Hoppo Bumpo (n): A children's game. Played by folding one's arms and hopping on one leg. Aim is to bump opponents, so that they lose their balance. Last person standing wins.


August 29, 2010

Holey bargain tables, Batman



Picture this: I'm at the counter in the fabric store. I've located a knit on the "bargain table". Its perfect for the the yoga pants I want to make. The sales assistant is busy unfurling 2 metres of fabric.

Me: Um, there appears to be a hole.
Sales assistant: Yep, you're right ... its quite big

We are both peering at the significant tear and extending run.

Me: Oh - its plum in the middle of where I'd be placing a pattern piece.
Sales assistant: I'm not cutting it off and starting again. You can't complain - its a bargain. Do you want it or not?

What should one do in these circumstances?
  1. Mutter something about a golf course having less holes and leave in a fit of pique.
  2. Take the fabric. Make a costume. Tell people you are dressing as Rip Torn.
  3. Suck it up baby. Just buy extra fabric and work around the flaw.
  4. Buy the fabric. Make the yoga pants. Rehearse: "sorry about that gapey bit at the back which does nothing for my modesty, but the fabric was such a bargain."

34 comments:

  1. She seriously told you that?? Definitely not the way to be helpful or get you to come back and spend more money.

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  2. Well, i certainly would cut off the piece and start again. Come to Tessuti next time ;)

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  3. Bollocks to that! Of course you don't have to take the piece with the hole in it, and yes, she should cut you another piece. The bargain price is still 'per meter of un-holey fabric', not contingent on you taking the damaged bit.
    Grrr. SpotLinLightCraft chicks make me grind my teeth. (Making big assumption there, aren't I?!)

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  4. at my SL they would throw that in for free. Not good enough I reckon.

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  5. NO! I have a thing with customer service..BAD customer service, cannot stand it.
    they should through it in for free or say no thank you!

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  6. 5. Ask to speak to the manager.
    That is awful service.
    So just what did you do? Huh, huh, huh?

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  7. I can't imagine a sales person not offering to either cut off the holey bit and start again, or throw in that bit for free. Was this regular weekday staff or some teenage weekender?

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  8. She should have given you the length before the hole for free and then started measuring again. What a cow!

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  9. That's just incredible! You should name and shame.
    And I would have told her just where she could stick it!

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  10. "you *can't* complain" really? She has managed to get the law changed to prevent it has she. Well go her.

    Ditto all of the above.

    Since there is pictorial evidence of the hole I'm assuming some portion of it made it's way home with you. Hope you told her off!

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  11. I hope you didn't buy it. I wonder how the hole got there in the first place, maybe you're better off without it.

    I've recently encountered this very same sub-standard customer service myself. Not good enough!

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  12. Did you say "fine, but I guess you are giving me the first bit for free"? They don't really charge you for the defective piece where you live do they?

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  13. I would go with
    5. Walk away, quickly. Never go back again. Tell all your friends where this happened.

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  14. I don't know what you SHOULD have done, but I would have bought extra then, on the way home, thought of all the things I SHOULD have said. And that's the sad truth. It's hard to be on the front foot and ready for shoddy service all the time - I usually generally hope it'll all be fine. But the number of times I've arrived home from Spotlight (the other side of town) and found an error on the docket is ridiculous. Once I did drive back to be refunded $5, and at the same time bought some wool... which I hung on the pram handle and forgot to pay for. And yes, when I realised, I went back and paid for that too. It's a curse.

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  15. Oh dear !!! I see the photo which would suggest that you bought it. Unless of course you took the photo in the shop as evidence to support your complaint letter.
    How about citing section 27, clause 4b of the Trading Standards stating that all goods must be fit for purpose. Since your purpose was not to expose yourself then you would be well within your rights.
    It's all talk though.. I would have just gone home without the fabric and moaned to everyone about how rude the assistant was. I think we mentioned assertiveness training once before. How is yours coming on ?

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  16. Julie Andrea DrevinskisAugust 30, 2010 at 1:39 AM

    Options .. cut it from the other end, making her unfold the entire bolt?! hee hee .. or look for another salesclerk, or a manager .. or make her life a living misery by humming and hawwing, pretending to lay the pattern pieces out on the defective fabric, measuring your leg length, holding the fabric up to your waist, wrapping it around your waist, measuring again, etc. hee hee .. so, what did you do?

