A couple of days ago I went into the River Lodge to replace the dichroic necklaces that had been sold over the past couple of months, and to swap out the remaining pieces with new ones.
The holidays are coming up, and it’s always a good idea when you have things on consignment to notice what seems to be selling and give your customers more of what they appear to prefer. A couple of pieces had been in there for several months, so I decided to rearrange things and bring in some fresh designs.
When I’ve gone there in the past they have always seemed friendly and happy to have me checking in. This day, however, was different.
After explaining why I was there and making sure it was okay to take care of my business at that time, I went across the lobby to their gift shop. While I was cleaning the pieces and setting up the new display, I mentioned to the woman who was there that it appeared one of my necklaces was missing and unaccounted for, and could she verify that I had actually been paid for it since although they showed I had, I did not have a record of having received a check for this particular piece.
This caused her to say (not verbatim, but pretty darn close) that she would check, but maybe it would be better for me not to have my things there since I had such a small number of items and looking these things up was too much trouble (!) for her.
Well, it’s true, I did only have 6 necklaces there, because that’s the number they told me they would take.
When I said I could understand she would consider it a small issue, but that this was my time, effort and materials we were talking about, she proceeded with a litany of complaints to me about things that were not included in the agreement, and that no one over the past year and a half had ever even mentioned.
Well, it certainly took me by surprise! When she repeated again what a bother it was, I decided she was right – it was too much bother for me to deal with someone with this kind of attitude. So I pulled my items out of there.
It’s always smart to remember who your customers are and to think about how you treat them. As a vendor I am also a customer of the business. At least I used to be. I can’t imagine ragging on one of my suppliers, especially one who is making me money. I would certainly never intentionially imply anyone who was providing me with passive income was a pain in the a$$.
The funny thing is that as I walked out, it really felt like the right thing to do. And it felt very freeing for some reason. Maybe that’s because if they thought it was alright to stiff me for the $25 for my necklace, then obviously they weren’t trustworthy enough for me to do business with.
P.S. (Additional note on 11/14/08) I was recounting this experience to my husband over the Veteran’s Day Weekend, and he asked me if I thought she was being defensive because she was wrong. I hadn’t thought about the woman purposely trying to deceive me, but her behavior was certainly strange – as though she was trying to divert me from my original request. Anyway a day after my discussion with him I received a check in the mail for the necklace I had noticed was missing. Coincidence? Perhaps. I am prepared to believe that their accounting had not yet caught up with their check-writing.
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