One star. And that's only because I can't give zero.
A worse ran business is hard to imagine, and when you voice this to the owner he doesn't try to get better but gives lame excuses that actually just proves his ignorance.
Here's the story. We bought a condo in CH last year, our lovely broker gave us a $100 gift certificate as a move in gift. Nice no? And yes, you guessed it, it was at this lovely little local shop, which I try to support with business in general as it helps the neighborhood thrive.
So, we set up an appointment (1st week of May) so he can see the space in order to do a suggestion/design of improvements. Ho drops by, we talk about things that can be done, colors we like and dislike. he makes some general comments ""light here, plant there"" you get the gist. A chat. For ahh.. I'd say.. 40-45 minutes. (fyi, I love my patio and had a budget of $1000 in my head, I mention this only so he knows what he missed when he reads this). Needless to say I was excited to get this work done for the summer.
He did apologize that it would take him 10 days to send us the suggestions/design as he was very busy. I felt 10 days is reasonable, beginning of the season and all. What then follows is silence, ignorance and utter bs.
Time passes, we call, e-mail.. walk in the store.. you know, what customers do when they get ignored. We chat to the girl working there and she apologizes and promises to make sure he gets back to us. At this point as simple 'no go away' is better than nothing as we could have then gone somewhere else and got it done. (I don't want to blame anything on the girl working there, she is not to blame, just to be clear). But we get.. you guessed it..nothing.
As the summer now is officially over we decided to get back one last time and if not get the design we were promised then at least get some nice stuff for the patio, we thought. As we argued this point of view, that we are somewhat disappointed, we got the 'talk to the hand' approach.
He has the balls (well..) to just say sorry, but the hour (yeah right) I spent at you place was all you get for that $100. So FU. Bye.
To be fair, he used better language. Here it is.
""I apologize that I have not gotten back to you till now. You were given a certificate that was for a one hour consultation. I came there for an hour and gave you a consultation. I said I would come up with a design and I am sorry that I didn't but I was not obligated by the consultation fee to do so. I had a extremely busy summer and could not take on any more than I was already doing. I apologize that you are disappointed but as of now I am booked for the rest of the season and will not be able to help you with the garden. I didn't mean to string you along but I thought I could help but could not.
To be clear, you are not entitled to a refund or any merchandise from the the store.""
This is after 4 and a half months!!
So, you be the judge people. My advise? Walk on by.
(Sorry this is long but I'm pissed!)
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