BOSLEY'S YALETOWN: Avoid At All Costs
UPDATE: No surprise, I guess, that Christian never checked with me in his attempt to 'look into it'. Have now discovered a little gem called BONES Pet Parent, on Thurlow, where they seem to hire staff who actually like people and pets and their job. Especially Mikey. Who introduced me to a Canadian pet food called GO!
I've been shopping at Bosley's Yaletown for about eight months now, to generally, but by no means always, good service. Today wiped that history clean, and we started fresh in the 'Avoid At All Costs' category.
Today I went in to repurchase a Dr. Hill's dry cat food that I've had before, a diet formula. I couldn't see it on the shelves and picked up Hill's Indoor Cat dry food instead. At the till, I asked Ruby if they were really out of the diet formula, whose name I couldn't remember, and she went to look.
While she was away, Rojan, who had been sitting behind the till playing with her phone, and had previously ignored me, suddenly swung into action, got up and asked me what I was looking for. I told her I was looking for the diet Dr. Hill's dry food I'd had before, but was uncertain of the name. She consulted my account on their computer and told me I'd only ever had two kinds of dry food--Indoor Cat, and Adult 1-6. I said I'd also had a third kind, that was a diet formula.
I have no idea what had prompted this woman to insert herself into the proceedings, and god knows what she'd just seen on her phone, but she had clearly come loaded for bear. She told me with a wide sweet smile that I was maybe confused, that the name was Dr. Hill's Science *Diet*, and maybe I'd mistaken that. I said they were all Dr. Hill's Science Diet but there was a particular diet formula and I had bought it there before. She told me I was wrong. I asked her to look again, because I had definitely bought it and it should be on my account, and I wanted to know the name and buy it if they had it in stock. We repeated this exchange a couple of times for good measure. To her obvious fury, I stuck to my story.
She told me I was a liar and should get out of the store. She threatened to call the police. I said, "Because I disagree with you on a point of fact, you are going to call the police?" She said, "You are rude, you told me I was wrong. I am not wrong. This is a private business and I can tell you to leave, so leave or I will call the police." I said, "No. Go ahead." She seemed surprised. "You want me to call the police?!"
She did not call the police.
At this point Ruby came back to tell me they were out of stock on the diet formula, and Rojan, in a kind of advance triumphalist feisty fervour, told her to search my account again. Ruby did so, and with quite a lot of prompting from me, did eventually...and very reluctantly...mumble that I had indeed purchased Dr. Hill's Science Diet PERFECT WEIGHT dry food before. It was there on my account.
This fact changed nothing in her demeanour or in Rojan's. Where a reasonable person might have withdrawn from the ring, admitted their error, or even apologized for calling me a liar, if nothing else, Rojan just got angrier. She flashed her eyes at me, and her fierce angry smile came into play again. She shouted something, but I forget the details, and at this point I think I mentioned that she lacked the people skills necessary for front-of-house and should be consigned to the stockroom.
Ruby sided with Rojan, laughing and patting her shoulder and telling her to forget it and not to bother, because it wasn't worth it. Rojan left the scene--apparently, as it transpired, to go and rehearse her grievances with Beck in the back room.
Ruby offered to call the assistant manager Christian, because Jeffrey was on holiday. I spoke very briefly with Christian, who coldly said he didn't have time to hear the facts from me and would look into it--pretty sure he told me to leave, too, there was a lot of it about. Christian and I parted ways.
As I made my purchase (Dr Hill's Science Diet Indoor Cat dry food), I told Ruby her customer service skills also were lacking, that she should not have been supporting Rojan. She smiled her best smile, lifting her chest in fearless challenge, and asked brightly, "Do you want to take a picture of my name tag?" I declined.
And then-- "along came long-legged, lanky Jones"--Beck hove into view from the back room, brooded a bit as I paid, then told me that he understood I'd been asked to leave the store and that I should do so immediately. "You've been asked to leave. So leave," he said. I left.
Not recommended.
