II Chronicles 7:14

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

This really chaps my hide...

A couple of months ago, I bought my mom a gift certifcate for tanning at our local (small, family-owned) tanning salon. It was $25 for 10 sessions in the stand-up bed. Well...she never did use it so last month when I was wanting to start tanning before my pictures, she gave it to me and said for me to just use it. That was perfect since I needed to tan anyway...or so I thought. Turns out the place was NEVER open. Every single time I went to try to tan...no one was there---despite their hours being posted (and I was there during those hours) and a big neon "Yes We're Open" sign in the window. Finally, after about 2 weeks of this, I called and left a message. Then a few days later, my mom called and left a mesage. A week after that the lady calls and says that she is trying to sell the business but that she is still open (she had been on vacation the prior weeks) but that I could still come and use it. Okay...great! So, again, I try and try and try to use it...but again..no one is EVER there. Now today, the sign has been taken down and if you call the phone #..there is no answering machine anymore. Apparently she has gone out of business.
Now...the best thing for me to do at this point would be to throw away the gift certificate and just chuck this one up to bad luck. But no. I can't. It's driving me crazy! I mean...I gave the lady my hard-earned money in exchange for tanning...and if she can't provide me the tanning..then I believe she OWES me my money. Right?
When I went today and saw that she had "closed shop"--well that was just the last straw. I was so ticked off. She has NEVER returned any of my phone calls over the last 2 weeks to try to figure out a time when I could come tan (and I've left about 1 every other day). She is obviously avoiding me and probably rolls her eyes everytime she hears my name or my voice on her answering machine. But as far as I'm concerned...this isn't over. I left her a letter on the door today (a nice one...even though I REALLY wanted to say something hateful). So we'll see where that gets me.
What do ya'll think? Should I just throw the dumb gift certifcate away and just forget about it? Or am I right to think she should refund my money? And what can I do about it?

3 comments:

Teresa said...

Oh my gosh...YOU ARE SO ME!!! I would be as frusterated as you are right now. That stuff really chaps me too!! I hate it when people say to "just let it go" b/c I can't. But most of the time, after much grief and getting no results...that's what I end up having to do anyway.

That's just wrong what she did, but I doubt you'll get anywhere. The thing is if it was only a couple of months ago that she sold you the gift certificate...she would have known full well that if it was not used promptly that you'd be out of luck with it. She took your money regardless. I mean financial troubles don't just pop up overnight ya know!

I think the only thing you can do is to call the BBB and see if you can get anywhere. Keep us posted!

mr zig said...

I know the "logical" answer is to just let it go - but grrrrr this kinda thing bugs me soooo much. If it was me, I'd keep the gift certificate in the visor of the car, and hope i run into the woman (not with the car - but in public) - then confront her again - and have fun with it. Sure this might be the "immature" thing to do, but just throwing it out seems like you're giving up - you know? -

home4mk said...

i had a similar situation happen to me regarding a relative. she owns a nail/pedicure place so my husband got me a gift certificate. everytime i called for an appointment she was either not working that day or booked and couldn't get me in (i figured being family i had an advantage but nope no such luck). finally after 1 year i asked her very humbly for my money back stating that we just couldn't make it work. i thought i was in the right b/c she as the business owner couldn't accomodate an appointment with me but that completely broke our ties as family and as a friend.

i say keep fighting for it! this lady closed shop. she has already reaped the cash flow. if you don't get any action contact channel 6 news! i am sure that you aren't the only one that has been affected by this and well i am pretty sure that is illegal to not honor items that she has shown as cash flow.