Erika and I stopped by Pandora at Valley Fair Mall this evening around 6PM. She wanted to have her bracelets and charms cleaned. We met with Brian who took the bracelets/charms and recorded how many bracelets/charms there were. He told us it would be ready in about 20 minutes, so we left to do some shopping.
After returning, he verified the count of the bracelets/charms he recorded with the actual number of bracelets and charms. The counts didn't match. We were short one charm compared to the count he wrote down initially. He counted several times, and tried to explain that he probably miscounted the first time.
Probably? You have got to be kidding me. How can you say probably miscounted when it's someone else's property you're dealing with. We weren't happy about this to say the least.
He soon called a manager over (Samantha). She counted the bracelets/charms and compared it to the count that was recorded initially. It didn't match again. At this point, she decided to question Brian's method of counting and criticized his method of doing so. She asked us if we had pictures of the bracelets/charms. We told her that we didn't, and she was very surprised. Apparently, everyone who buys Pandora bracelets/charms take pictures to document every single one. We weren't aware that it was standard operating procedure to do so! We told her that we didn't expect we would have to do so, since we trusted their store with OUR bracelets/charms. At this point, she asked us what we wanted to do.
We were understanding but pissed at how the situation was developing. I too interact with customers/clients in my line of work, and I have plenty of experience in how to handle a client when a situation goes awry. Asking the customer how they want the situation handled is not the best method. Her asking us this gave us the impression that she thought we were trying to get something out of this situation. She was right, we wanted to make sure that all OUR charms were accounted for.
We asked her what the usual procedure was in a case like this, and she didn't really seem to know. She excused herself to make a phone call (we're not sure if she really did or not). When she returned, she got some paper and a calculator to try to verify that OUR bracelets/charms matched with the initial count.
For those of you keeping track, Brian counted at least 3 times, and Samantha counted at least 2 times (before her call). The total is up to at least 5 counts before the call.
This brings us back to Samantha counting after the call. Armed with pen, paper, and calculator, Samantha counted at least 3 more times while trying to explain to us the possible error in the initial count.
POSSIBLE ERROR? No, just no. At this point, it was blatantly obvious that she was trying to throw numbers in our faces in an attempt to confuse us. It wasn't working. We saw past the smoke and mirrors. We explained to Samantha and Brian that the explanations being provided still doesn't prove without a doubt whether a charm is missing (or not).
Erika and I were beyond pissed at this point, and were trying hard to remain civil about this whole mess. How can a store with "professionals" make an error like this? Some of you might think, it's just one charm. It's not that expensive, and it can be replaced. True, we agree. How can the sentimental value of the charm be replaced though? Going past the value (monetary and sentimental), how can we ever trust this store again?
We realized that we were getting nowhere with the incompetence, and took our bracelets/charms. Samantha and Brian didn't have any solutions for us, other than that all the bracelets/charms "should" be accounted for. To them, should was good enough. For us, it definitely was not.
Before we left, we made sure to get employee ID numbers. We'll be contacting Pandora of North America regarding this situation.