10.17.02
I blew out the soles on my favorite pair shoes. Because I wear both shoes pretty much evenly, both managed to blow out at the same time.
It's like the sandals this summer -- I was walking along when the heel of one split, making a little farting noise with each step. Not even ten steps later, the other one split too, and I had to walk home with my shoes going, "pfft... pfft. pfft... pfft. pfft... pfft." the whole way.
I am inordinately fond of last year's Nine West Cloud 9 Odyssey half-boot.
And I'm sure you can guess their recent fate.
Figuring that since they were an old style, and Younkers didn't have any new Cloud 9's, I decided to search the internet for cheap discontinued pairs.
Urm, I suppose that when a shoe retails for $99, a pair selling for $59 is a really good discount. However, I think I paid less than $40 for mine, thanks to double associate discount day last year, and a concurrent shoe sale to boot. $59 is an unacceptable price for last year's shoes.
I then got it in my head that maybe one of the other Younkers stores might have the shoes in stock somewhere, as lots of them maintain much larger amounts of back stock than we have the room for in our diminutive store.
So, since today was another double associate discount day, yesterday I asked Brianna to help me out.
She gladly complied with my wishes, and after some searching and searching, she discovered on the computer that Valley West (Des Moines) had THREE pairs of Nine West Cloud 9 Odyssey half-boots in my size, and that since they were an old style, they were selling for $14.99 a pair.
I told her that I would take all three, if she could only arrange to have Valley West presale them for today's discount, and have them shipped to me.
She told me that it shouldn't be a problem, and called the other store. When the shoe person on the other end of the phone answered, Brianna explained what we needed, and was asked by the other person to please hold. After a couple of minutes, Brianna turned to me and said, "I would swear to God that this girl is having a personal conversation!"
A couple of minutes later, the girl -- who we'll refer to as "VWgirl" from now on -- got back on the line and asked Brianna what she wanted again, which was concisely repeated to VWgirl.
After two or three more minutes of waiting, VWgirl got back on the line and told Brianna that she'd looked in the stock room and that the shoes weren't back there.
And Brianna explained to her again that they were last season's shoes, and should be where ever they kept discounted shoes. She also told the girl that I was more than happy to take all three pairs in my size.
At about this time, I had to leave to catch my ride, so I didn't get the rest of the story until the next day, which is today.
Today, I stop by the shoe department to see if Brianna left me a note or anything about the status of the shoes. It isn't like I'd die if I didn't get to apply an additional 20% off to their tiny price tag, but the savings would most certainly be nice.
And no one knew anything about it. The shoe manager, Jennifer, listened to my explanation of the previous day's events, and said that she would call Valley West again on my behalf, and get it all straightened out.
Several hours later, Jennifer called to tell me that she'd apparently got VWgirl on the line, had gone through exactly the same rigmarole, only to be told by VWgirl, "Like I told the girl that called yesterday, we keep our old stock on the dock. Those shoes are in a box on the dock somewhere, but I don't know exactly where."
Now, let me pause to remind you that Younkers prides itself on adhering to the four cornerstones of their mission statement: quality, service, integrity, and style.
Let me also remind you that VWgirl had no idea that I was a store associate. To her, I was just another customer that needed assistance. Lots of times, associates don't get the same quality of help that the regular customers do, which is stupid but loosely tolerated. I am just as important a consumer as Miss Sissy Shoe Shopper, even if VWgirl doesn't think so, which she doesn't even know that I am not in the first place.
The shoes were not found, rung up today, and sent to my person.
Why?
Because apparently it was too difficult for VWgirl to have either told someone that the shoes needed to be found, or to have done it herself. They had roughly 22 hours to scamper on down to the dock, dig through boxes, and scamper back on out to a register with my three pairs of shoes. Failure to do so not only angers me, but doesn't really seem to uphold the quality, service, or integrity pillars upon which the Younkersian faith is based. More than anything, it seems to me to be shitty ass customer service, worthy of being pointed out to a higher up in the store hierarchy.
Jennifer promised me after she told me what VWgirl had said that she would contact the district shoe manager and see what could be done about this. But of course, Jennifer isn't notoriously reliable, in a non-flaky capacity of being.
More likely, I will call the Valley West store manager, or assistant store manager, and see what can be done about this whole thing, because I think that at least one of them should be made aware of the terrible treatment of customers by their associates staffing the shoe department. And I would also add that if I didn't work here and thusly get a fantastic discount, I would probably no longer be shopping for merchandise from this company.
What's in your head?