Sunday, July 13, 2008

Frugal Appreciation & Giveaway

This weekend I was at Starbucks with my husband and I used the last of the gift card I got free from My Points. After I got my drink, my husband asked for my gift card. He said he wanted to put some money on it for me because he knows that I use it as a special treat for myself. Imagine my surprise when he handed me back my card and said he had put $100 on it for me. He said that he did it because I have been doing so well with saving us money on all the stuff we need. He said my savings has more then paid for my card and that the card would probably last me the rest of the year anyway. It made my morning to know that he appreciated my efforts that much.

When he refilled my card he also picked up some of the Pick of the Week cards they had. I already had some of them, so I am going to give them away here. Complete the form and I will pick a winner at random on Saturday, July 19. I will email the winner the codes to input in iTunes to download the songs. There are a total of three songs.
#1 Priscilla Ahn - Dream
#2 James Hunter - Jacqueline
#3 Pacifika - Me Cai

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Customer Service

This weekend I was out at a party with my husband when I noticed that the sole of my sandals had completely split. These sandals were only a year old and they weren’t cheap. I had picked them up at Aerosoles last summer when I needed a comfortable slip on casual shoe. So when we left the party we headed over to the Aerosoles store where I had purchased the sandals. I wanted to get a new pair of shoes and I figured we could get their customer service number while we were there so I could call about my shoes. I love Aerosole shoes and have quite a few pairs of them. This is the first time I have had a problem with them. My thought was that I would call customer service and try to get some of my money back or at least a discount on a new pair of shoes.

When we got to the Aerosole store I started looking at the shoes and my husband went over to talk to the woman working there. He explained the problem with the sandals and that I was there to pick up a new pair. When we showed her my broken shoe she agreed that they shouldn’t have broken like that and said that if I brought in my original receipt they would give me back my full purchase price in store credit. After I found a pair of shoes that I liked and was ready to check out she asked if I gave my phone number when I purchased the shoes. I was pretty sure that I had so tried looking up the receipt that way. She found it fairly quickly and printed out the receipt, gave my the store credit and put it towards my new shoes. The new shoes were on clearance so I was able to get the new shoes and still have a $16 credit towards the next pair I buy. I was very pleased with the resolution of this situation. I have been telling everyone about my new “free” shoes and the great customer service I received. Thank you Aerosoles; I will definitely be back to buy more shoes when your full Fall line is out.

So if you have a product that you don’t feel lived up to its expectations, don’t be afraid to talk to someone at the store about it or call their customer service number. Not every company will give you a great response, but you just might get an even better response then you expected.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Surprise Bargains

This weekend we were at our local fish store. My husband had promised our daughter we would stop there for her to watch the fish if she took a good nap. She did so we had to stop. When we arrived I was surprised to see that it was their 10th anniversary and they were having giveaways. So my husband entered the drawing and I took our daughter around to watch some of the fish. We wound up being there longer then expected because he decided to also buy some fish. We're glad he did though because while they were getting the fish they called his name as a winner in the drawing. You had to be present to win so if we had left we wouldn't have gotten a prize. The end result of our trip to the fish store, some new fish for $11 and a new light for the aquarium. It is a very nice light too. It even still had the price tag on it so it would have cost us $300 to buy this light. We were both very happy with our visit.