Unfortunately, after my glowing 2016 review of a fantastic and knowledgeable staff members. I have this week had a horrible experience at Yeronga. Having purchased what turned out to be a faulty pair of school uniform shorts (I noticed the stitching on an elastic waist had entirely unravelled after being worn twice), I took it in for an exchange and the staff member on duty did not for one moment even consider I had a simple case with an obvious solution. The shorts were clearly new and nobody could reasonably argue that shorts are designed to fall apart after two wears. Or indeed after two years of wear!

As the purchase was made before the end of last year, I could only present my credit card statement as proof of purchase. Even with this, she immediately suggested that I could have bought the shorts from Lowes. My response was to show her the "Yeronga" label stitched into the shorts! I didn't bother saying that had I bought them from Lowes, all their staff members would be versed in statutory consumer rights and that while they may not choose to give me a refund, I doubt they would bat an eyelid at granting me the exchange that I was requesting.

Next, the staff member tried to palm off a "no returns" store policy then she thought it would be clever to quote "14 days" ... they might have taken the unfit-for-purpose item back within 14 day of purchase! Even as I wondered how many customers they had screwed over with this dodgy policy, I told the woman it was unlawful to refuse an exchange on such a faulty item and unlawful to suggest to customers that they have no rights where those rights are granted under consumer law. I'm sure she was not understanding the policy (surely it applies to a change of mind purchase and if not, it needs reviewing to reflect the law) but as an unsupervised store representative, she should have let common sense take over and considered the situation at hand.

"Well that's store policy." Again. No cogs were turning in there. Oh wait! A spark! No: "Where do you work that you know this stuff?" Really? It's common knowledge, sweetie. And, um, well if I owned a small business in a niche market in a VERY inconvenient location, with a huge competitor (with an online store) and my staff members were naming that competitor to customers... if my business relied on return customers and word of mouth... I might want my staff to be aware of such things. I might want them to have good customer service skills and that retail gem: listen to the customer and pretend you give a crap if you appreciate their custom and want them to return.

The last straw she clutched at (which I outright refused) was that I would have to leave the shorts with her for further examination and they may choose to sew them up! In the end, her superior (who she had been messaging on her phone) told her to exchange them anyway. I suggested her she ask her boss to verse his/her staff members in consumer rights so they don't put any more customers out. Now I think about it, I suggest they find somebody with the skills to handle what should have been a straightforward situation. I did not go into that store upset or disappointed; I thought I was going in to simply swap a pair of shorts.

The overwhelming introduction to kindergarten was made that much easier with the help of Sarah at Yeronga. After meeting her at the school's orientation day, we visited the tiny little Yeronga store in the Capitol Arcade. Besides all the helpful information she provided, Sarah understood our concerns about growth spurts and the great expense that is outfitting kids for school. She reminded me that Yeronga is happy to exchange unworn clothing should children not fit into their new uniform the following year. This made me feel better about buying clothing four months in advance! They also will match any advertised sale that Lowes has on uniforms that both stores stock. The price lists that the school provided us with show Yeronga to be more competitively priced than Lowes, too. In any case, you will not get this calibre of customer service from your average salesperson at Lowes.