So Annoyed I Can't See Straight
And I’m not even the one who partook of their services.
My wife just called. She had an appointment with the local shop of a nationally known optical brand, to see about getting contact lenses—because she’s tired of glasses. She went to this particular place because she had a coupon with the brand’s name on it, and when she set up the appointment she told them she had a coupon. The person she spoke to on the phone asked no questions.
So today Chris goes to her appointment, and afterward when she goes to pay, then they inform her that they won’t honor the coupon. Seems this location is a franchise, not corporate-owned, and allegedly the coupon only applies to locations owned by the brand itself.
Again, she told them when she set up the appointment that she had a coupon, and no questions were asked. From what she has told me there was no apparent good-faith effort made at the office to inform would-be customers that the coupon would not be honored. My wife is out a chunk of money she would not have spent at this place at this time had she not had this coupon, and had she known the coupon would not be honored she would not have made the appointment. Whether she would have kept the appointment had she arrived at the office and seen a sign disavowing the coupon, is a moot question. There was no such information provided until it was too late for her to make such a decision.
We’re not sure what all we’re going to do about this just yet, beyond avoiding that franchise in the future. How corporate HQ responds to our complaint will determine whether we will ever do business with their brand again. We’re exploring our options for redress of the financial damage, considering what is arguably a bait-and-switch type of attitude (the people at the franchise admit they were aware of these coupons before my wife arrived for her appointment—and, I repeat, she told them before she came in that she had one—yet as stated they did not make any effort to disavow her coupon until it was time to pay). Chris wants, at the very least, to cost them more than they think they gained from the transaction.
You know, 99.999% of the businesses we deal with are honest and conscientious, and go out of their way to make sure that paying customers are satisfied customers. Around here that even goes for the electric utility and the cable company.
So it really leaves me shaking my head to see a business that nobody has to deal with, doing stupid things like this to people who could, if treated right, become loyal members of their clientele.
People like that shouldn’t be in business. Should be put out of business and sent skulking back to wage-slave land.