No More Atwoods For Me

Atwoods Ranch & Home is a store much like Tractor Supply. I went shopping at the one in Texarkana, TX today. I have shopped there fairly often.

Today, I bought three 50 caliber ammo cans there.They were marked down to $10.49 ea. from $14.99 each, seemed reasonable to me since not all that long ago they were going for $9.99 at a few stores. I also got some other assorted things around the store. When I checked out, I thought the final price seemed high, checked my receipt & saw they had charged me $14.99 each. 

I asked someone to help me with that. Instead of calling the guy at the gun counter, who was about 10 feet away from the ammo can shelf with the sign facing him, she asked me to show her where they were displayed. So, I said okay and walked back there with her. She looked at the sign, looked at me frowning and said what the sign said and what it said on the can labels was not the same because the sign said tactical & the labels did not. Then she spoke to the clerk at the gun counter. As she was talking to him, she looked at me and frowned again, 2turned her back toward me, & started whispering to him. What's a guy to think when they do that. I was half expecting store security to show up O/C cans a'spraying. I think that clerk was trying her best to prove the axiom: "Some people would have no manners at all if not for bad manners" as she kept talking in a very low voice and looking over at me. If she was not telling him that she thought I had changed signs, which is what I suspected, then she was just being outright rude to have done that. 

The gun counter clerk guy came around the counter and looked at the cans, then looked at some other further down the aisle. He told her they were the only ones that had been marked for $14.99 and that they must be the ones on sale (apparently he did not know until he looked). Instead of her saying okay, she then called for the manager; of course, he did not show up. After waiting there several more minutes, as she inspected the sign, the cans, then seemingly the tape holding the sign to the shelf, then she tore off the sign. We waited some more but the manager never showed up nor did a second person for whom she or the gun counter guy also had called.

When I asked what was going on, she said the sign was not for them, that was the wrong price for them and she said it in a rather sarcastic accusatory tone. She also said someone must have put the wrong sign there (in a long & drawn manner). I asked, in a somewhat incredulous tone, what she meant by that! She stayed mum. I then asked, would they honor or not honor the price. I admit was beginning to get a bit upset at being treated, in my view, as if she suspected me of criminality. I also wanted to get going, ten minutes or more must have passed since she went to the ammo can shelf with me and I'd already probably been in the store for about a half hour having had to check several cans to make sure the lids were not so loose as to fall off as soon as you opened them (as they did on many of the cans) and also spent time shopping for other things as well. In reply to my question, she said something very close to this: 'Here is what you can do, you can take them or just leave them right here' and she said it in a rather haughty tone. 

I did not leave them right there but did not take them home with me either. I asked where I could get a refund and she told me at the service desk. So, went to the service desk up front and left everything I had just purchased on the desk & asked for a refund for all of it. The nice girl at the desk, whom I have dealt with many times before and she has always been pleasant, was rather surprised when I calmly and politely (which was my demeanor throughout) told her I wanted a refund on everything. I told her I was not about to stand for the disrespect and seeming outright suspicion I had been shown nor would I stand for the store not honoring the price they had on the item. 

She called the manager. Another few minutes waiting passed. This time he finally showed up. For some reason, the manager gave me the refund even though the clerk at the desk said she could handle it. I should note, they require people to wear face masks when shopping there (but do not enforce it since many customers do not). They also require their employees to wear masks. All of them had masks on but guess where the manager wore his - on his chin not covering his nose or mouth. Just saying because it shows a lack of professionalism that was about to reveal itself in yet another way.

It took at least 10 minutes for him to key in only 7 items. I do not know if that was because he is always slow as molasses or because he was giving me a hard time for asking for a full refund or some other reason but suspect he was giving me a hard time (but that could just have been me because I was getting quite irritated by then but did not display my irritation). During that time, he never once said something like: 'Hi sir how can I help'; did not say 'good afternoon sir'; did not ask 'what is the issue here sir'; did not apologize for having the wrong sign up; never offered them at the price on the sign or not even one of them at that price as a consolation; never once displayed courtesy, respect or good manners and acted like he did not give a shit his customers. Around that time, I mentioned I would not shop there again, still remaining calm and courteous in my demeanor, and he said nothing. I was getting pissed off but still remained calm. I took the receipt and asked if that was it and he said yes and I left. 

I had needed those cans and needed them today; yet, I did not need them as badly as I needed a refund at that moment. I've spent a decent deal of money in there over the past few to several months since I first started shopping there. I certainly am nowhere near their best customer spending-wise but I was a loyal & respectful customer and I deserved to be treated with at least some respect in that regard - first by the first female clerk & then by the manager. After all, I was spending my money there. I also treated them with respect - even more, I think, than what was due to them with their attitudes. Bottom line, I will not ever again spend even another penny there.  

It was not so much that they would not honor the price; had the female clerk respectfully and courteously said something like: 'I'm sorry sir but somehow this sign was not placed correctly, there were other ammo cans on sale for that price' or something like: 'Sir, I'm sorry, someone put up the wrong price for these cans' - I probably would have taken them anyway. Instead, I got a refund on everything because, in my opinion, the female clerk was a snotty disrespectful type & the manager was not much better. That's too bad because everyone else with whom I have ever dealt there has always been respectful, courteous, quite professional and just ever so very nice. Then again, no loss to me, I can shop at their competitors.

Just my luck, I had to back a little while later and I was not happy about that. I had been so upset that I forgot my cell phone on the countertop. When I got back, the nice young lady was still at the desk; she evidently had placed my phone aside. Yet another clerk gave me the phone because the nice gal was busy. 

The lady, who handed me my phone, told me that what happened was the on sale ammo cans had been at the other end of the store - pointing to the unlikely area of  the garden center. She said they had run out of those cans and someone (I am guessing she meant someone who worked there because she was not at all accusatory, sarcastic, or disrespectful) had then moved the sign over to the cans I had bought that also had been regularly priced at $14.99 and had done so without realizing they were different cans that were not on sale. By then the nice girl at the desk was free and she joined in affirming that was what had happened. Imagine if the first clerk had respectfully told me that. I would have accepted that as an honest mistake on the part of the store and taken the cans home with me at the higher price. Of that I have no doubt since I had needed them and had expected to pay $14.99 each being that I had already bought some there at the higher price recently.

Anyway, I explained what had happened in more detail to those two nice ladies, in a polite but loud enough voice for the other one to hear me. She was a couple of registers away. I also told them in no uncertain terms that Atwoods had lost me as a customer because the other female clerk, the one who had helped me first had been so disrespectful and seemingly acted like I had moved the sign. I wished the nice two a happy Thanksgiving and as I was walking out the nasty bitch first clerk yelled out "Do you want to talk to the manager sir". Since I already had talked to him but he basically was not talking, I must admit, I had to do everything in my power not to yell back at her: Go fuck yourself as I walked out the door for the last time.

All the best,
Glenn B