Twice As Nice — Local services in New Bern

I have "tried" to be a loyal customer AND consigner since I moved to ENC area 3 years ago, relocating from NYC/NJ. I am a career professional and have very upscale fashions to offer (maybe to upscale for this consignment store). Nonetheless and for the second time, they make it impossible to follow the process of scheduling a consigning appointment from the time an email notification goes out. (I received a notification at 5:36 PM on Saturday, July 27th. By the time I read the email and logged in (8:30 PM) to try to schedule appt, there were absolutely no available times). First time I thought, ok..perhaps mistake. Second time, too much of a coincidence. I then went into the store to make an appointment in person. What do you know,,,seemed to be plenty of appts available and they were scheduling by hand. I made two appts, each a week apart (another constricting rule). Then the Owner, who I have had the opportunity to speak with in the past, approached and stated that only one appt. can be made. I then stated the facts regarding the obstacles I have run up against in trying to book appts, the first and second time. She is extremely defensive, combative (one usually does when they are basically being called out) and lacks business acumen, especially in dealing w/a consignor and/or customer. She then went on to state that she has 4200 consignors (I find this number inflated) and that she has no control over when an email blast is sent. I asked, or one might say, I challenged the integrity of how she didn't have control and why. I was also leaning in on the fact that maybe these 4200 consignors know about the appt setting dates well before email blast was ever sent!! By now we are both elevated in corresponding to each other. She continued to lay out her defenses regarding lack of room, staffing concerns and so on and so forth. I made a remark about her management abilities (or lack thereof) and that seemed to have pushed a button. When I responded that she does not take constructive criticism well, she stated verbatim "I take constructive criticism everyday"! If that is the case, clearly there are issues, others are aware and she is not!! We decided to cancel my appts as I will no longer consign or shop there and I do not recommend anyone else...In addition, she said I was disrespectful to her staff. That is a complete and full out lie. I asked her exactly what I did and/or said--she could not and would not respond with what she accused me of. I am aware she has other things going on that may keep her from being less than. But you don't treat individuals who make you money that way. I guess having a "mediacore" business at best is fine. I do expect she will respond in a retaliatory way, as this seems to be the only way she communicates. It's too bad,,,,they could do a thriving business.

And there you go again--I honestly think you need to see someone about your recollection of the way things unfolded. I NEVER SAID SOCIAL MEDIA IS A KILLER. What I did say is "YOU KNOW SOCIAL MEDIA IS EVERYTHING"!!. Big difference and anyone in that store paying attention I am sure can testify to exactly what I said. You also accused me of being disrespectful to your staff. 100% UNTRUE--are you going to put a twist on this.

Regarding your "procedures" ,,,should be processes..but it doesn't fit into anyones schedule. In addition, I would hardly call your system strong and/or logistical. It is dated and backwards..Again, one has better results walking in a scheduling a hand written appointment. .

And I would be happy to give you a free consultation on business...

I took a buddy out to New Bern to show him all the reasons why I love it so much. He had never been to New Bern and we have a 50s party coming up within the next few weeks. We go into the store and pick out several pants off the pants rack and decided we were going to grab some coats to try on with pants. My buddy tries on the pants and I recalled that there was a coat out in the coat section that looked similar to the pants. So I grab it and he tries the coat on with the pants. The pants looked great but the coat didn't fit so I returned it back to it's section along with everything else that was in the dressing room because that is just what I do because I worked in retail and thrift so long. We still had other places to be (we planned on going to all the thrift and antique stores in town) so it was not my intentions to buy the pants I just wanted to make sure a price tag got on them. We stood in line for about 15 minutes and then I asked the woman for a general price and to have a tag put on the pants. She prices them around 5 dollars and declares that they have been in their store for over a year. I pay and we leave. We were on our way to the antique mall around the corner. We hear someone yelling behind us and it was the woman that just checked us out at the store. She was holding the coat that looked similar to the pants and so we are thinking oh look she must want to offer us to purchase that coat as well. NOPE! She grabs the bag holding the pants out of my buddy's hand and says "These were a set and you separated them". You can imagine our frustration at being accused of something we clearly didn't do. She asks us to follow her to the store. She continues saying "No, you did separate them, and I don't appreciate you lying to me. Now follow me and I'll give you a refund." This was absolutely so disrespectful to be accused of lying, to have something we paid for snatched away from us, to be made to follow her all the way back to the store. Okay. So we make it back to the store and she walks to the back where the manager is. Then a little while later she comes back and hands us the pants and says "The manager says you can have them." I CAN HAVE THEM? Like I didn't just PAY for them!! She is treating us like we stole something from her. We ask her to pull the video footage if they had any in the store so that she could see we didn't do what she is stating we did. She has this cocky arrogantly proud look on her face that was absolutely infuriating to me and honestly I just wanted to yell at her. But instead I say "Ma'am we did not separate those items, we did try the coat on but it was way too large so we returned it to where we got it from. We do not appreciate being called liars and we would certainly not lie about something like that." She just gave me this condescending look and nodded her head and did a slight eye roll. To give a description of her she is white about 5'2" with blonde/grayish hair. This was absolutely unnecessary and disrespectful, my buddy hacked it out to several reasons aside from skin color, tattoos, and general appearance that we would be treated this way. The racism and accusations need to stop! This store gives itself a bad name by having employees like...

I was in this store today Oct 2nd 2019. I have been a customer since before the new owners (Husband and Wife) took over. I have always had a pleasant experience until today. There were three people working and when I checked out I had a question about my total price. One item was not rung up as I thought it was and immediately all 3 were trying to talk at the same time.. Long story short I was stuck with this item as one employee said " No refunds". I wasn't asking for a refund, only questioning the price. .However, lesson learned how nasty these three were. I hope they enjoy my purchase today as I will not go back there. I would have given a "NO" star if possible because they don't even...