My husband and I used to attend Collector Club Meetings until about two months ago at Dona's Hallmark in San Carlos, CA. On the morning of one of the meetings in March, I called to ask if we could attend since I had not RSVP'd the week before. Beth, who manages the club for the store, said that she did not have enough food and we could not come. I told her that we could eat at home and come later since they were going to discuss the upcoming summer Hallmark event. She repeated a vehement "NO."
After a couple of days went by, I discussed her rude attitude with my husband. I then called the store and told Maya, another employee, that we no longer wanted to be part of Beth's group since she had a very discourteous attitude about what happened. My husband waited a couple of weeks and wrote the owner, Michael, a letter about her attitude. The letter also discussed other customer service issues that we had noticed on occasion with her. When she's in a good mood, she's really nice; when she's not in a good mood, it is readily apparent.
We thought that what we had encountered was singular to us until we read other reviews about her on this site. So, we thought that we would share our experience. What we have surmised is that to be part of the "in crowd" at that store, we need to spend a lot more money. We used to be huge shoppers of ornaments and have obviously slowed down over the years simply because we're running out of space. Everything is all about the money these days, and one would think that no matter what a customer spends in a store, he/she is still considered a valuable customer.
It is interesting because my husband received no answer from Michael, the owner of this store. So, that says to us that he agrees with her behavior and decision in the way that she treated us. And that's not okay. We went another step further and asked Hallmark to remove us from advertising that is tied to Dona's Hallmark in San Carlos. Evidently, by consistently shopping in the future at the Bridgepoint Hallmark Store in San Mateo, the advertising will switch to that store since we have discontinued shopping at Dona's even though it is more convenient.
We are also sharing our very discourteous experience with our friends so that they can take their business to the store in San Mateo. The critical point is that neither Beth nor Michael considered that an apology was in order. As they say, what goes around, comes around. All customers need to be treated respectfuly no matter how much they spend. read more
