Crazy News - Strange Stuff - Rants and Raves

So here is my little rant about the local Future Shop store in Richmond Hill, Ontario - Canada.  I went in a few weeks ago with my two kids to check out a digital SLR camera.  I was deciding between the Canon XTI and the new Canon XSI.  I was asking a few questions at the camera counter about having them give a free memory card with the purchase (because they were offering that deal online) and the guy was checking with a ‘manager’ if he could do it.  While waiting for him and browsing the xbox360 games with the kids I noticed a couple of titles they had there were the same two I purchased at EBGames earlier on that day for $9.99 each, they were are $50 at Future Shop.  I decided while waiting for the camera fellow to come back I would ask for a price match on the games (it would work out to around $5.90 per game) I would purchase them at Future Shop and because I had the others in the car still new in the package I could return them to EBGames.  I would only save about $8 but it was more on principal.  I took the two copies of the game to the service desk and asked for the price match.  They said they would have to contact EBGames to see if they were new games or clearance, used games.  I told them they were new and factory sealed, I offered to go out to the car and get them.  They told me they still had to contact EBGames.

A few minutes later the person said they contacted EBGames and could not honor the price match because it was only for new games.  I told them the games were new and I had them in the car if they wanted to see them.  I asked to speak with the store manager.  Instead the brought out a guy named Oscar and he told me the price match was only on new games, I said that is ”bull” and I had the games in the car, brand-new factory sealed.  He said I should not swear at him, especially in front of my kids and he could not price match used games.  After seeing that I was angry he called over a fellow employee and asked him to help throw me out of the store because I was causing a scene (I did raise my voice but I was far from causing a ’scene’).

To make a long story a little shorter I asked if he was the store manager and he wasn’t, all the managers were off-site at a meeting.  I asked for the store managers name and they told me it was French and they were not sure how to spell it.  I asked for the number to  head office so I could contact the regional manager, they gave me the call center number.  I called and was told regional managers no longer accepted direct calls but they would fill out an incident report and someone would contact me in a few days.  After around 20 minutes on the phone, case #108845 was complete and I was to expect a call from Laiq Siddiqui (the store manager) or the regional manager.

Well as you might guess, that was over 3 weeks ago and no call.  I tried to find out what was going on last week but they said I would have to wait for them to contact me.  I was upset and did not purchase my camera and will probably end up ordering it from a US retailer online.  I am sure this happens a lot because I have read about similar problems at various forums online and it seems to occur at Future Shop stores across Canada.  I don’t understand why they would bother to put a price matching policy in effect and then do everything in their power to screw people over when they try and use it???  I was there to purchase a camera package for $1000+ and instead of making a sale, they pissed me off by treating me so poorly.

Update: I sent an email to customer service after writing this post (with a link to the post) and I got this reply after a few hours:

Please include the following line in all replies.
Tracking number: CT20080525_0000000702

Dear Jay:

We can understand your frustration with case number 108845.

Please contact us at 1-800-663-2275 and a representative will be able to assist you in receiving a response. We will be able to transfer you to a manager to provide a immediate resolution.

Thank you for visiting Futureshop.ca.

Sincerely,

Amy
Customer Care
Future Shop

I am going to call now and I will update this thread with any resolution I get.

Update: I contacted customer service but the person I got told me that only temporary managers are there on the weekends so I should call back on Monday.

Monday morning I got a message from Bobby Maharaj who is the operations manager at the Future Shop in Richmond Hill.  I just called him back and after 35 rings someone at switch-board picked up and told me he is busy with a customer so I am waiting for a call back now.