Business ProfileforWild West Mercantile

I called Wild West Mercantile to resolve an unusual issue. After purchasing an entire men's outfit for our brother-in-law's 65th birthday ********* visit about 2 yrs ago the pandemic hit. We had to cancel our trip. During the last 2 years my brother-in-law has had very serious health issues & almost lost his life. He lost so much weight during his health crisis that he went from 5XL down to a *** Wanting to reschedule his birthday Tombstone trip to celebrate his recovery I called WWM praying that since all the items were still untouched in their original boxes tags/receipts attached the owner/mgr would be compassionate & consider allowing for an exchange. I knew it was a long shot but worth a try. From the moment sales clerk ******* answered the phone until the moment I hung up in shock ******* was extremely over-the-******** and disrespectful (******* repeatedly threatened to hang up on me despite me remaining calm and polite). I tried to inquire if there was either a mgr or owner I could speak with about what I knew was a very unusual request but ******* huffily cut me off informing me that they "have NO manager and there is NO owner!". I attempted to explain my difficult issue but ******* once again rudely and impatiently cut me off. In the same disrespectful tone informed me that SHE would be the one processing the return and the answer is "NO we don't take returns past 30 days! No exceptions! Anything else you want?!" Recognizing how inappropriately hostile & unhelpful ******* was behaving I again requested a mgr's/owner's name to which ******* became even more aggressive. It's unusual that a small business would not have either a mgr or owner but ********************* insisted "There is No manager OR owner!" I easily found information to the contrary-Owner **************, ***********************. Dealing with ******* at Wild West Mercantile was the worst CS experience in my life. How can a small business justify this awful behavior towards their paying customers?

Although, Wild West Mercantile can sympathize with the customer and her brother-in-laws health issues, her request was quite unreasonable for a small business or for that matter any business. When told that we have a 30 days return policy, the customer was insistent that we could make an exception and bend the rules for her since the merchandise still had all of the tags on. We explained that our cash register requires a receipt transaction number to pull up the purchase and if the purchase was made over 30 days ago, it won't retrieve the sale to allow an exchange or refund to be processed, even if the sale was just one day over that 30 day time period. During this explanation the customer constantly talked over the top of the sales clerk, not willing to listen and causing a very tense conversation. After repeating the details of the return policy, the customer then accused our sales clerk, ******* of making up the policy. The customer was told that our return policy is posted on our website and that she was welcome to take a look at it. At this point, the customer started to demand personal information about the sales clerk and the other associates that work at the store, which is highly inappropriate. As a store policy, we never give out personal information about the people who work at Wild West Mercantile. When the customer asked to speak to the manager, she was told that the manager was not available to speak to, not that there was NO manager or Owner. The manager was not yet on shift and to be honest, the customer would have received the same answer regarding sending back a purchase made almost 3 years prior, no matter the circumstances. A lot of customer purchased items pre-pandemics and either lost weight or gained weight, which does not mean the business is required or should be responsible to take the merchandise back. From the customers complaint, it appears that she did some googling, to identify the Owner of Wild West Mercantile; however, neither of the names she has listed are correct. ********************************* was the proprietor of Wild West Mercantile and owned the store until 2008. He has since passed away. As far as ******************, this person has never been associated with the business and is NOT an owner. We feel that the customers complaint is simply to tarnish Wild West Mercantiles name since we did not give in to her unreasonable demands. We feel that the customer is upset because she could not bully a small business into taking back product that she purchased 2 almost 3 years ago in April, 2020. Which happened to be during the time, the *********** was shut down for the pandemic. In fact, our store front was closed to in store customer from April 1, 2020 to May 18, 2020. We were only able to stay open to process online orders. Her commenting that she thinks our, behavior is awful toward paying customers is quite insulting since this was an isolated incident. As far as, a paying customer, her last and only purchases were made in 2020. Now 3 years later she wants us to take back product that we may not even sell/carry any more and because she did not like the answer she received, she has labeled our sale clerk and business as rude! Instead of supporting a small business and making a new purchase.

