...and then I found $5.

On Sunday morning, there was a 49% off coupon in my email for World Market. It was valid for regular-priced items only. I made a special trip to the store to take advantage of the offer.

After milling around for 30 minutes or so, I finally found this clock that I thought would look great in our living/dining area. The sign next to it said “Aliza Filigree Clock - $99.99”. No red SALE sign. I checked the sticker on the back to see if that was full price, and sure enough it was. 

I grabbed the clock and headed to the (really, really long) line where I waited at least 15 minutes to check out. 

When it was finally my turn, the clock rung up as $79.99—obviously on sale—which would have made me very happy any other day, but now I couldn’t use the coupon. I told the girl that the sign showed the full price of $99.99 and that there was no sale sign nearby indicating a discount on that item. She stared at me blankly… so I pointed to where I found the clock, insinuating maybe she should go take a look so she could see what I was talking about. It wasn’t with all of the other clocks, but apparently all clocks were on sale. Not that I should have known that or anything.

She asked me if I still wanted it. I gave her a (probably not-so-nice) look and said no. I told her that the employees needed to do a better job at making sure the correct signage was put up and semi-stormed out of the store. I had wasted nearly an hour in that store, with nothing to show for it.

Of course, I wrote them an email. Not asking for a discount, just letting them know my experience. I worked retail all of my teenage and early 20 years, so I know everything they did wrong and what they should have done in the situation (took a look at the sign in question, told me I was right, and manually discounted the item). The GM of the store responded to me and said he’d like to offer me the clock at the price I thought I was going to pay for it. So now, I’ll make (another) special trip back to World Market and take him up on the offer.

Thanks, World Market. That’s how customer service should be.