let me tell you a story about online childrens boutiques and the drama they cause people when all we want is just to buy a simple item for our kids. doug and i decided that we wanted to buy this cute little bike for alex for his birthday (in october, but i wholeheartedly believe in being prepared!) that starts as a three wheeler and then turns into a balance bike as you remove one of the back wheels. the idea is that kids will never need their training wheels as they should have already mastered the balance, you just add pedals.
so. i went to order it from a local childrens boutique here in perth. she apologised and said she didn't have the all black and didn't know if she was able to get more... so we bought one online elsewhere. worst. idea. ever. after 4 days with no follow up from the shop and no shipping confirmation, i contacted the owner, who dithered about, gave me every excuse under the sun about why she hadn't gotten to my order, then said i would have to wait until monday for her to find out if there was stock available from the distributor. meanwhile, the lovely girl in perth that i hadn't even ordered from, sent me a follow up message to let me know that she had followed it up and not only were there none available, but that it had actually been discontinued. gah.
this wasn't good enough for someone i had actually paid money to and i had to wait longer, after contacting her on the monday as agreed - she then made me wait while she ran her personal errands before she could call them and confirm (what i already knew) before she would refund my flipping money. most annoying bit about that was, she didn't want to refund me my full purchase, she tried to insist on shipping the bath crayons i had bought to get free shipping, until she realised she would have to pay to ship them. oh my word. she was a piece of work. no apologies, nothing. just got annoyed with me, for following up and inconveniencing her - when she was literally selling something that she couldn't even provide. what a dork.
long(er) story short, i had to email a bunch more places at the hopes of finding someone who had physical stock. we found one, which seems as though we may have gotten the last one in australia - and it came in from adelaide a few days ago. mind you, because of the run around we got (nearly a whole week between my initial purchase and finally getting my refund) we missed out on getting it at the same price from another place that also had one left and had to fork out another $40 for it.
moral of the story.
being prepared is not a bad thing. can you imagine if i had have tried to buy one closer to his birthday? that would have been a nightmare.
if you are a business owner, treat your customers with a bit of respect, actually care about running your business and don't advertise things you don't have and can't get hold of.
that's it crew, rant over.
