Saturday, August 20, 2005

So this is why we file our receipts

David & I love plants,

and we have 5 acres for him ( er, did i say him? I meant us ) to play with. Like yesterday, we bought more fruit trees ( we already have peaches, pears, figs, grapes, blueberries..etc. er..are tomatoes fruits? ) from Lowe's, but I digress.



We bought some Blue Spiral Juniper in June last year but after like a few months, they just shrivelled up and died.

Now, back in Malaysia, where the return policy on things is like NO RETURNS/ALL SALES FINAL or for those stores that seem to pity consumers, there's a 3 day grace for you to return/exchange products, the idea of exchanging PLANTS of all things, would have seemed pretty useless, not to mention nonsensical.

In the States, however, most stores have a 30 day or 90 day return policy for most items - we've even returned VERY MOULDY blueberries to Sams' after a week and exchanged them for fresh ones! - which seemed HUMONGOUS to me when I first got here. Talk about customer satisfaction.But when I learnt that some places like Lowe's had a ONE YEAR GUARANTEE on some of their plants, I almost keeled over.

Hence, back to the Junipers. We got 2 new ones yesterday from Lowe's ( 14 months later ) and ( maybe because David is such a regular customer there ), he talked to the manager, and get this..we didn't even have to bring our receipt.


Goodbye sad looking shrivelled twigs, Hello big fat succulent evergreens!
Hope you survive longer than your predecessors!

p/s: Er, Mr. Manager at Lowes, I forsee some exchanges of roses later this year..but don't worry yourself over that for right now...

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi!! I just now looked at your wedding pictures. You were gorgeous! Congratulations.

Anonymous said...

Ahhh.. donch we just love the ang mohs..!! but we donch have the 1 year exchange thingie here in Canada.. bummer..!! maybe i should move up states eh..???

Morgan said...

Be careful about taking advantage of this exchange policy we have in the states. Some places will put your name on a list which then seems to get circulated among other businesses and no matter how bad a future product is, your exchange will be denied.

Of course, you can sidestep all of this by frequenting the same shops and getting to know the managers as you have done at Lowe's.

Here's a question. Are you sure you are finding plants suitable for your area?

letti said...

hi carrie! your wedding was gorgeous too!

hi bigbok! Well, i think the one year exchange that i've seen so far is only for plants.

hello morgan. thanks for visiting my blog

nah, i'm not taking advantage of exchange policies. We don't bring things back a lot, but we keep the receipts just in case. Plus like you have said, like at Lowes, we do so much business there that they know us, so it's all cool.

Well, we usually talk to the garden specialist at Lowe's before we get our plants and i think we were just inexperienced the first time around.

letti

letti said...

besides, everything that's on this blog is rather tongue in cheek, not to be taken so seriously :)

Agnes said...

Both my husband and I were amazed at such policy here too. My husband said it is next to impossible to get something returned in France.

makuahine said...

Mmmmm I'd love to get some fruit trees. But every time I suggest it, Steve says no because, he says, we won't live here long enough to start getting fruit from them. I say we've been here 5 years, if we'd planted them in the beginning... ahhhh!

Thao said...

The plant return policies are great especially when the thumb isn't so green. Don't forget to put fish heads in the soil, or something like that. My mom planted 2 pear trees for me and threw those in there and they are still alive. Fish heads I tell you. Works wonders.

Ashley said...

Hmm.. hadn't realized there was an exchange policy. A bit late here, but definitely will keep it in mind for next time. :)

lynnee said...

i've friends in australia who'll "buy" a dress, wear it for some special occassion without removing the price tags & labels, & then returning it to the store the very next day.

& the store accepts it back, no questions asked. so long as it's still in sellable condition.

which makes me wonder... all those clothes i bought while i was in australia... could they have been worn by such people prior to me buying them for keeps?

*eeeks!*

Monica said...

DANG!!! I dont think anyone had 5 acres here on long island, unless its a farm out east and they've owned the land since the 1800's!!!