Oh yeah, this happened. AGAIN

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Woman comes in the store today looking for some make-your-own-handprint toy. Apparently there's some kind of play-doh or clay-like substance of some kind, and you roll it out and have your kid push his/her hand into it, or your own if you're into that kind of thing, and it hardens somehow and you can paint it to make a treasured heirloom that will last forever and ever or at least until it breaks. Or something.

Several people search various areas of the store to find this thing, and are unable to do so. We couldn't even find it in the backroom. So we tell the woman we don't have it.

OMG. This is bait and switch. The toy is advertised in our circular and it's illegal not to have it. She can sue us! She's going to tell....the media! She's going to use....social media! We are going to dearly for....some piece of shit toy she could re-create at home.

We're terrified of this woman and her complaint. People express fear in different ways. We expressed ours by jokingly asking each other where the make-your-own-handprint toys were.

[alogram]

I am so sick of people using the term "bait and switch" incorrectly. Gah!

[raudf]

Every circular I've seen has, "While supplies last. May not be available at all locations," somewhere on it. The place her complaint will be going will also be circular in nature...

It's close to the Bunnies Shitting Eggs Holiday, so I guess she might be wanting to do her kids hands before she foists them off on the grandparents. (The kids or the handprints, take your pick.) She wants it NOW, because how will she immortalize the kids growing hands?! Don't you know they'll be a different SIZE TOMORROW?!

[MoonCat]

Oh for gods sake. Salt, water, cornstarch, we did it all the time at home when we were kids. Somewhere there's a little rock-hard homemade dough figure of Frodo Baggins...and I was in my 20's when I first read LoTR (what? don't judge me!)

She could have Googled a few hundred recipes for the stuff and probably make it from ingredients she has at home.

[earl colby pottinger]

Circular

I also bet that there is over a 50% chance that the circular does not exist or is for a totally different store chain.

[notalwaysright]

I usually get a copy of the ad and try to find the item. Not that this really solves anything, though. It's either expired, or somehow "not the same" as the one they saw. This generally means they saw it online, which unless I can find it, I can't do anything about.

A while ago someone tried to claim bait and switch. Couple problems with that. They wanted some special foam. The ad was expired. They claimed that we didn't have that particular kind of foam when the sale was valid. They said that if we didn't honor the old sale it was bait and switch, because they couldn't get the foam during the sale. One, if we had been out we could have ordered it at the sale price, and two our ad says "may not be available in all locations."

[Lace Neil Singer]

There's also the chance that the circular is about ten years old. XD Where I work, we have an occasional special offer where you can spend a certain amount in store and get money off fuel. Some SCs think it's permanent and they come in, waving a three month (or any age, take your pick) leaflet and demanding to know why the offer isn't going in the supermarket. Well, if you'd just read the date on it, you'd find out!

[blas]

You have ruined this woman's Easter!

How the hell dare you!!! SHE HAS CHILDREN!

[Kanalah]

Dr. Pepper really hurts when it's forced through my sinus cavity.

You think I'd learn by now.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

You have ruined this woman's Easter!

How the hell dare you!!! SHE HAS CHILDREN!

And that trumps everything right there . . . THINK OF THE CHILDREN.

And she's going to SOCIAL MEDIA . . . I had no idea FB or Twitter were considered reputable news sources.

Silly me.

*resumes the mass consumption of Peeps*

[mikoyan29]

Social Media...wow....

Will her complaint stand out amongst all the chatter about the Hoosiers?

[brucetiki]

And that trumps everything right there . . . THINK OF THE CHILDREN.

And she's going to SOCIAL MEDIA . . . I had no idea FB or Twitter were considered reputable news sources.

Silly me.

*resumes the mass consumption of Peeps*

And the media as well...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-04KEP918Y

[registerrodeo]

I got so sick of people coming in for something they saw in the flyer and whining it was all out....come in the first day if you want it or learn to read the fine print that says 'while quantities last" not 'oh, you are sooo special so we will set one aside just for you"

[wolfie]

And she's going to SOCIAL MEDIA . . . I had no idea FB or Twitter were considered reputable news sources.

So far as being authoritative sources is concerned, they're only one step below Wikipedia - and two below the National Enquirer.

[earl colby pottinger]

Social Media can work

I would also like to point out that sometimes social media does work for complaints, but this is usually only if a lot of people have a similar complaints and join in with agreement. Often there is a ring of truth to such statements, but people who like to make baseless complaints are self-centered and the way they tend to write their problems stands out like a sore thumb.

Worse, on active social media people ask questions back of the complainer. And the questions can be harsh. I am on Cruise Critics and forums for people who go cruising, and many people make complaints. But if the complaint is one of those silly/selfish ones other people have no problem pointing out all the errors in a person' complaint. Also their past history will come up. If they are the type to complain all the time it is noted.