Customer service is not dead

A day spent running errands is not for the faint-hearted.

Today was no different. It sure seemed like an epic adventure.

Let me start with the shopping adventure last night that was for Casey's socks.

For those of you who haven't read my blog (or forgot), our Jr. High youth stuff pairs of socks with toiletries. These socks are given out at Christmas Eve breakfast to the homeless and whoever else needs a warm meal, aka "our neighbors".

This year we are stuffing 230 socks. We shopped for 130 socks last night. The youth and adults were split into three groups. We spent close to $900. I am fortunate enough to have a credit card to pay for all of this.

When I got home, I happened to be looking at the receipt and noticed that we had been charged twice for something that I know we only bought one. I had told each group to pick up a gift for another program we support (our tutoring program helps buy presents for kids in the program, the volunteers found out that the parents often don't receive gifts, we now encourage gifts to be donated for parents). One of the groups picked out a slow-cooker. You know, a crock-pot. It has leopard print on it!

And we were charged for two.

Granted, our cashier may have been slightly overwhelmed at the amount of things she was ringing, but she did an amazing job. I don't fault her at all. The youth were being loud (and having a good time while being contained) and it was a busy time in the store.

As soon as I noticed the extra charge on the receipt, I called the store. The very nice woman who answered at the Service desk was all too kind and let me know at my convenience I could come back in with the receipt and would get my refund.

That leads me to the beginning of my epic journey this morning.

I started back at that store which happens to be further away from my house then the other errands I needed to run. The Service desk was compliant and I had no issues.

I decided to go ahead and pick up a few more items that I know we will need for the socks. I had five packages of mens t-shirts.

The checkout lane at the 12 items or less wasn't very busy, so I waited there.

The cashiers switched right before it was my turn. The new cashier rang me up and I swiped my card.

It was declined.

Oops! Because of my large purchase last night, I had to verify with the credit card company that I did indeed make that purchase last night.

After waiting on hold for twenty minutes (yes, I patiently waited because my call had gone to the fraud department and I wanted to make sure everything was okay) the nice man verified my purchase and released the hold.

Whew.

I continued on my journey.

The next stop was the Hallmark store where I had bought a few cards on Saturday. I had a coupon, my rewards plus a gift card. The coupon was for $2.00 off, the rewards were for $8.00 and the gift card had $5.00 on it.

When I got home Saturday night I had noticed that the $2 and $5 were both on the receipt but the $8 was nowhere to be seen.

When I went in there this morning (by then it was actually afternoon), I explained to the cashier what had happened and she went to talk to the manager. I figured one of two things would happen. They would still have my coupon (I remember from back when Mom owned a Hallmark store and when I worked in the one in Detroit that you hold on to them and mail them back in bulk), or I would have to call the 800 number and ask for it to be reissued. I figured going into the store was the best place to start.

And it was. The manager came out and had my coupon. Even though it had been marked out as though it had been used, she was quick to initial it and return it to me. She was apologetic and I was understanding. Saturday had been something close to a zoo at the mall.

I didn't mention that I was there for our Quota book fair. I literally parked in the last parking space in the rows that I had traveled down.

Today, I had other places to shop but everything else was smooth sailing.

That concludes my epic journey. Now it's time for a walk.