On Sunday while walking around Montecasino, I noticed that my Ginger Mary handbag was about to come apart.  The strap was literally coming to pieces.
Broken bag

Now this bag was a gift for Christmas (and I blogged about it too)… I’d got one as a gift, wasn’t happy with it, and took it back and got this one instead.  I LOVED my bag. I’m not the kind of person that changes bags with every outfit, and I only have one that I use daily.

So yesterday at lunchtime, I bumble off to Sandton City to Truworths to complain about it.

And OWM now I’m mad! It’s not enough that a handbag has lasted less than 3 months, but the store has just made me so angry.

What happened in the store:
1. Shop assistant doesn’t know what to do about my complaint. She calls her supervisor.
2. Supervisor tells me the rules. They will only exchange it if I have a receipt and it’s within 3 months of purchase. Freaking stupid if you ask me, considering it’s faulty. There’s no way a handbag should last less than 3 months!
3. She looks up the codes on the system, finds the price, sees that’s it’s not on sale yet, and doesn’t look happy. I’m assuming that she was hoping she’d catch me out!
4. She decides she’s not going to make the call, so she takes the bag to the “store manager”
5. Supervisor comes back to tell me that the “store manager” wants to send it to the area manager to make the decision. I should get an answer today apparently.
6. I complained on Twitter while I was in the store, and they responded later to say the store was investigating.

Why I’m so mad:
1. I understand the slip rule for a normal exchange (and btw Ginger Mary is only available at Truworths). But in this case there’s something wrong with the bag! A handbag should not last for less than 3 months. It’s just ludicrous
2. What’s the freaking point of having a store manager if he/she can’t make a decision?!!?? It’s just a handbag, it’s not even leather, it’s cheaper than a jacket for pete sake!
3. Not only did the store manager not have the balls to make the call, he/she didn’t even bother to speak to me in person!! That’s just plain RUDE!
4. It’s now 11am. I went there at noon yesterday. I have still not heard anything.

I’m not happy. I’m also not buying a gift for anyone from Truworths anymore.

**update: Truworths eventually phoned me at 2pm, after I tweeted again. The verdict: I can come into the store to exchange the bag for something else. How I feel now: I’m wondering whether my tweeting and blogging has resulted in this result, if I hadn’t have done this, would they have even phoned me back without me hounding the store. She wouldn’t even tell me what the area manager said. I wonder if the bag even left the store as she said it would.