I have been a loyal Lind's customer for 20 years, supporting this local business through their former pharmacy and toy store, gift store, jewelry store, jewelry repair service, and to buy cards. Linds was always my first stop for gifts, I bought my children gifts at their former toy area as well as for the birthday parties they attended. I bought home decor, jewelry, gifts for family, had jewelry repaired, a bought tons of cards, I think I have about 15 punch cards collected! And I have bought numerous pairs of sunglasses. I loved it that they gift wrapped. I maintain a membership there.
I will never shop there again.
Please take this experience I relate as a warning. I went to Lind's last weekend to purchase sunglasses. While I wasn't dressed in my usual business attire, (I am a local attorney), I was nicely dressed for an outing, hair done, makeup, etc. My daughter, also an attorney who is also part of the family firm with myself and her father, accompanied me into the store. She loved Lind's, she had been going there since she was a small child.
I was seeing a lot of magnification glasses but having trouble finding those without. The salesperson directed me to the Brighton sunglasses, which were quite a bit more expensive but we found one we liked and began the process of purchasing when I mentioned I was sorry there wasn't more selection than Brighton. Another woman came up from behind the nice woman who had been helping us and said, in a nasty voice to the other saleswoman, "she is incorrect, there are more". She appeared to be a supervisor. The manner in which she decided to give me this information, by deliberately and publicly embarrassing her coworker made me very uncomfortable. This woman then asked me if I wanted to look through the glasses the other worker hadn't told me about and I declined. I liked the glasses, had places to go, and didn't want to prolong the nice saleswoman's embarrassment. I finished the transaction and selected the complementary decorative glasses case into which the saleswoman placed my glasses.
Not long after we arrived at our destination, the sun came out. I reached into my bag, took the glasses out, and put them on. As we were walking, I began to feel like the glasses simply were not sitting right. I shifted them around and realized it wasn't that I hadn't put them on properly, the glasses were bent. My daughter, who had accompanied me on the outing, plucked the glasses off my head and put them on her head and said, "they're bent!" I was not happy to find that what I had bought was defective. My eyes are photosensitive and I was very uncomfortable in the bright sunlight. Luckily my daughter noticed a place with sunglasses for sale and I was able to get relief.
The glasses were promptly returned to the case when my daughter handed them back to me and stayed in that case in my purse until I went back to Lind's.
The following work week was busy, especially the day before I went to Lind's which was quite stressful. I woke up the next morning with a migraine and had my paralegal reschedule everything that day. Fortunately, my medication worked quickly, and I felt better by midmorning. I decided to take advantage of some gardening I had to do and spent a few hours in my grubby gardening clothes/sneakers. I had to go to the Ace to get more gardening supplies, so I decided to swing by Lind's to return the glasses. I was dealing again with the nice saleslady when that unpleasant woman intruded once again.
Taking a moment to look me up and down, she said, officiously, "What's the problem?"
I replied, "I am returning these glasses I bought Saturday, you were here when I bought them, do you recall?". She replied, "I do not recall you", in a snide manner. I went on to explain that the glasses were bent, which I discovered upon wearing them. I was able to buy a replacement shortly after the discovery and I was returning their glaases. She inspected the glasses and said, "they are scratched, pointing to the bottom corner section of one of the lenses, an area adjacent to the frame. I replied that I would not have noticed that as it was not in my field of vision, and they were worn for only minutes before they were returned to the case after discovering they were bent. Therefore, it would have been impossible for me to scratch them, but given that they were in a defective condition, perhaps the scratch occurred at the time they were bent.
I was informed that I was not going to be given a refund at that time, and they would be contacting me. She took the glasses and left. I admit I was very angry about the way that I was treated, in public, with an accusation that I had somehow damaged the glasses and was not deserving of their refund policy. This is no way to treat a loyal customer of 20 years who has spent quite a bit of money in their store over the tenure of our relationship. I was later told I would not be refunded and could only have a store credit.