World Market — Attraction in Los Angeles

Today, I wanted to visit this store with my service dog in-training and was refused entry by an employee. The employee asked me if my dog is a service dog and I honestly answered that she is in training. The person then asked me what task she can perform and I answered but the employee kept probing if she then was for mental support (which 1. they are not allowed to ask and 2. I think she was trying to imply that my dog was for emotional support rather than a service dog). We felt really weird and embarrassed. My dog has been allowed everywhere, including restaurants, grocery stores, and other Worldmarket stores as well. We have never been asked to leave. Our dog is very well behaved and trained to obey. The employee kept saying that they got investigated a lot lately by the Health department etc. When we went back to the parking lot, at least three other dogs entered and the owners were not approached with questions or refused entrance. Puzzled, I went back in without my dog and told the employee that I am in fact handicapped and she could see my plaque but the employee completely ignored me and looked away when I talked to her which was totally rude & unprofessional. Needless to say I will never return to this store. Why we were singled out is beyond me (maybe because our dog is a bully breed?), when everyone else was allowed to enter. Just a fair warning for other dog owners. The whole situation was very uncomfortable and...

The managers at this store apparently feel it is acceptable to refuse service to customers whose transactions they personally feel are unimportant to their business.

I stood in line TWICE, and was told that I would have to wait until after they served every single other customer in line. Since as long as the store was open, more new customers kept coming up to the line, this obviously meant I would have to wait until after the store closed - which would have been hours. Not being able to wait several hours for a simple transaction (after having already waited for over 20 min), I had no choice but to leave, which obviously they knew very well; this message was communicated to me by three different employees - 2 of them managers. Effectively this meant that they plain out refused me service.

Ironically (since they clearly pegged me as an unimportant and undesirable customer on account of the type of transaction I needed on this visit), I happen to have a great deal of disposable income to spend and was actually quite interested in their product selection; I could have become a new regular customer who would have spent quite a bit of cash there. After receiving this kind of "customer service" though, they've lost my business for life. I can just as well get that kind of faux-European merchandise in other stores...

I really like this store, but my last experience changed it all. I was shopping and picking up items for my cart. When I was called to check out, the clerk asked if someone helped me or did I pick up the items myself. I told him that I was shopping and collecting everything on my own. He then stated that there was a process to this and that some of the items that I picked were for floor viewing, not for sale, and I needed to have someone get those items from the stock room. I told him that those items were simply on the floor with price tags and there weren’t any labels stating that they were floor samples. So he went to the back and brought up two new boxes that clearly needed to be installed. I told him that I didn’t want them if I had to install them. He asked me again and also asked if I could put them together. I said that normally I could, but that I didn’t have the time. He then insults me by saying that it was ok and “everyone has different skill levels”. Not sure what my skill level has to do with not having time to setup two pieces of furniture. This was Christmas Eve and I was prepping for dinner. Anyway, this was my experience. I did purchase other items, but not sure if I would go back to this...