Failure to honour warranty and poor customer service

This morning I attempted to return a defective set of bluetooth earphones to the Constantia Kloof branch, which is a corporate store. When I bought the new item in July this year, almost two months ago to the day, I was warned that my warranty would not be honoured if I could not produce the receipt - the receipt clearly states that all new electrical items carry a 12 month warranty.

I produced my receipt as requested by one of the cashiers when I presented the earphones for exchange. Her gambit was to point out that the "out of box failure" return period had expired. I should have anticipated what was to come but I smiled and confirmed that I had tested the earphones prior to purchase and that I was invoking the warranty as the right speaker did not work. She asked me to wait while she referred it to her manager.

A "Matthew Smith" presented himself without introduction or greeting and proceeded to try every angle possible to avoid honouring the warranty. All of his attempts were easily rebutted which seemed to irk him more than my insistence on my right to have the defective goods replaced or even repaired. He then resorted to telling me that he will send it in for their workshop to look at it but they will confirm all of his arguments, which I rejected.

His parting shot, after being asked for his name, was to sneer over his shoulder as he walked away that he had better things to do than argue all afternoon with me and that his cashier would give me his name. He then slammed his office door behind him despite being called, by name, to attend to another customer who was waiting to see the manager.

This is not the type of service or response I would have expected after complying with the conditions imposed.