It was the morning of the 31st of December and I had a pretty fancy party lined up for my NYE. Being the resident procrastinator at my house, I realised I did not have anything to wear for the night. Lo and behold, I rushed to the nearest shopping mall to buy a dress. With a few hours to go before I had to be decked up for the event-of-the-year, I desperately scrounged the store floors for a smart fitted dress that will make me look like a functional adult for one evening.
Finally, I found a couple of stylish pieces and headed straight for the trial room to try them on. Let me remind you I was in a hurry, so I rushed my changes like my life depended on it. I finally found a pretty colour blocked number and headed to the checkout counter to claim my find. But out comes a staff member holding a dress I tried and shows me a small lipstick stain on the white inner lining of the collar. The dress was for 8,000 bucks and the staff member gave me the suggested look of “you better buy this, girl!”. Now the panic set in!
This is where I took a big breath, calmed my nerves and asked to speak to the floor manager. Having worked in retail before I know this about a shopping experience: you only have to buy a merchandise if you have torn or stretched it beyond repair. Everything else can be given a little leeway. I offered compensation that they might need to remove the stain, going to the lengths of doing it myself and bringing it back. But the floor manager, a tiny fella with too much power, wasn’t ready to give. I asked to see the store manager, they had another thing coming if they think I will shell up 8 grand because of a small stain on a dress that doesn’t even fit!
So, after waiting for over 35 minutes the store manager finally came out, with the little fella, and asked me to pay up for the dress. But being a good judge of character (most times) I understood that the store manager will listen to reason. I put my arguments forth:
1. It is a small stain that is easily removable and is on the INSIDE of the dress.
2. It’s too expensive, I would have easily bought something that was for 2,000 but 8,000 bucks? Hell no!
3. I will do anything other than paying up for the dress, even if they call the security on me. It just wasn’t fair to expect that from a customer.
Seeing that my discussion had attracted the attention of other shoppers who were gathering around to chip in, the store manager realised that it was too insignificant of a stain to create a fuss over on a busy Sunday. The staff finally saw to reason and let me be about the dress. I headed to the checkout counter in a quiet fashion, handed them the dress I actually wanted to buy and paid by cash, in very big bills (*wink*). I think it’s safe to say that the cashier was uncomfortable to say “Thank you and come back again” so I let the poor fellow breathe and just said “What a day, huh!”. And right there I had my own savage moment, didn’t know I had that in me!
P.S. It is a funny story now but I learnt my lesson that day and have vowed never to wear makeup while heading out to shop, EVER AGAIN!
