There really isn’t a good reason, in this day and age, why a company will provide poor customer service. There are too many choices out there for consumers to deal with a company that has rotten service. Maybe I’m old fashioned in thinking that I would rather pay a little more for something if the company I’m buying it from will support their product and make me feel like a valued customer.

I’m going to share a story with you.

Every year, there is a big Christmas Craft Fair at the Civic Center in Charlottetown. I am not one for crowds and I usually stay away from large events with masses of human beings moving each other down aisles - not for me.

However, there is one vendor that brings me to that fair each year. (I won’t mention their name here.) It’s a place that makes personalized ornaments and I absolutely love them. They have become a part of the Christmas tradition in my new family. When my husband and I were engaged, we got an ornament personalized for our ‘1st Christmas’ together. The following year, when we were married, my sister-in-law gave us a personalized ornament from there with our wedding date on it. The next year, when we were expecting our first child we had ornaments made to announce the news to our families. I had an ornament made for me in honor of my pregnancy. The following year, we got our daughter’s ‘1st Christmas’ ornament from that vendor. The next year when we were expecting our second child, we had an ornament made, again, to announce the news to our families as well as a new family ornament with four snowmen - one representing myself, my husband, my daughter, and a ‘TBA’ snowman to represent the new baby.

That Christmas fair has come and gone. I didn’t make it because I was just too busy. It wasn’t until this past week I realized we didn’t get an ornament made for our new baby! This might sound trivial to some people, but it’s a big deal to me. This is a tradition that’s been going on since 2002! And what will Shelby think when there are ornaments to mark every other event in our lives except for her?! Talk about second child syndrome.

This company has no website. They’re in Nova Scotia - a neighboring province - so a trip over there to get one ornament is not an option. I called the company yesterday to see if they would be able to mail an ornament to me.

“No, we don’t do that,” was the answer I got.

“Really? And you don’t have a website or anything?” I said…panic in my voice…”But I have a story! This is part of our Christmas tradition! Do you know how important this is to me?” I thought…wondering if I told the girl this it would change her mind. But by the tone in her voice, I doubted it would matter.

“No. We don’t do anything like that. Sorry.” I wonder what the owner of that business would have said to me. I hope the conversation would have gone differently.

I can understand mail order could cause a lot of problems for a small business like this - especially during the holidays. However, think of how the sales could sky rocket! Couldn’t she at least have asked me what I needed? We could have worked something out. I could have described what I wanted, asked if it could be made up for me so I could have someone pick it up for me.

Instead, a paying customer was told “no we don’t do that” and that was it. I don’t think that’s acceptable. If you are a small business that creates gift items that could potentially be cherished collectible items, you should be more accommodating than that. If not, don’t bother going to fairs every year to get people hooked on you. Seriously.

I have contacted a fellow VA in Nova Scotia, Amanda Dugas, who has agreed to pick up an ornament for me. Thankfully I have a virtual friend willing to do me a favor.

I’m just steamed that I got such a cold, hard ‘no’ from a small business that gives me the warm and fuzzies every year when I decorate my Christmas tree.

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