I had a romantic notion of supporting a small, local business. At ChrisElli, romance is dead.
Absolutely, I was responsible for reading that giant block of text on the sign at the counter. Instead I just read the heading, 'Extended Christmas Returns Policy.' Ah--good, if my friend doesn't like her new watch, I can return it.
She didn't like it, and when I went to return it, ChrisElli drew me into a maddening debate about the meaning of 'return.' You can indeed return an item--for something else, or a credit note. (To the rest of the world this is called an 'exchange.') The bottom line is ChrisElli doesn't have a return policy, it has a no-refunds policy.
I can't say whether they were being manipulative or just clumsy in their wording. And again, it was down to me to read the small print.
What really matters here is in that the age of Amazon, a shop on a street needs to be competitive. It needs to go that extra mile for customers, building a good and trusting relationship over time. Desperately holding onto the customer's note after a sale is simply poor, disrespectful customer relations. If ChrisElli wanted to be competitive, it would take a look at all the places in Brighton that have similar stock and offer customers the courtesy of a refund.
There are good small storefront businesses, and they're harmed by shops like ChrisElli that convince me I'm safer with giant corporate online vendors that have a straight-up refund policies and, often, lower prices. The only unique thing I found at ChrisElli was an infuriating semantic debate. read more