Is It Just My (Bad) Luck, Or...

Friday, July 13, 2012 by Kathy Murdock from Thrifty Mom's Two Cents

I’ve become one of those shoppers. You know, the one who heads back to the store with a bag in hand, makes a beeline for customer service and then complains about something I’ve purchased that is broken, ruined or otherwise unusable.

I never was like this. In the past, in my younger years, I would have shrugged it off (unless it was a really expensive item) and said, “Oh well, so I eat that dollar.”

Of course, back then it didn’t seem to happen as often as it does now.

So here’s my complaint to the stores: start making and selling better products and fresher foods so I can stop having to return something with every trip.

Take this week, for example.

First problem: bad berries. While I try to look through the sides and bottom of the containers prior to purchasing, you can’t always see soft berries or ones that have grown fuzzies. I’ve had this problem a lot this year (is it just me?) and it’s getting to the point where I am going to start opening the plastic containers and rummaging through the berries prior to purchasing. Not something I like to do, but I like that idea better than getting home and going to wash berries only to find half are inedible.

Second problem: clothing marked incorrectly. Not a defect in the product, technically, but if a pair of shorts is a medium and a shirt is a small, it’s not going to fit my daughter. I should have looked at the tag more closely, but I tend to rely on what one piece says, or what the hanger tag displays, especially when the girls aren’t at the store with me to try something on. In this case, I had to return to the store and change out the clothes for two mediums.

Third problem: I rented yet another scratched movie from a kiosk in the grocery store. This happens about every second or third rental: we get the movie home, and when we put it in the player it either doesn’t start immediately or it plays half through and then the movie begins to skip. This time when I turned the disc over I noticed it was covered in a sticky substance. I cleaned it, but it still didn’t work, so no movie for movie night. I returned the movie and wrote a nice letter to the kiosk company about how often I’m getting movies we can’t watch. I don’t care if the rental is only $1; if I spend the gas money and my time to get a movie, and we plan a movie night and the kids are excited about it, I want it to work. I was given two free codes for two free rentals, but since this happens so often I’m beginning to think I’m better off paying $2 at the local video store to rent something that does work rather than paying $1 and risking the chance of it not working. Even if I check a movie at the store, I’m not always going to know if it’s scratched beyond being viewable; and it’s kind of like pulling the lever on the slot machine: you may get a good one, and you may not.

I know I can return items, and these days it seems I often do. But when I spend as much time taking stuff back as I do going out to buy things I get to the point of not wanting to shop at all.

But hey, we have to eat.

Is it just me, or do you find stores are putting out items more often today that are broken, ruined or otherwise unusable? And how do you handle this? (I know I posted about taking items back, but seriously, do you spend half of your days returning broken stuff the way I seem to do lately?)

Kathy Murdock
Kathy Murdock works as a full time writer and web designer. Recently planted in the middle of the deep south from the busy streets of Los Angeles, when she's not coding Wordpress websites or writing about women in business and thrifty motherhood, Kathy spends time ...Read More

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