Arc Attic Treasures used to be one of my favorite thrift stores in the Fargo-Moorhead area. But after my experience with the store's staff on Saturday, I will never shop there again.
My boyfriend and I were excited to find a nice armchair at the store. We wanted to make sure no one else snagged it while we shopped, so we went to the register to ask if the staff could hold it for us at the counter or put a note on it explaining that it was taken. The woman at the register was curt with us when we made our request, saying, "No. We don't do that here." OK, we said, we'll buy it now, take it to the car and then come back and continue to shop. Once outside, we tried to get the chair into the car, but it simply wouldn't fit. Feeling disappointed but having no other option, we went back inside to ask if they'd be able to refund our money. Here's where things went downhill fast.
We approached the same cashier and asked if we could return the chair since it wouldn't fit in the car. "No. We don't do that here," she said snidely. We asked if the store would be able to make an exception, since we'd literally bought the chair minutes before, but she continued say no in a harsh manner. Then the manager got involved. Both the cashier and the manager continued to be aggressive in their approach, beginning to yell and say we were causing a scene in their store. The manager finally said, "You can leave the chair here and pick it up tomorrow" (we'd been expecting them to say this all along) and started filling out a hold form. At this point, my boyfriend calmly said, "I just want to say that we feel we're having a poor customer service experience right now." At that, the manager started shrieking and began pointing her finger right in my boyfriend's face, saying, "You will NOT come into this store again!" Then she says she's going to give us our money back, just so we get out of the store. The cashier pipes up, saying, "They don't DESERVE to get their money back." (I'm just totally shocked at this point.)
The manager then tells us we WON'T get our money back and that we WON'T be leaving the chair overnight, going back on things she had just said she'd do. She then walks out from behind the cash wrap, screaming at us to get out of her store. She even threatens to CALL THE POLICE on us, and FOREVER BANS US from Arc Attic Treasures. As if we'd ever go back. She then opens the door and motions for us to leave the store, yelling, "Get out!" repeatedly while blocking the exit at the same time. We managed to get out of there, though she got much too close to us on the way out.
Regardless of what the store's policy on returns is, there is NO EXCUSE to treat customers with such hostility, disdain, anger and inflexibility. If an exception really can't be made, that's fine, but the staff should approach such a situation with a helpful attitude. A simple, "I'm sorry, we really don't allow exchanges. But what we can do to help is ..." would have made the day turn out entirely different.
For a charity, this place is a joke. read more