Sunday, January 24, 2016

LITTLE THINGS MEAN A LOT - MILLY LANDE - JEWISH GENERAL HOSPITAL


Through the years, I have purchased several pretty items at the Milly Lande gift kiosk in the lobby of the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal. The kiosk is "manned" by lady volunteers and the proceeds of the sales all go to hospital needs. I was happy to spend a few dollars there.

A number of weeks ago, I purchased a business card case there for $10.00 - Aluminum Card-Guard. A really pretty metal case with a profusion of multi-coloured flowers on a black background. It took some time before I finally was able to get my business cards made. Once they were in hand, I succeeded in opening the hard plastic packaging to access the card case.

Lovely little case. Great business cards. Finally. But, wait. To use the card case, you have to open it. But push and pull as I might, I could not open the catch. I tried again and again. I looked at the packaging for a clue on how to open it. Nothing.

Finally, a few days ago, I brought the case, still in the original package, to the Milly Lande gift kiosk. 

The volunteer wearing the tag BARBARA, looked at the case and declared in clear tones that I never bought that case at the Milly Lande kiosk. 

I turned the package over and showed her the embedded label, "Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, Canada", with the handwritten price "10.-" on it.

Still Barbara insisted her kiosk never sold such a product. I could point to the exact spot on the top shelf in the counter where I picked it out, but it was useless. Barbara was not going to give me a refund.

Then she picked up the card case and started telling me it was easy to open - and she tried and she tried and she pushed and she pulled and she tried again and again and she finally pried it open. "See, it opens. There's nothing wrong with it."

I will never again buy anything at the Milly Lande gift kiosk.

1 comment:

Phyllis Carter said...

Please note: Through the years, the ladies at the Milly Lande kiosk in the Jewish General Hospital have never given me a receipt for any of my purchases. If you shop there, ask for a receipt. If anything is wrong with your purchase, they will not be able to deny you bought the item there. In my case, I had no receipt of course, but the label of the Jewish General Hospital is on the package.