Thursday, January 1, 2009

Our Last Sale of the Year 2008

Yesterday afternoon around 4:00 pm, a husband, his wife, and their son probably in his early 30's walked into our rug store looking for a rug. After half an hour and seeing many rugs they selected two area rugs, one 8 x 11 and the other 5 x 8. They wanted to pay with their Discover debit card. We asked if they could pay cash so we could save time and the fee we would have to pay to the merchant's account provider. They said they did not have cash with them but would not mind coming back on Friday with cash. We knew that we should not let them go because there could be a high chance (read RISK) of not returning. We have had cases like this and the customer never returned. We learned from the experience.

They credit card did not go through. We swiped the card again. It did not go through for the second time. The gentleman got his card and called the custoemer service to see what the story was. He said that they had a money in theor account without buying anything yesterday to go over the daily limit which many debit cards have for the protection of the customers. He was waiting on the line for a long time and was transferred to several sections and talked to several people. Finally, they said it was OK and we could charge the credit card again. We did and this time also the card did not work. We called them and received this answer: Please call again on Friday to talk to a representative of the customer service. Don't you expect from a major credit card provider like Discover to hav a live 24/7 customer service personnel to help you if something happens?

The customers, very nice family wanted to leave to return on Friday. We had no intention of letting them go without giving them the rugs. We folded the rugs and wrapped them and gave them the rugs. We wrote down the credit card and their contact information and told them: Happy New Year. We will contact you if we cannot charge your credit card on friday. They left our store happily with smile on their faces. We were happy too to be able to sell two rugs on the new year's eve.

Khosrow Sobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085

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