John Fahle
I've been noticing a trend lately that I call the reverse warranty, where the seller promises that you can have your money back only if the product or service performs as intended. It happened to me twice today but these are not the only examples. First was a FB video in which a trainer promised that he could get you ripped in 60 days, and that he would do it for free. Being a man of a certain girth, I clicked. But upon reading the fine print, you have to put down a deposit (i didn't bother to find out how much) which you only get back if you lose 20 pounds within sixty days, or gain 5% lean mass. I'm going to start a program where you give me $100 and I tell you to record yourself sitting on the couch eating potato chips 20 hours a day for 60 days. If you lose 20 pounds, you get your money back. Second was a Kong chew toy I bought for Old Yeller at Petsbarn. It looked plenty tough, but I promise you it took her less than 15 minutes to gut it. I immediately took it back to the store. I hadn't been gone a half hour. They took one look at it and said, "Yeah, we can't take that back. It's all chewed up." I said, "Yeah I know, that's the reason i want to return it. It didn't last 15 minutes." They would not relent. Apparently in these tough economic times they can afford to throw away customers who spend the kind of money i do on pet supplies. Over a $13 piece of trash toy. Hell, i spent $90 on other items that trip. The toy was an afterthought. If it's my business, I take the toy back and settle up with Kong. But maybe I should try the reverse warranty in my law firm. Like, "No fee unless we lose your case." EDIT AND CHANGE OF RATING: within a week of posting this review, one of the owners of this small family-owned chain called me and apologized profusely. He asked me if I still had the receipt and when I told him I did not, he said it was no problem. He asked me which store was closest to me, and said that he would call that store and leave instructions that when I show up, I will get store credit or a full refund for the price of the toy. With this level of responsiveness, together with the excellent selection and the customizable proprietary dog food brand that they customize in store while you wait, I have to up my original rating from a 2 star to a 4 star. I should note that the owner did not ask me to change my review. The only reason I don't make it 5 stars is the obvious issue of training. I did not just take my initial complaint to the cashier, but also spoke to the manager on duty (though I got the impression he was not the store manager, but more of a shift supervisor. Still, he refused to escalate the complaint to anyone of higher authority). I should not have had to write a bad Google review to get the attention of someone who could fix this, and that's an obvious training problem. I know it's hard to get staff nowadays, but once you get them you need to train them that 1. Reputation is more important than inventory and 2. If you don't feel like you have the authority to fix it, call somebody who does. That said, thank you for the ultimate resolution of my complaint. I still haven't claimed that store credit. But it wasn't really about the $13. It was about being heard, which you did spectacularly well.