    Julie Andrea

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  17. She refused to cut it off and start again? It was 2m. Not like you ordered 9m and found the hole 8m in - which she still should have cut off and started again. Please tell us what you did!

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  18. Ah, well the photo tells it all I think - I took a bit extra!!

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  19. Nothing pisses me off more than rude sales assistants. the nerve really.
    But then again, I'm not very good at confrontation, I think I would have taken the extra too. xo

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  20. I can't believe she said that to you! That's outrageous - I really would ask to speak to the manager, that's unacceptable - AND why bother working in customer service if you're going to be so rude. Meh!

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  21. I would have taken the bit extra. I'm awful with confrontation and sticking up for myself!

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  22. I would have spoken to the manager not only about the hole in the fabric but also about the attitude of the sales clerk.

    They should have given that bit for free.

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  23. Whatever happened to 'the customer is always right!!!!'

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  24. I always think of the perfect thing to say in these situations after the fact!

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  25. Agh, cheeky little thing...I would have just taken extra I think. Not much good at confontation - just end up getting tongue tied and sounding really silly!

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  26. I'm another who would have been thinking all the 'right' things to say in my head - but like you, would have bought the extra required...

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  27. Oh my....What an attitude!
    I am constantly appalled by the service industry these days...I don't know if it's cause I'm getting older and nastier or if I just damn well know, that I have been in retail for 20 years and I would NEVER talk to someone like that....rude...rude...rude...
    I hope your pants turn out fabulous and non holey ( :

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  28. Name and shame dude, name and shame.

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  29. If she didn't agree to cut it off and start again I would have left it, then written a bitchy email once I got home :)

    Something similar happened to me at Lincraft Parramatta (quite happy to name and shame!) the white homespun I was buying had a huge black smudge right down the middle. The chick cutting wouldn't start again (I was ordering 2m for the back of a quilt) as she said it would probably wash out. Maybe it would have done, but there was no guarantee of it. She wouldn't start a fresh cut, so I told her I'd buy it somewhere else. I'm snotty like that :)

    On a better note, at Spotlight Port Macquarie a few weeks ago, I noticed a flaw in the print of a flannellete (ink smudges and where it had been folded as it was being printed so the creases remained white), it was only near the edge, the lady cutting for me gave me about the metre that was affected for free.

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  30. I would have asked if that was her policy or the stores. Then I would go home and make an email complaint! In person confrontation is a real tuffy for most people but at least if we email we get to vent our anger and probably at someone who may give a rats that we care about good customer service.
    I really like to idea of making her cut from the other end tho - would love to see her face at that request LOL
    I was in Dick Smith yesterday and when told by the "friendly customer service expert" that he did not know the answer to my question, I asked if any of the other staff might know, he then said "Dunno you would have to ask them". What the???
    I walked out without spending the planned $200. And yes I am going to email my complaint.
    Bad customer service has really raised my ire and I am about to join the ranks of the indignant letter writer.
    Wish me luck
    Lush
    Sydney, Australia

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  31. That kind of stuff is annoying but perhaps you got her at a weak moment when all she really wanted to be doing was to be taking a nice hot bath & never thinking about cutting fabric again. That's what I like to believe anyway because most of the time service folk in fabric stores are trying to be friendly whilst being ridiculously busy & under-staffed! Can we see these yoga pants (hole or no hole)

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  32. Aargh. My local SL seems to be trying to cut to the exact mm you ask for - then by the time they get to the other side of the fabric it's less. Stingy bastards. Whatever happened to cutting with a bit of leeway. And you have to be on the ball cos if they'res a sample missing from one end they just ignore that. I hate SL. Unfortunately we don't have much choice here and I had an accident with $100 worth of fabric the other day.

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  33. Everyone is such a keyboard warrior, have you ever worked retail where the stores are understaffed, customers are rude and needy and seem to be in capable of even walking down a single aisle on their own. The sales assistant doesn't get to just stand there and serve they have to do a million things in the store and if they spend all their time on customers, nothing would get done in which you would all be on here jumping up and down about tidyness and stock being on the shelf. So....Before you ask a sales assistant for help: Do you really need help, or are you just being lazy.

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