I called the Carbondale store yesterday regarding getting my machine repaired. Spoke with someone who told me it would take about 6 weeks. i told him I would first try to call around and find some place that could do it quicker. I asked if I brought it in was there anything else I needed to do and he said no. I ended up driving over there-about a 30 mile round trip-because it was the closest and everyone else i called was running behind too. When I arrived the door was locked. I had to wait outside for 5 minutes or so in very high heat before someone let me in. Though I am one of the folks who actually does have a medical reason not to wear a mask i had one on because I had been told by someone who was treated very rudely there last week and ended up leaving the store because of it and purchasing a machine elsewhere. They still would not let me in until I had adjusted the mask to their satisfaction ( i had a procedure recently which cause a problem with the nerves on the side of my face and even lightly t touching it is painful When I entered the store I was told to put on hand sanitizer-which I had just done before I went in. The employee did not offer to take the sewing machine I was carrying, or indicate a place where I could set it or my purse down. By this time I was not only hot and a little short of breath from standing outside with the mask but the right side of my face was throbbing and I wanted to get the business done as quickly as possible. So if filled out the ticket. Then I was informed that the repair would be 75 buck and I had to pay the entire amount up front, and it would be at least 8 weeks not the six I had been told. I didn't have a checkbook or that much cash and said I had never run into that policy anywhere before and was not prepared, and did not agree with it, and would take the machine someplace else. I was admittedly upset and evidently it showed. There was no 'so sorry for the inconvenience" or "sorry for the misunderstanding" or "sorry we didn't tell you that before you came all the way over for nothing on this hot miserable day"; the response I got was just a very curt "that's the way we do it." I said I thought the policy was BS and another gentleman (I use the term loosely) immediate began to berate me as he opened the door for me to exit and actually stuck his head out as I was walking away and called me an "asshole". I was in tears by this time. I spoke with a few friends later in the day asking for other recommendations, and two of them reported similar experiences there and said they never have gone back. I thought about it overnight and decided to call and ask to speak with a manager this morning. Certainly if I were a retail store manager, especially in a region where businesses are struggling, ensuring polite and effective customer service would be paramount in my mind. When he came on the phone he introduced himself as Steve and when I began to relate my experience yesterday , before I even finished my first sentence he said he was the one who called me an "asshole", and launched into what amounted to a tirade justifying what happened, describing, among other things, how "awful" I was, how they do not want people "like" me in their store, etc. He was not the slightest bit interested in hearing what the experience was like from a customer standpoint. When I told him that in less than 24 hours I have already heard from other people they had very negative experiences as well and it is costing them business, he merely raised his voice and reiterated that I deserved no better treatment, that they didn't sell me my machine and are not "obligated" to me in an way. I said perhaps someone at a higher corporate level needed to made aware that customers are being lost because they are upset by the way they are being treated, at least at that location, and he said he is the owner and repeated I am not welcome in his store. Easy enough for me as I would never set foot there again anyway. I literally have never experienced anything like that in my entire life from any retailer anywhere and I am 65 years old. The only comfort is knowing that I am not the only one who has taken their business elsewhere because of it. read more
