It's tough being a consumer today. I have had two shopping experiences lately that left me disillusioned and frustrated.

Emotional Immaturity

When we went shopping for a winter coat for my 13 year-old son we went to his favorite 'athletic' store. I was wondering why he wanted to go to an 'athletic' store for a winter coat but I went anyways. We get to the store and as soon as we walk in the clerk starts walking to the back of the store where she disappears - without greeting us.

Undeterred, we walked through the store looking at coats. Three different people walked past us, two looked at us, neither said a word. As I struggled finding the right size, and pulling the coats down from a rack over my head, almost out of reach - some jackets fell on my head.

I looked up and caught the eye of a clerk who had passed by me for a fourth time. She finally got the guts to walk over and asked, "Can I help you?" I said, "I could have used your help about five minutes ago!" and she started crying.

She walked to the cash desk in tears and two other clerks give her a hug and glare over at me. Dumbfounded, I said "What!?" and then this young 20 something lad walks over to confront me and says "You made her cry! You should apologize."

I'm thinking to myself is this kid gonna hit me? He turns and leaves as I state, "I already did?!"

This is going to continue to be a problem for employers due to the lack of skilled, experienced workers and as consumers I guess we need to be prepared to deal with emotionally immature clerks.

Arrogance

We have been shopping for hardwood floors as we are expecting to host Christmas this year for our families and it has been a long time since we did anything to upgrade our living space.

We narrow down our selection to two different hardwood suppliers/installers. Our first choice was the highest price and had a superior product. As I am discussing the quote with the 'representative' I asked her "why are your payment terms are so different than your competitors?" and she says "They aren't."

I proceeded to explain to her that we had prices from other companies that asked for 25% with the balance on completion. Whereas, they ask for 25% with 75% of the balance due when the hardwood is delivered with the balance due on completion.

She continues to argue with me and I ask her to split her quote down so I can do an apple-to-apple comparison and to speak to her boss about the payment terms.

An hour later, I get a fax from them stating that they do not want to do business with us as there seems to be a 'lack of trust'. I'm thinking, "Damn right." I could not believe the arrogance - they could not come up with a good reason why I should pay 80% before they do any work. The lousy sales rep said things like, "If you have a fire and the hardwood is destroyed our insurance does not cover that and neither would your homeowners insurance."

I proceeded to explain to her that her competitors carry a rider that covers for those contingencies and she could not explain herself only to say, "I do not know what to tell you."

I am dumfounded with the action of a company that would not openly discuss their payment terms on a large purchase and just state, "Our payment terms are not negotiable." From my perspective this company has cash flow problems and are solving their issue on the backs of their customers. Good luck to them.

Makes me want to scream!