In response to the above false narrative from Wild West Mercantile and the extremely rude, hostile sales clerk ******* whom I believe either clearly lied to whomever responded to my valid BBB complaint, or the responder is in fact the same hostile, defensive sales clerk ******* conveying the above deliberate misrepresentations. Thank you however for validating me in your illogical, taunting response. Despite ********* vehement denials and insistences to the contrary that there was "NO MANAGER OR OWNER!". Your response made it evident thatM manager and owner so ******* was indeed lying just as I knew she was.Her behavior throughout the conversation can now only be described accurately as stonewalling or a pathetic power trip. There's no rational reason ******* wouldn't just let me speak with a manager, and if no manager was currently present, give me their name and when they'd be in the store instead of lying by telling me "THERE IS NO MANAGER OR OWNER!" I even asked for clarification if she meant that there wasn't a manager in store then? "NO! We don't have a manager or owner!". And so around and around we went like that until ******* repeatedly threatened to hang up on me. I pointed out that there was no reason for her rude threats since she was the only loud and hostile. AND clearly lying which now easily explains her defensive attitude.Also in my experience small business owners are usually front and center, more than willing to communicate with their satisfied and dissatisfied customers and not taunt their customers as in the censored owner names in the above response, including derisive jabs at my efforts to locate the *** owners. I'll no doubt have more luck finding out the necessary information in order to make a detailed complaint, including the cell phone taped conversation with ******* when I widely post this complaint to all social media platforms instead of confining it as I originally intended to the BBB website. Whatever the reason for ********* appalling lies and rude behavior my goal with this response is to correct the above ridiculous misrepresentations; 1) I neither wanted nor expected sympathy from strangers at *** nor did I want or expect outright derision and out-of-the-chute appalling rudeness and lies from a sales clerk when I said or did absolutely nothing to deserve her lies and inappropriate rudeness.2) I repeatedly explained to a constantly interruptive, hostile ******* that I did indeed understand their return policy and the inability for the registers to process the returns, which is exactly why I reasonably requested from my very first sentence to speak with a manager or owner due to the nature of my request for a possible returns exception that according to ******* she clearly didn't have the authority to override. As every rational adult knows registers are machines that are programmed by human beings & can and often are in fact be overridden or bypassed altogether by someone in authority such as a manager/owner.3) I never accused ******* of "making up" the return policy. That is a childish CYA falsehood ******* apparently decided to fabricate to avoid getting in trouble for mishandling of my call. I'm an intelligent, mature professional woman that is well aware of general prevailing return policies that often include ***** days allowances for returns. Hence this exactly why I immediately explained to ******* that since I knew I was most likely making a request for an exception to their policy I would like to speak with a manager or the owner. It seems reasonable that rather than a sales clerk lying to me that are no managers or owner the sales clerk (*******) would instead just pass the issue onto the manager/owner. My own grandchildren laughed at ********* attempt to make me sound as childish as she behaved since ******* claiming I "accused her of making it up" was such a ridiculous lie. Each time ******* robotically repeated like a broken tape recorder the 30-day return policy each time I calmly conveyed that I understood the 30-day policy but nevertheless that was exactly why I was asking to speak with a manager/owner. This reasonable request set ******* off on a tirade each and every time of threatening to hang up on. me. I asked her why was she threatening to hang up on me when she was the only one being rude and loud? Understandably I wanted to speak to someone other than ******* and believe I have right to make that request despite ********* perplexing stonewalling behavior.4) Of course I never demanded "personal information" about ******* or any of the other two employees ******* said worked there. ******* did however accuse me of asking for "personal information" when after being quite frustrated by this point with ********* disrespectful, aggressive tone and talking over the top of me, denying *** has a manager or owner, as well as repeating the 30-day return policy like a broken tape recording I politely asked for her name and job title. ******* snorted and informed me they have no titles at *** but she'll give me her name. She reason I asked for her job title was due to ******* telling me that she's the only one that does the returns so I didn't need to speak to anyone else because the answer would still be "No!". Since she told me that she's only the one processing the returns I understood her comment to mean that ********* title would be different than the other two employees she told me worked at ***. The non-existent manager at *** should consider some level of employee re-training since ******* obviously incorrectly believes that a dissatisfied customer asking for the offending sales clerk's name and job title is "personal. information". It clearly is standard and reasonable information every customer has a right to request. I seriously doubt that ******* will be able to fabricate an "inappropriate personal information" question I "demanded" she answer without sounding even more immature and irrational than she did during our "tense" phone conversation. A conversation in which only ******* herself made "tense" for herself, along with being deceptive, rude, unhelpful and hostile. Most businesses, even small ones, often tape record customer calls. This would be insightful for the managers/owner(s) to listen to carefully. You may find yourselves in need of hiring another sales clerk. 5) Once again ******* in yet another transparently CYA attempt to not be in trouble for the deliberate misinformation she repeated to me not once but several times regarding *** having "NO managers or owner!". Surprised and disbelieving at this unreasonable information I asked ******* several times why a store regardless of it's size did not have a manager or owner? ******* continued to dial up her defensiveness and defensiveness at my understandable disbelief. I explained to her multiple times that I was not interested in continuing to go in circles with her so I asked to speak to someone else there with her, hoping that they would give me the manager's name. ******* wouldn't let me speak to anyone else. I found this strange. At this point I no longer was concerned with discussing the possibility of an even exchange, but now I was only interested in speaking with a manager/owner about one of their sales clerk's appalling behavior. The bottom line is that while I understand stores various and differing return policies, I do not understand nor will tolerate an employee's unnecessarily disrespectful attitude and appalling rudeness. I also know for a fact that many stores care about their customer's satisfaction, which is what ultimately keeps the store's doors open. Therefore many stores especially small businesses managers and owners are willing to sometimes make exceptions. I would have been satisfied to accept a considerate "no exceptions" from a respectful manager or owner, but certainly not from a rude sales clerk stonewalling by lying to me that there is no one else besides her that I can speak to because *** "HAS NO MANAGER OR OWNER!" I and everyone I shared this appalling anecdote with thought her claim and attitude was completely inappropriate, overstepped the bounds of her limited authority and quite frankly quite bizarre overall. Everyone, including my our re-enactmnet acquaintances I shared ********* behavior and subsequent CYA lies with all previously shopped at ***. After this they will shop there no more.

