What Happened to Customer Service?

I am all for small businesses! I am a resident in Temple Terrace and have been a loyal customer of Comfy Kids Consignment shop for nearly four years now. I mainly consign and purchase clothes for my children at the shop. However, this Christmas I really wanted to buy my daughter a karaoke machine for Christmas so I was thrilled to see that Comfy Kids had one!

My daughter has autism and music and singing is her favorite thing to do so I thought this Christmas gift would be perfect. I purchased the Karaoke machine on a busy Saturday morning the cashier I hadn't seen before so I assume she may have been new and there were a few others in line behind me. I wanted to test and open the box right there to make sure everything checked out okay but with the crowd of people and time I took faith in their little 'Inspected by' sticker and went on my merry way. I came home and stored it away in a closet along with other gifts I had purchased for my children for Christmas.

So here I am the Friday before Christmas and I decided to get wrapping done. I start pulling out all the gifts to wrap them and something told me to check the Karoke machine out. THANKFULLY I did. If my daughter would have seen what I saw on Christmas morning I think we both would have been in tears and mortified. The machine had a crack on the top corner near the screen, the whole system was cracked open, upon plugging it in the CD player part doesn't even open! I was astounded at the condition of this thing! I immediately called Comfy Kids and the associate on the phone was nice and took my information and told me to come in Saturday morning and speak with the Manager. The associate also told me that they had another machine for the same price I paid and that she would put that on hold for a possible exchange.  I was at the store shortly after it opened at 10 AM only to be told to come back at 1 when the manager would be in. The cashier mentioned she would try calling the manager on the phone so we could possibly get this settled while I was there. She goes behind the curtain they have and comes back to tell me that the manager has said no refunds or exchanges. The manager hadn't seen the condition of this machine and I find it disheartening that there in plain view there is another karaoke machine for the same price that could have been easily exchanged. I left a note for the manager explaining my disbelief in this situation and at the time of this writing have still not received a call from her.

I find it sad that customer service has taken a back seat in society. I would expect something like this from huge chain stores that have millions of customers nationally, globally and could care less. However, for a considered 'small business' whose loyal customers are local families I find it sad that this is how we are treated for our patronage. I also find it sad that this has happened around Christmas time. Not so much that it is an inconvenience for me to now have to go back out and find another one to purchase and say goodbye to the money I wasted on this machine but it is even more disheartening to me that if I had not checked it and went on my good faith of 'inspected by' sticker they place on their merchandise I would have had a young girl disappointed and questioning why Santa would give her something like this! It is sickening and I am a ball of emotions about this.

I wanted to share this story so that other families are well aware and are cautioned to check, inspect, and do what you have to do. I don't want anyone else treated like this by this store! They have lost a loyal customer and consigner over this and have shown how they truly care about their customers and quality of product they are putting out.

With this post you will see pictures of what I pulled out of the box!