I had a not so pleasant experience as i went to return an item at William & Sonoma today. As i walked in, I saw a sign about a baking sale.  I asked the clerk if the cooking item i was interested i would fall into that sale. He proceeded to say “no, that sell is over and no it would not qualify” in a very matter of fact way.   Kind of knew from this point he was slapping me with negative energy, but I got sucked in!  I turned over my items to return and he said “if you read the receipt, these items end in -99 and are final sale”. He turns the receipt over for me.  I ask him where will i find this since he is not directing me where to look.  He says without pointing “at the bottom.” After about 20 seconds of scanning, i finally see it. I tell him how frustrating that is as a customers and that  W&S should make that obvious before people purchase online.  He kind of shrugged his shoulders obviously annoyed by my complaining.  He offered to exchange the non-99, damaged item despite me saying I wanted it returned.  After clarifying i did not want the item, he accepted it to mail back.  Instead of returning the item on my credit card, i have to wait 3 business days to check my statement to make sure the $7 non-99, damaged item was credited back to my card. When I asked why not credit my account. I was told “you purchased online.” When I questioned him and explained to him Dillard’s, Nordstrom, bare minerals, etc will return items in their store, he just huffed “all stores have their own return policy. ” Obviously, I was not getting any where friendly with this dude and he was bringing out the worst in me.  The other clerk was trying to offer me olive oil on bread to lighten the mood, but it was not happening.  So many poor customer services issues on this trip.   There wasn’t  any gentle guidance or apologies for the misunderstanding.  It will be a long time before i shop in W&S any time soon.

As the episode kept creeping into my day, I kept looking for joy. I then thought of this quote that I love from Jill Bolte Taylor.  I felt responsible for my energy but its so sad how a grumpy person can deplete it. After some good ole meditating, I felt better.