For those of you that do not know, I live outside a small Washington town in northern Steven’s Country called Colville.   The town is large enough to have our Super WalMat as a very nice compliment of small businesses.   To support our local economy I try to buy as much as I can locally.  In some cases I may have to pay a bit more but I’m willing to pay the price.

So here’s the story with my local hardware store and why it is soooo difficult for me to keep my business local.

I found the item I wanted on the hardware store’s national website and I could have had it all shipped directly to my house but I thought I would try to help out the local store and order it from them.

I called them on the phone… told them the exact item number I wanted and that I needed 5 cases of them.   The clerk asked for my name and phone number, and since I knew I was not going to be in town for about 3 weeks so I told her that I also wanted to give her my Spokane phone number.  I also let her know that if she needed to delay the order that would be fine because I was not in a hurry and would not be back in town for about 3 weeks.   She explained that it would take about 2 weeks for the freight to arrive from the warehouse and that she would go ahead and place the order and call me when they came it.

Friday (about 4 weeks after I placed the order) I stopped in the store and inquired.  There were multiple people that tried to help me and finally a gentleman went in back to check for the items.  He was not able to find them and phoned someone else.   The verdict… “The phone number you gave us was incorrect and we sent them back on this morning’s truck.”

First of all, the clerk that took the order had two of my phone numbers and IF SHE WROTE ONE OF THEM DOWN WRONG she could have tried the other.  I am also in the PHONE BOOK and had she bothered to look up my name she would have been able to call.  

Long story short I went online placed the $485.00 order, paid the shipping and I will have my items on Thursday.   Local business need to understand a little bit about customer service.   Not even an I’m sorry and of course it was my problem.   I guess I should have double and triple checked she wrote my phone number down and then had he send me a fax copy so I could verify that everyone could read her handwriting.  

Needless to say that this business will NO LONGER be receiving any of my business.   I can go to the Ace Hardware, Haney’s or if I want mediocre service even WalMart.