In response to the above false narrative from Wild West Mercantile and the extremely rude, hostile sales clerk ******* whom I believe either clearly lied to whomever responded to my valid BBB complaint, or the responder is in fact the same hostile, defensive sales clerk ******* conveying the above deliberate misrepresentations. Thank you however for validating me in your illogical, taunting response. Despite ********* vehement denials and insistences to the contrary that there was "NO MANAGER OR OWNER!". Your response made it evident that *** does have a manager and owner so ******* was indeed lying just as I already suspected she was.********* behavior throughout the conversation can now only be described accurately as stonewalling or on a pathetic power trip. There's no rational reason ******* wouldn't just let me speak with a manager, and if no manager was currently present, give me their name and when they'd be in the store instead of lying by telling me "THERE IS NO MANAGER OR OWNER!" I even asked for clarification if she meant that there wasn't a manager in store then? "NO! We don't have a manager or owner!". And so around and around we went like that until ******* repeatedly threatened to hang up on me. I pointed out that there was no reason for her rude threats since she was the only one being loud and hostile. AND clearly lying which now easily explains her defensive attitude.Also in my experience small business owners are usually front and center, more than willing to communicate with their satisfied and dissatisfied customers and not taunt their customers as in the censored owner names in the above response, including derisive jabs at my efforts to locate the *** owners. I'll no doubt have more luck finding out the necessary information in order to make a detailed complaint, including the cell phone taped conversation with ******* when I widely post this complaint to all social media platforms instead of confining it as I originally intended to the BBB website. Whatever the reason for ********* appalling lies and rude behavior my goal with this response is to correct the above ridiculous misrepresentations; 1) I neither wanted nor expected sympathy from strangers at *** nor did I want or expect outright derision and out-of-the-chute appalling rudeness and lies from a sales clerk when I said or did absolutely nothing to deserve her lies and inappropriate rudeness.2) I repeatedly explained to a constantly interruptive, hostile ******* that I did indeed understand their return policy and the inability for the registers to process the returns, which is exactly why I reasonably requested from my very first sentence to speak with a manager or owner due to the nature of my request for a possible returns exception that according to ******* she clearly didn't have the authority to override. As every rational adult knows registers are machines that are programmed by human beings & can and often are in fact be overridden or bypassed altogether by someone in authority such as a manager/owner.3) I never accused ******* of "making up" the return policy. That is a childish CYA falsehood ******* apparently decided to fabricate to avoid getting in trouble for mishandling of my call. I'm an intelligent, mature professional woman that is well aware of general prevailing return policies that often include ***** days allowances for returns. Hence this exactly why I immediately explained to ******* that since I knew I was most likely making a request for an exception to their policy I would like to speak with a manager or the owner. It seems reasonable that rather than a sales clerk lying to me that are no managers or owner the sales clerk (*******) would instead just pass the issue onto the manager/owner. My own grandchildren laughed at ********* attempt to make me sound as childish as she behaved since ******* claiming I "accused her of making it up" was such a ridiculous lie. Each time ******* robotically repeated like a broken tape recorder the 30-day return policy each time I calmly conveyed that I understood the 30-day policy but nevertheless that was exactly why I was asking to speak with a manager/owner. This reasonable request set ******* off on a tirade each and every time of threatening to hang up on. me. I asked her why was she threatening to hang up on me when she was the only one being rude and loud? Understandably I wanted to speak to someone other than ******* and believe I have right to make that request despite ********* perplexing stonewalling behavior.4) Of course I never demanded "personal information" about ******* or any of the other two employees ******* said worked there. ******* did however accuse me of asking for "personal information" when after being quite frustrated by this point with ********* disrespectful, aggressive tone and talking over the top of me, denying *** has a manager or owner, as well as repeating the 30-day return policy like a broken tape recording I politely asked for her name and job title. ******* snorted and informed me they have no titles at *** but she'll give me her name. She reason I asked for her job title was due to ******* telling me that she's the only one that does the returns so I didn't need to speak to anyone else because the answer would still be "No!". Since she told me that she's only the one processing the returns I understood her comment to mean that ********* title would be different than the other two employees she told me worked at ***. The non-existent manager at *** should consider some level of employee re-training since ******* obviously incorrectly believes that a dissatisfied customer asking for the offending sales clerk's name and job title is "personal. information". It clearly is standard and reasonable information every customer has a right to request. I seriously doubt that ******* will be able to fabricate an "inappropriate personal information" question I "demanded" she answer without sounding even more immature and irrational than she did during our "tense" phone conversation. A conversation in which only ******* herself made "tense" for herself, along with being deceptive, rude, unhelpful and hostile. Most businesses, even small ones, often tape record customer calls. This would be insightful for the managers/owner(s) to listen to carefully. You may find yourselves in need of hiring another sales clerk. 