The purpose of this letter is to notify you of a damaging incident that I recently endured as a result of some negligent business practices that your Westfield Mall (San Francisco, CA) Sample Cart (please note that no injury occurred as a result of the actions of any staff working at the Bath and Body Works Westfield Mall location other than those stationed at the sample cart in the mall lobby on Floor 3 outside of the Nordstrom storefront) employees have, at the very least, made themselves susceptible to performing at an undocumented and therefore indeterminate frequency. The practice I am referring to is of a communicative nature; however, my lack of experience or knowledge of which communicative conventions the Product Demonstration industry usually employs and what vernacular or terminology is used to denote successful client-demonstrator communication leaves me ill-equipped to succinctly and directly point out which shortcomings of the B&BW Sample Cart staff are most directly attributable to the event that led to my injury.
For this reason, I see that it is appropriate to use just a moment of your time to illustrate the incident as a whole so that you may utilize your propensity for decision making in the conflict-resolution (or perhaps damages-restitution) domain. I pledge to be brief, as my aim is simply to expose the heart of the matter, as some may say, so that any necessary and appropriate changes can be made to prevent any future complaints of this variety; also, I am sure that the B&BW Customer Service department is awash with copious amounts of letters containing a wide variety of customer complaints and suggestions and I have no intention of exacerbating what is most probably a thorny enough Customer Service Recovery process with an unprecedented lack of brevity on my part.
I would like to quickly detail the setting of the incident since it (the setting) is an unquestionably important factor in my complaint. Please do not consider that I am flooding this letter with extraneous details; I only intend to include the incident’s most significant nuances.
The Westfield Mall, as you may or may not be aware (but as the Sample Cart staff members have certainly had the time to become aware of), is a jungle of activity (here I speak strictly metaphorically and do not mean to imply that the mall or your Sample Counter are in any way unkempt or disorganized; I only mean to say that the mall is highly populated and bustling with shoppers/salespeople). The Sample Counter I speak of is located (as previously mentioned) outside of Nordstrom which is perhaps one of the busier locations at the mall and may very well be one of the most pressuring and aggressively service-oriented of the stores I visited that day.
In fact, as I traversed thru the Nordstrom sales floor wearing my best (though admittedly unpracticed) attempt at an expression of determined-yet-not-too-urg
By the time I managed to peel myself out from the Nordstrom sales floor and into the interior of the mall, I was choking (metaphorically, I was in no real physical duress) on a disorienting miasma of sales-pitch and Unforgivable by Sean John. Mentally, I waded in a swamp of one-track-minded desires for the outside world. And so, I made my best attempt at a bee-line for the exit (however, I have no publically sanctioned training in navigation and the mall’s environment resembled a cruel homage to Daedalus’s labyrinth in Crete (sans minotaur) so it is highly possible that other routes were available to me), a choice that led me directly to the B&BW Sample Cart where the incident occurred.
I apologize again if any of this information has come off as some brand of literary satellite material; yet, I must urge the importance of the frame of reference that I have provided you with. The incident may not have even occurred had I not been in this exact, previously described state (but this does not in any way reduce the incident into some form of anomalous and unforeseeable incident; I am fairly certain that my status at the time is not one that is exceptionally alien to visitors of the Westfield Mall). I would also like to reassure you, appreciated reader, that the portion of the incident that is most directly relevant to your business is my next topic of discourse.
Given that I was engaged in a somewhat anxious search for reprieve from the Mall’s external pressures, I will confess that I was susceptible to the allure of comfort items at the time of the incident. Thus, when my path led me towards a pristinely shined pale-gold kiosk (the Sample Cart) that appeared to have an admirably devoted fan base and an upbeat staff consisting of nothing less than society’s healthiest and most charismatic modern individuals (wearing immaculate, expertly pressed white woven shirts with black buttons and neatly double-windsor-knotted black ties) who were bearing pristinely shined pale-gold trays (at an easy to reach level that invited curious hands forward) adorned with a surplus of evenly-spaced paper cups containing a seemingly refreshing liquid with only the slightest pink tinge that hinted at the presence of some exotic-yet-all-natural flavoring, I happily assumed that I had stumbled upon a sort of universally (or perhaps just coincidentally) provided bit of early relief.
