The Good, the Bad and the Just Plain Frustrating

It was a really good day yesterday. We ended a great week at school with students and were enjoying a cheerful family drive into town with requite silly conversation and singing. LK turned to me partway to town and said, "This is really more fun than I thought."

With a big smile on my face I replied, "Teaching?"

"All of it. Working together, talking over ideas and stuff. It's different than music."

It made me smile to my belly button. LK and I have been working together since the very beginning of our relationship. It started with a musicology project in university, continued with a singing/accompanying relationship, and is evolving with a colleagial relationship in teaching. It has been a wonderful privilege to work together like this. Few couples get to have a relationship this intense that works. Not to say that it is always smooth sailing- we have conflicts for sure, but it is productive and enjoyable far more than it causes us frustration. It has been a source of deep gratitude for me for the past fourteen years.

It was an afternoon of feeling blessed to overflowing yesterday. But, there was a frustrating blip in the day to mar its perfection (isn't there always?).

I had bought LK a wool coat from Mark's Work Warehouse in Kenora for Christmas. I bought it a month before Christmas and paid close to the full amount for the coat (it was on the first set of markdown prices for seasonal wear). He tried it on at Christmas and it was okay, but when he went to wear it for the first time the zipper unzipped from the bottom as he zipped it up. Not the quality I am willing to live with for the price. So it was set aside to be returned after the holiday (once the company was gone and life settled back into a routine). I had made sure to get a gift receipt, just in case, and had carefully put it in a safe spot in my wallet. Unfortunately I chose the week before Christmas to clean out my wallet of all old receipts and the gift receipt went with all the others into the oblivion of the garbage.

It wasn't until this week when I was getting ready to return the coat that I realized my mistake. Fortunately the coat was the Mark's house brand and I figured that even if it was on sale a bit more, they would have the customer service to take back a broken coat that hasn't even been worn. I was willing to get whatever was the current sale price.

I was not prepared for sales clerk without problem solving skills and a complete lack of interest in keeping a customer coming back. When they scanned the coat it came up at a price of $19.99. Now, right away I thought that was a ridiculously low price for a wool coat whose original price was close to $200-. Did it raise red flags for the clerks? No. They were a bit flustered, but the computer is not to be questioned- that was the price. Never mind that it is only the beginning of January and seasonal wear doesn't get marked down 90% until well into February or even March. So I went and looked for another one of the same coat- there were two in other sizes. They both had price tags of $149-. I asked the clerks why this discrepancy? They figured that the coats were to go on sale for $19.99 shortly. I could either take a new coat ordered from another store that would hopefully not have a broken zipper, or take a lost of over 75% and get $20 back.

I was livid, to say the least.

So, I got the numbers of the corporate office, blah, blah. blah, and took my broken coat back out with me. It took a concerted effort to let go of the anger and frustration - what in the world happened to treating people with respect? Why do companies insist on making their customer feel like it is an affront to expect to get our money's worth from a product?

I did it though- I put the frustration aside for the rest of the afternoon, which was lovely.

Guess what showed up this morning in our cleaning? The receipt. So now I can go back and get my money back. I sure won't be shopping at Marks in Kenora again. Because in my opinion, their customer service sucks.