Battles and non-battles

[firstfrost]

So, I stopped by Pearl on the way home to pick up a set of carvy tools for twe. Armed with my printout of the picture she specified, mjperson and I eventually found them on the second floor (Pearl has a second floor? Who knew?), hanging in a slot marked "List price: $7.00 Pearl price: $5.60". We trundled back down to the register, where it rang up for $7.83. Wasn't that $5.60, I ask? No, no, $7.83, he assures me.

So I leave mjperson to guard the carvy tools and go back up to check the price. Yup, it still says $5.60. I head back down to complain to the customer service desk. The woman there scans the carvy tools and says why, yes, they're $7.83, not $5.60. I say yes, I understand that, but it did say $5.60. She allows as how perhaps the $5.60 is incorrect. I try to clarify that I don't actually care about the two dollars (especially since it's not even my $2, and I have not been given a budget), but that I think it is perhaps misleading to have all these items under a sign saying $5.60. She still doesn't seem to see why I am causing such a fuss, and says she'll ask someone to take a look.

I give up and head back out into the rain. ("I was just settling in for the long haul" says mjperson, who thinks this is all a sneaky trick to get him rained on more).

I think I cared the wrong amount. I could have cared less, and not bothered fussing over it at all, or I could have cared more, and fussed until someone agreed to actually fix it (or gave me $2). Caring enough to fuss a little but not play to win seems... unsatisfying.

Comments

[mijven.livejournal.com]

I don't understand, they wouldn't go remove the sign? Sure, they're a cool enough store that I'd shop there even if they mismarked everything - but that's really disrespectful to not correct their own customer-confusing signs.

BTW, not sure if I knew they had a second floor.

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

Well, it was more that the person at the customer service desk - not so much wouldn't, as didn't seem to think she *could* go fix the sign. Maybe she doesn't know how to use the price-sign printing device. Maybe she wasn't allowed to leave her post. Maybe only managers and higher are allowed to do anything regarding money.

In any event, she had the same manner that I have when I tell a client "I'm sorry that this piece of software isn't working, and I'll bring it to the attention of the people who maintain that machine." I can't fix it, no matter how sympathetic I am. Well, I think I'm usually more sympathetic than she was, and more clear on the fact that I don't have the power to fix it myself, but it did seem like that.

[twe.livejournal.com]

They didn't always have a second floor; that's since you left the area. They're sort of cool, but they've gone down hill a bit - stuff often out of stock, help hard to find (I suppose the staff has always been a bit cavalier). Another art store opened up right across the street, on a basement level, and while their selection is not quite so vast, their prices are quite good in general, and the staff is a bit friendlier. I often hit them both when I make it over there before closing. :)