Exchange of faulty product at Truworths Tyger Valley

<p>Dear Truworths</p> <p>I recently purchased a DKNY perfume product from Truworths Tyger Valley as a gift to a family member (Transaction No ********** dated 03/01/2017). The person opened the perfume and discovered that the spray nozzle of the perfume bottle was faulty as it sprayed a direct stream of perfume rather than a mist. This in my opinion would cause unnecessary wastage of this expensive product which I paid R1 130.00 for.</p> <p>Upon return to the store (07/01/2017) a sales representative tested the bottle and said that she does not see anything wrong with the product and that this is the “design”. I disagreed with her and compared my purchased bottle with the tester bottle and the difference was clearly visible. The sales representative then informed me that she is not authorised to exchange nor return any fragrance items and that I should come back the Monday to see the fragrance representative. I told her that I am not able to return the following Monday as I live in Worcester which is 100km away. With the same broken bottle of perfume, I returned home and could only visit the store Yesterday (05/02/2017) to see the fragrance representative who again was not available.</p> <p>The cosmetics representative who I asked for assistance told me that they (“Truworths”) cannot exchange the bottle because it is a DKNY product and not a Truworths product. This infuriated me as I have driven 200km twice to this shop with the sole purpose to exchange a broken product at the exact store where I bought the product from. Now I had to contact DKNY directly??? I demanded to speak to the store manager who tested the bottle and agreed that the nozzle is faulty. He agreed to exchange the bottle but only if I pay in the difference of R160-00 because I bought the perfume at a “special” and the special is now over and I have to pay the full price of R1 290.00 if I want to exchange the perfume (see Transaction No ********** ). This I find totally unacceptable as I followed the the Truworths return policy as stipulated on the back of the receipt and now I have to pay in the difference because the “special” is no longer running? After a brief disagreement, I paid the R160-00 difference because the Store Manager is “not willing to lose my job for R160-00”.</p> <p>Now that you have the complete background of my issue I will point out my grievances:</p> <p>If a sales representative of a specific product/department is “off” the weekend surely someone else should be able to stand in for that person and perform the duties of that person. A client cannot be shown away and said to return when this person is on duty again. If this is the case the clients’ contact details should be taken to enable the representative to make contact with the client to come to a mutual agreement of fixing the problem.<br />How on earth can someone state that you “cannot exchange a DKNY product here because it is not a Truworths product. You should contact DKNY”? I bought the product at this specific store and had all documentation as proof of purchase as required by the return policy. This is rather a case of incompetence and extremely poor customer service in my opinion.<br />If I purchase a product on a “Special” and find out that the product is not in 100% working order and return it within the prescribed returns policy how do you expect me to pay the “full price” because the special is no longer running? <br />I am a customer with a basic and easily solvable problem which I am sure a Store Manager encounter on a daily basis. I am not interested in any internal HR related matter which the store manager might encounter when performing his duties. (“not willing to lose my job for R160-00”).<br />Finally, I would like to state that this has not been a pleasant experience at all and find the staff I dealt with ***********, rude and unhelpful.<br />I kindly request a customer representative to contact me and explain the Truworths return policy to me because the return policy on the back of my Truworths slip most certainly does not correspond with the return policy communicated by your employees. And expecting me to pay extra for the exact same product upon exchange is utter nonsense. I kindly request my refund</p> <p> </p> <p>Regards</p> <p> </p>