In terms of what this store is trying to do clothing-wise, my hats go off to them. Organic, local, sustainable and sold in a way where all of the employees from the sales folks to the people making them are paid a reasonable salary. Building more business models out there that are designed to benifit all in a company verses just those at the top is something the world needs more of.
Where they fell short for me is in an area where I am trying to make an impact on one of the economic disfunctions of business these days. I will say straight up that my gripe is 100% because I failed to read their return policy...you know the very small micro printed sign that if you a friendly/ outgoing guy like myself and are actually more focused on engauging the assoiciate you don't always think to look at.
One of Spiritex policy's is to not issue cash refunds.
One of the things I am trying to do these days is pay small small businesses /owners in cash. So many of us are used to reaching for the credit card every time we purchase something, not thinking about the fact that a percentage of that sell is then being taken out of the owners/business pocket and placed into "big bank"'s. When you think about the amount of money that is generated off of taking 3-4% off of every sale at every business in everyday that is a substaintial amount of money. This in addition to all of the money that is made off of the millions of customers out there that have put themselves in debit and are paying them interest. But I digress...
Basically I had this same conversation with the sales associate as I was shopping and when it came time to purchase I could have totally used my credit card for the $120 purchase, but instead left the store...went out of my way to get cash and then came back and purchased the items without their policy of no cash refunds being pointed out to me.
When I got home I realized that one of the shirts was 50% poloyester and 50% cotton. I had told the associate up front the reason I was there was because I was allergic to poloyester and she had pointed me to a selection of clothes that she indicated were 100% organic cotton.
So less then 24 hours later there I am trying to get a refund for my purchase. They would not give me my cash back. Store credit was all they would offer me.
So in review. If I would have used a credit card...I would have gotten all of my money back by way of them putting it back on my card, but by using cash the basically took my $120 and put it in their pocket ( store credit is not a refund...they still have your money and you then have zero freedom in where you want to invest/spend that money) even though I was doing something in the "spirit" of trying to help them out.
I will say that after waiting 3 days and burning up a lot more energy with the manager I was finally offered that they could mail me a check, but I was just in Asheville for a short time and and didn't have a local bank or address where they could send it. Was going to be more hassel than it was worth.
My two star rating is for:
1. Allowing me to purchase something I was allergic to and not offering me a no hassel return of my cash.
2. Not making sure the no cash refund policy was pointed out to me when I clearly was doing it to help their business out. If I would have been made aware of the policy I would not have used cash.
It is sad this company rewards those who use forms of payment that cost them money and restricts the freedom of those who are trying to increase their bottom-line. read more
