.

A couple of weeks back, our bath’s faucet handle got broken. That was an adventure in itself, but I’ll skip the inquiry as to whose fault it was, and the good three hours it took for Chéri to find a replacement handle. That didn’t fit our faucet.

End of story, I superglued the part that got broken, and fixed the problem all by myself.

And today, we had to go back to the store to get a refund, because, let’s face it, the chances of using it were slim to none. And, as much as I trust superglue, I thought it would be wise to get the right replacement in advance (after Googling the exact model, of course).

I’ll admit that home hardware stores aren’t my favorite place to spend the afternoon, but in addition to getting our refund, and buying a new handle, we also had to get a fire extinguisher.

Why, you might ask? Well, 2022 hasn’t been kind to us badluck-wise, so far. At the beginning of the year, Chéri managed to set fire in our oven. Then this spring, we had some major electrical problems in the building (leading to a visit from our neibourhood’s charming firemen). And last but not least, two weeks ago, after a rainstorm, we ended up with a pretty bad water leak in the middle of the kitchen.

I didn’t want to tempt Murphy, who seemed to be on a streak, and thought it was reasonable to be cautious.

So off we were, on our way to the Rona store.

The first step was to get the refund for our useless handle. I was expecting some questionning, but before I had time to take out my cell phone to check any pending messages, Chéri was done with the clerk.

After walking by the nice fellow above, reminding me that Halloween was coming (or that the pandemic really wasn’t behind us yet, LOL), I headed to the cleaning aisle. And that’s where I found my first deal.

.

.

See the green and yellow sponges, there? I am no human calculator, but even if you put blue sponges in between, 3 sponges for 4.19$ are still a better deal that 6 of the same item for 9.79$….  I’ll let you guess what I chose, before walking to the bathroom gadgets’ department (mouahahhahahahahahah).

Although I had made my homework and brought the exact model number not to make the same mistake twice, we consulted an employee, just to be sure. After showing him my screenshot of the handle we wanted, the gentleman looked surprised.

You don’t need to buy a new one, Miss. Just look for Moen’s website, they have lifelong warranties for these. They will send you a new one for free!

I was shocked (in a good way – a VERY good way). When is the last time you went to a store to buy something, and they told you how to get it for free???

We thanked him, and went looking for fire extinguishers (our third mission), when I came upon this:

.

.

There are a number of things I like to keep a stock of at home, and batteries are one of them. They are quite expensive, and when I can get a good deal, I don’t turn my back on it. For your information, when I am lucky, I can get a 24 pack for that price. So I triple checked the tag and grabbed a pack.

We then went fire extinguisher hunting. And that’s when we met Patricia. Who was… Let’s say intense. Very client-oriented, and though her customer service was top notch, we almost had to tell her that we had something else on our agenda for the day to leave her.

It was time to check out, and as usual, I checked the bill to be sure there weren’t any errors. I couldn’t help but notice that my batteries deal had been charged 29.99$ instead of 23.99$.

I hesitated. I wouldn’t go bankrupt for 6 dollars, but, I did want my deal. So I told Chéri to wait for me and I walked to the customer service desk, where Maha welcomed me.

I believe there was an error when my batteries were scanned.

I showed her the picture of the price, and my actual bill, and she looked puzzled.

Let’s go have a look at that. – She said.

When we got to the batterie stand, Maha agreed that I was right. But she was soon overstaged by a squirrel that had entered the store and was running around in the department.

In a matter of seconds, it didn’t matter if you were a customer or an employee, we were just trying to get the little furry thing out safely.

.

Good news, Bob did get out of the store unharmed, thanks to the kindness of all of the employees involved.

Back to the customer desk.

Ahma was ready to give me my 6$ refund.

I owe you a 10$ refund since we made a mistake.

I had forgotten that any scanning mistake meant a 10$ rebate.

Oh, that’s weird! – Ahma said. When I scan the product now, it displays a 21.99$ retail price… So I’ll have to reduce it by 10$. That’ll be 11.99$ for the whole pack.

If that’s not a deal, I don’t know what is??

And I got the entertainement on top of it. And a proof that a store can really focus on customer service.

And that’s quite reassuring to me….