the ocean

So I recently bought a new tuxedo at a national department store chain that will remain unnamed, but is generally reputed to have good customer service. And I'd had good experiences buying suits there before. But this time, something was off from the beginning. The sales guy asked me the same questions like three times and showed strangely little interest in showing me items that I might buy. But he did show me a tux I liked, so I bought it. He said that they would have to order the jacket in the style I liked and that, when it came in, he'd call me so we could figure out the alterations and pick out the shirt and tie I wanted to go with it.

"You'll get an email telling you it has come in, but wait for me to call you before you come to get it, because I want to help make sure everything is right," he said.

I got the email two days later. He did not call. Then I got another email telling me if I didn't pick the tux up the next day, they would cancel the order.

So I went in to pick it up. The sales guy was nowhere to be found and they tried to just hand me a box with an unfished tuxedo in it. I pointed out that the pants don't even come hemmed, so I would definitely need some alterations. They asked me if I knew the alterations would cost extra. No one had mentioned that before, of course, but I wasn't super put off by that. It was an extra service, so fine, it cost extra. The tailor made some measurements and they gave me a ticket telling me it was "promised 3/22/26," a week later.

The week went by and I didn't hear anything, so I headed back to the store this afternoon. When they scanned my receipt, they said "hmm," which I did not take to be a good sign. They asked me to take a seat while they checked on it, which I took to be an even worse sign.

Ten minutes later, a different clerk came to tell me the tux would not be ready until the next day. They were just really busy and needed more time to do it right. That is when I found myself hovering outside my body and I heard myself asking to see a manager.

Perhaps if I hadn't already had the previous bad experience, this wouldn't have happened. Perhaps if I hadn't just paid $33 for the privilege of parking so I could be told it wasn't ready and I'd have to come back the next day and do it all over again, for the fourth time on this particular transaction. Perhaps if I couldn't see literally dozens of people around me having what appeared to be the time of their lives getting the customer service this store is known for...

But I did see a manager, and they did get the alteration finished in 20 minutes flat, and the tux did look great, and they did comp both the alteration and my parking.

So yes, I feel like a complete monster, but the fact of the matter is monsters get shit done sometimes. And if I had been my normal pleasant, understanding self, I would have left without a tux and $33 dollars poorer. 

I understand I'm unlikely to be the subject of a ValueTale any time soon.