If anyone wants to ruffle my legal feathers, it is simple. Read below.
As everyone filed into the new Westfield Riccarton Mall, so did I. When people got sucked into this beauty cosmetic stall (ATTITUDE LINE) promoting organic facial products, so did I. The sales girl was mesmerising with red hair, beautiful smile and electrifying touch as she put samples onto my inner wrist.
Salesgirl - "It is normally NZ$130 but because we are new, we are selling it at half price!"
Now, I am not normally someone that buy things impulsively or a gutter for all these salesmen's talk. But something about her made me took the box of Organic Cucumber Facial Peel, flipped it round to see it was made in the USA and with confidence brimming that this is the best money spent on my face for a long long time, I forked the $ out and went home.
Opening the box at home, saw the jar with strong printings - Made in ISRAEL, filled in the USA. I reeled back and decided I am not having the product. I have never used Israeli cosmetic products on my face, and I don't think I will if I knew. Being a consumer, I have the right of preference when it comes to my product consumption. Things I put on my face is either made in France, USA or Australasia. China... uh-uh....Israel? Never heard of it..
I marched up to the stall the next day and asked (*very nicely I must say) for my money back, and to return the product. They said their standard box prints everything is Made in USA because most of their products are. Except for this Organic Facial Peel which is in fact made in Israel and filled in USA. Irrelevant.
They then indicate that their manager will contact me in a few days regarding the refund. Few days came, no call from manager. So I whipped up my phone, rang manager up, and told her what I wanted.
Manager: "Why don't you use the product, and if you don't like it, I will refund you."
Me: " That is not the point. I DON"T want to use it, I have no confidence in it since I knew it is made in Israel. It is like.. buying a BMW with the expectations that it is made in Germany, only to find out that it is made in South Africa, instead of merely being assembled in South Africa."
Manager: " I think you are silly. I am giving you the chance to use it prior to a refund. And besides, my staff and the printing were wrong, ALL our products are made in USA."
Me: "You do not call your customer "silly" and it is totally false representation on your product's box!"
Manager: "Ok Ok, text me your bank details and I will refund to you tomorrow."
2 days later, refund came and I returned the product to the stall. I saw other customers buying from them and I wondered whether they were all informed consumers. If ATTITUDE LINE didn't give me the refund, I will definitely take this up to the Dispute Tribunal and/or media despite such a trivial matter. Seriously. Them being in a new market has all the more to lose.
