Thursday, November 30, 2006

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Monday, November 13, 2006

Friday, November 10, 2006

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Over the Mountain

Feeling a bit scammed today?

Hi Bruce,

I was so excited to receive this email today. I actually felt as if I had spent enough money at your store this year that maybe you were giving me a deal. After all my birthday is on Saturday and well, it was nice to feel special. Who doesn't want to feel special?

After work I rushed over to your store with my new minivan that I acquired just for buying over sized canvases. All day I dreamt of the right size canvas to buy to put the 40% discount coupon towards. After arriving at your store I quickly folded down all of the back seats of the van and tried to visualize the largest size canvas I could get in the van. I really felt special.

I quickly went into your store and directly to the canvas section. I sat in the back and eyeballed several sizes. It was a hard choice. I am preparing for a show in January and need a large canvas to sort of finish off the show. After I picked out the best size for the concept I've been mulling over, I approached the front desk. I put the canvas down against the counter and gave the employee my coupon. She told me without hesitation that the canvas was already on sale and that the coupon did not apply to already on sale items.

This was a bit upsetting to say the least. Well, I had to see what large canvas I could buy. There must be one. After going back to your canvas section. I realized that all of the large quality canvases were already marked down. That the only high quality canvas's that were not marked down were the most expensive ones, upwards of 125-150 dollars. I couldn't believe it. My whole day I had been visualizing this moment. After all the money I had spent at your store I had thought that just maybe, maybe I was getting a break. I mean really canvas's are extremely over priced, right?

Well that didn't deter me. I took the 36''x72'' canvas up to the counter. I decided to concede and buy it. By this time I felt a bit hoodwinked. But still needed a nice sized canvas to finish off the show. I approached the front desk and put another large canvas against the front counter once again, cost of 150 dollars. There was an older gentleman with a shaved head at the counter. He seemed like a reasonable fellow so I decided to talk to him.

I said that he could understand why it was a bummer that in order to use your coupon I had to by the most expensive canvas. He stated that all of the canvas 's were on sale because they were already at a great bargain price. I asked him if he bought canvas's. He said no. I informed him that they are extremely expensive and can easily bite into an artist's nonexistent budget. He seemed perturbed. He continued to check me out. I realized that his facial expression was not one of compassion for the artist. For the coupon that was made in order to make someone feel special, and in disguise was a scam.

I informed the sales clerk that I was not interested in buying the canvas. I took back my credit card in the middle of the process. As I started to exit the store I turned back and told the sales clerk one more thing. I told him that I could not believe that he could not agree with me that this was unreasonable to put the majority of the canvas's on sale in order to negate the coupon and force the buyer to consider buying a higher priced canvas than he would have not originally considered buying. He did look a bit alarmed at this moment, I must say, as he stated, "I was not arguing with you."

I just wanted you to know that I felt scammed. That your coupon took me from feeling like a special customer who deserved a break, to just another consumer who fell for a trick to get me in the store and to make more money. I will not buy from your store again and I will tell any artist's I know to stay away from your store. Not only because of the coupon, but because of the lack of compassion shown from your employees. It's sort of sad really. I've bought products from your store for 15 years now. I will order my products online, and definitely not from your new online store.

Good luck in your endeavours.

www.byronking.com.