I seized hold of one of the cups provided for would-be-samplers and, holding it up towards my chin to prepare for consumption, I gave the employee who was providing the samples a warm smile to show that I appreciated the opportunity to benefit from his labor. I asked, “what is this?” and he responded with a short yet reassuringly-practiced “goji berry”. Now, given my current disposition, the receptacle that was chosen to carry the goji berry substance (a cup, which, in normal use functions as a container for beverages), the employee’s answer that (given my presumptions) sounded very much like the description of a flavor, the lack of any signage that could have steered me in any sort of other behavioral direction, and the Sample Cart employee’s lack of any further description that could possibly have revealed to me any supplementary information about the substance that I had raised up (as if to say “à votre santé!”), I had no psychological aversion to consuming the contents of the cup. And so, I did just that.
Retrospectively, I may have even consumed the contents of the beverage in a way that resembled the behavior of a college student imbibing 2 oz. portions of alcohol for the entertainment of his peers. If this is the case, I would like to extend my sincerest apologies to the Sample Cart employee (regardless of the indiscretion being discussed, for I do not believe that manners ought to be exchanged tit for tat). In no way did I mean to cause any offense with a crude display of unrefined conduct, especially in the presence of someone operating in a professional (i.e. workplace) setting.
That point aside, it was the contents of the paper cup that I consumed that were offensive to me. Immediately after ingesting the substance, I became overwhelmed with the ominous sense that something in my behavior was fundamentally flawed. The Sample Cart employee maintained butler-esque composure during the incident; however, I sensed a mild hint of exasperated perturbation escape his previously calm, commanding face. For a moment I considered that perhaps he was displeased at my nauseous expression and so I made my best attempt at a physical conveyance of sophisticated pleasure (for I certainly did consider the option that the liquid was indeed intended for oral consumption and that perhaps my palette was simply under-exposed to such worldly flavors). Despite my efforts, a certain awkwardness lingered and caused the employee to turn away to contemplate an appropriate course of action. It was at this moment that I examined my peripheral surroundings to see that the paper cups’ contents were meant, not for ingestion, but for epidermal sanitation (I arrived at this conclusion via the image of several other shoppers working the liquid into a thin and mildly-scented lather with their hands).
Before I conclude this letter, I must admit (for the sake of my conscience) that I could have remained stationed at the Sample Counter to have this issue resolved at the time that it occurred. I understand that doing so would probably have lightened the burden on the part of you and your company. Please accept my humblest apology for instead choosing to seek amendments through more complicated avenues. My reason for fleeing the Sample Cart is that I was simply flooded with feelings of embarrassment for both myself and the Sample Cart employee. I suspect that B&BW upholds a strict criterion by which they select their employees and I am confident that a strong propensity for empathy is one of the many positive traits of the B&BW staff. With that in mind, I sought not to burden the employee with the task of struggling to fill the role of ‘doctor’ for someone going through the panic of having just ingested a noxious material. I simply did not wish to be the metaphorical equivalent of a drowning child who thrashes about while being rescued and endangers both himself and his savior. And so for that reason, I made my way quickly for the exit, leaving the Sample Cart employee with only my dejected image which I’m sure was enough to cause him enough worry already.
With all that said, I would now like to bring and end to my portion of this forum. Please know that I look upon the opportunity to voice my concerns which you have granted me with the utmost level of gratitude. Also, I would again like to extend my humblest apologies for inconveniencing you, reader, by adding these pages of complaint on to what is probably a towering workload. I hope, with deep pools of earnest, that this complaint is not the proverbial ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’. If it is at all possible, I would also like to extend my humblest apology to the Sample Cart employee for any shock or repulsion he may have endured as a result of my visit. Note that I seek no real restitution here. Providing your company with the chance to snip away at any loose ends in its operation (and I do not mean at all to imply that it is not already a finely run business) and knowing that my letter has been directed to the competent hands of a customer relations specialist are consolation enough for me.
Thank you, sir or madam, for taking the time to review my account of the incident. As a show of my appreciation, I will make a point to visit one of your company’s fine locations the next time I am allowed the opportunity.
Sincerely,
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
