nursery matters JOHN BARKER
Barking Mad This month Pramland’s John Barker gives us all a cautionary tale.
H
ello one and all, I hope you are all well and business has continued to be good for you. This month I thought I’d share an experience that was a complete first for me. It’s not the type of tale that will have Hollywood knocking on my door anytime soon, but it’s an interesting, cautionary tale for you all. So get the kettle on and let me begin. It was a normal Friday and the lovely Katie (Venicci) was paying us a routine visit. We’d spent the best part of the morning catching up, discussing how we’d done and planning how we are going to move things forward, a routine store visit basically. Before you ask, yes biscuits and buns where involved, they normally are when Katie visits! As we were drawing our conversations to an end I was approached by a “gentleman” asking for a price of our dolls prams we have on display in the stores window. This was strange as I was sat chatting with Katie at one of our tables in the store and members of my team had already answered all his questions. He spoke with a very strong accent and proceeded to ask me what the price would be for three of the dolls prams. I told him that the price on display was the best price I could offer him even if he wanted three of them. He didn’t seem to believe me and asked to speak with me in private, away from Katie’s ears.
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nursery today
We stepped to one side and he then proceeded to change his story. He started to tell me that he’d purchased three of the dolls prams from us before Christmas and that all of them had been broken when the boxes had been opened. Something that I fail to believe is true as we have sold them for many years and I can count on one hand how many have had faults. He offered no specific details as to the damage, nor could he offer me any form of proof, either of their purchase or the faults he claimed plagued the items. I apologised for the problems he’d had and told him that if he could bring the dolls prams back to us I could either repair them or simply swap them for him, he would however need to bring them to me so I could look at them. I also told him that I had no record of him buying them and he would have to provide me with proof. This is when he started becoming a little aggressive, he told me that the prams where in Ireland and that it would cost him hundreds to get them to me, he also told me that it was my responsibility to find his proof of purchase. As you can probably imagine he wasn’t quite as eloquent as that but I cannot stress the level of intimidation he was attempting
Image source: pexels.com
He told me that I have a lovely big car park and that if he didn’t get his dolls pra ms I’d be find ing it full of caravans! For a split second I couldn’t believe my ears, it took me a moment or two to process wh at he’d said to me
john@pramland.co.uk