5) Once again ******* in yet another transparently CYA attempt to not be in trouble for the deliberate misinformation she repeated to me not once but several times regarding *** having "NO managers or owner!". Surprised and disbelieving at this unreasonable information I asked ******* several times why a store regardless of it's size did not have a manager or owner? ******* continued to dial up her defensiveness at my understandable disbelief. I explained to her multiple times that I was not interested in continuing to go in circles with her so I asked to speak to someone else there with her, hoping that they would give me the manager's name in order to lodge a complaint about ********* attitude and lies. More stonewalling from ******* when she refused to let me speak to anyone else. At this point I no longer was concerned with discussing the possibility of an even exchange, but now I was only interested in speaking with a manager/owner about one of their sales clerk's appalling behavior. The bottom line is that while I understand stores various and differing return policies, I do not understand nor will tolerate an employee's unnecessarily disrespectful attitude and appalling rudeness. I also know for a fact that most stores care about their customer's satisfaction, which is what ultimately keeps the store's doors open. Therefore many stores especially small businesses managers and owners are willing to sometimes make exceptions. I would have been satisfied to accept a considerate "no exceptions" from a respectful manager or owner, but certainly not from a rude sales clerk stonewalling by lying to me that there is no one else besides her that I can speak to because *** "HAS NO MANAGER OR OWNER!" I and everyone I shared this appalling anecdote with thought her claim and attitude was completely inappropriate, overstepped the bounds of her limited authority and frankly was quite bizarre overall. Everyone, including my our re-enactmnet acquaintances I shared ********* appalling rudeness and subsequent CYA lies with all previously shopped at ***. After this they will shop there no more.

Wild West Mercantile is certainly sorry for how the customer feels regarding this issue. Although our previous response was written after speaking to the sales clerk involved, we will look further into the conversation that she had with this customer. It does seems that we are arguing two different issues. The customer obviously feels that the way she was spoken to by the sales clerk is the problem and we were trying to explain why we could not take back merchandise sold almost 3 years prior and even though the information given regarding the return/exchange was correct, the delivery of that information could have been done better. So, at this point, we wish the customer and her family a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

I appreciate the responsible and professional person who responded for your commitment to look further into the conversation I unfortunately had to endure with your extremely rude and lying sales clerk, *******, if it could even accurately be called a conversation. With her immediately hostile and defensive attitude ******* appears to be quite a loose ****** and should therefore possibly consider a job in which she is not interacting in any capacity with the public. **************** is definitely not ********* strong suit and in all likelihood I am not the first customer ******* has rudely bullied and lied to, and I certainly won't be the last. Unbeknownst to Wild West Mercantile ******* has no doubt cost them losing many customers due to her hostile, unhelpful, rude, arrogant and unnecessarily impatient behavior. After my being forced to listen to ********* string of obvious lies someone finally understood my complaint correctly - yes, my serious issue is ********* hostile, rude tone from virtually her first words to her last, and the blatant lies ******* adamantly repeated, rather than Wild West Mercantile's return policy. FYI - I had hoped for the best outcome with Wild West Mercantile allowing for an even exchange, but as I've already mentioned, I realistically recognized that scenario most likely would not be possible. I was raised to believe that you'll never know without trying, so it was worth giving it a try. Please know that minimizing ********* bizarre lies and the hostile, rude tone those lies were conveyed in down to "the delivery of that information could have been done better." is to clearly ignore the serious lies ******* repeatedly told a paying customer. Someone in authority at ********************** will hopefully recognize that having a sales clerk repeatedly and adamantly lying to a good customer that ********************** has no manager or owner unfortunately makes the store sound like a substandard free-for-all shopping environment run by immature, arrogant, hostile, rude sales clerks that obviously think can treat customers badly - not a positive shopping experience most adults would tolerate more than once. I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays in return!