I knew there were others back there with the same sticker. I said a woman went back to go check and it and maybe I should have gone with her but when she came back she said she didn't see any others marked that back there. I said we left but I was pretty sure I had seen others so I came back to check it out. I said I went back there myself and there was one with a tag scratched off which I know was not there before and there was one in the back with a $4.00 sticker. So it was their mistake and they need to honor the marked price. I threw in the lingo of the "Michigan Scan Law" and whether they knew what it was or not, I don't know. But technically it would not have applied here. They prob didn't know that.
She called over the original person who went to check on the helmet and asked what she did with the helmet. It was still in the basket up front. So she hadn't removed the sticker and put it back. I gave her the evil eye big time like I knew what she did and I knew she was a BIG FAT lier and I caught her in a lie and she was NOT going to get away with it!!!
The person helping me said they had asked the manager who said they could give me 10 or 15% off the original price. Um, no not gonna cut it. So I asked to speak to a manager. The cust service person called someone over and explained the situation and she basically repeated what the store manager had supposedly said. I asked if she was a manager, she said yes. I asked if she was the store manager, she said no. So I asked to speak to the store manager...... they paged her and paged her and paged her again. No answer. I don't know if she was really in the store or not but I think once they saw I wasn't leaving, the cust svc person said she would give it to me for $4.00
WOOOHOOO!!!! VICTORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At the end it wasn't even the money that I cared about so much. I was so angry that that lady had tried to trick me. Liar liar, pants on fire! And I couldn't stand their attitude either.
So I won!!
That teaches you - stand your ground when you are right and ALWAYS ask for a manager!!!!

As a funny side note, after I came home Shu reminded me to get the bag of our other things from the car before I left that night for basketball. When I got in the car, I looked for them and there was nothing there. I came inside and checked and nothing. I realized we must have left it at the store and I was pretty sure I had left it in the cart. So I had to go back to the same cust service person and ask if someone had returned our bag.....
Luckily - they did!!! I joked with the lady saying something how wouldn't that show me for causing trouble! :)

Better post? It was a long one!