Pillow Talk
With my hand, I hit the down pillow I was returning, and feathers flew everywhere and onto the assistant manager’s face. A feather lodged on the side of his nose, and he didn’t blink. His face was set into an ‘I’m not budging from my position’ look. He appeared to be just over a teenager, and I confess I was tempted to hit the pillow again.
...OK… so I did!
We now had feathers everywhere, and the baby-faced assistant manager was starting to crack – good. He was trying to gather up feathers but these expensive little white goose down feathers were so light and fluffy they defied capture. I should know because I was still finding the odd feathers a week later in my bedroom.
Time to call in the general manager of Sears, so baby face punches numbers into the phone and spits out under his breath, but I hear him, “I need help NOW.” This all started the day I bought these down pillows, ok, I need to back up just a bit. I spent a fantastic week in New Orleans last year, made even better, or maybe it was the best part, at the La Pavillon hotel .
This is the oldest hotel in New Orleans and is restored to its original glory, complete with beautiful glass chandeliers and ghosts on the fifth floor. They also have a tradition of serving milk and peanut butter sandwiches every evening in the beautifully appointed lobby (who does that)? They have exquisitely dressed doormen and period furniture.
Everything about this hotel reeked of history and opulence as well as good old-fashioned top-notch service. I love this hotel, which was the same hotel used in filming ‘The Butler’, a true story about a butler who served many presidents, with Oprah Winfrey as the butler’s wife, and I recognized it right away.
I am fussy about pillows and have, on occasion, taken my own on trips. I need to have a good down-filled pillow to get a restful night’s sleep. This fantastic hotel had the best pillows I have ever slept on. Now, to be fair, I was also there with my lover; he was on a training seminar for some high-tech ‘IT’ stuff, and I was basking in the glow of his attention. Had I known how great lovers can be on road trips, I would have had one much sooner, and left the husband at home. Ah well .. hindsight. Towards the end of my stay, I decided to investigate and slipped off the pillowcase to discover the brand name was Pacific Coast Pillows.
Once I was back home, I happened to be shopping in Sears one day when a sales gal asks me what I was looking for. I say pillows and specifically the Pacific Coast brand. “Well,” she says, “we have them and they are on sale right now!” These pillows are two hundred dollar pillows, omg… insert choking noises here!
I would never pay that much for a pillow, but I am in luck, they are on sale for half price. I have never paid a hundred dollars for a pillow either, but I bit the bullet and bought the pillow, and guess what? THIS PILLOW HAS AN EIGHT-YEAR GUARANTEE! Have you ever seen a guarantee on pillows? .. me either.
Ok, back to my story, I am in love with this pillow and obsessed, it goes everywhere with me. I have a cabin at the lake, so I purchased another of these pillows, on sale, of course. They have shorter ones and different comfort levels for different types of sleepers. Oh ya… these are high-tech and all have the guarantee. Lifetime on the feathers, will these feathers outlive me, I vaguely wonder. Maybe we can use them in my… oh forget it, I’m being cremated.
Btw, even if you have allergies, this company claims that the down feathers are put through a very strict cleaning process which removes all the allergens and leaves you with this soft, fluffy down.
As I removed my pillowcase for cleaning last week and all these light fluffy feathers flew out with the pillow. Not thinking straight, I turned the pillowcase inside out and omg… it is snowing in my bedroom. Dumb move, it turns out the seam has come apart.. and so starts my journey to Sears and the ‘too good to be true’ guarantee.
I guess this should be a lesson in customer service. The Sears LOGO is CUSTOMER SATISFACTION GUARANTEED. BUT, they should have added for 30 days only, or 3 months if you have a Sears card. The baby face clerk tells me I need to send the pillow back to the manufacturer. I tell Baby Face that I bought the pillow at Sears, and I am not shipping anything back anywhere, as I only do emails.
I expected a new pillow, but I say I will settle for him shipping the pillow back and calling me when it is fixed. Now I am looking straight at the big sign at the till that says customer satisfaction guaranteed! I pointed this out to him.. but he is not budging, except to gather feathers. Oh.. and this is where he also gave me the “rolly eye” look… BIG Mistake.
OKAY, so this is when I hit the pillow….again.
The general manager comes to his rescue, and she basically recites the same policy as him, but she is older and wiser and probably realizes that I have taken a stance and am not backing down anytime soon.
See.. we are talking about a two-hundred-dollar pillow here (doesn’t matter that I got it on sale) with an 8-year guarantee. What would you do? She finally agrees to ship the pillow back for me after once more explaining about the 30 day crap.. thank you, and that is all I really wanted.
Good lesson on customer perseverance. Glad you got good service in the end.
You are right, customer service is going to weed out where we spend our money in the future!
If you ask your friends or co-workers about customer service I can guarantee they will tell you a story of at least once place where they WILL NOT shop again! The stores should pay attention big box included…although some of them pay and train their employees very well indeed… Costco comes to mind.As out time becomes precious we are not going to waste it where we have had bad experiences, life is to short.