On July 17th, I went to the above Hour Eyes store to request a replacement nose pad for a set of sunglasses I had purchased from them about five months ago. Apparently the screw that holds the little plastic pad to the frame had come off and it and the pad had fallen off.
The attendant to whom I was directed listened to my request and went into the lab with the the sunglasses. He came out a few minutes later and told me that there was nothing he could do, since a replacement pad was not available. I asked him if he could order one and I would return when it was available. He said that ordering one was not an option, that they came into the shop at varius times. He stated that my options were to "check back periodically in the hope of a replacement appearing or that I could go down the street to one of their competitors and see if they could help".
I pointed out that that was definetely not a satisfactory solution and that I had a third option to suggest: he could cannibalize one of their floor samples currently on display, replace the pad on my glasses and then he could wait for the arrival of the replacement pad or he could go down the street to deal with their competitors.
After some back-and-forth between us (all very politly spoken), he indicated that he would do as I had requested, took the sunglasses from me again and marched right back to the shop. A few minutes later he marched out, having replaced the pad with one that did not clearly matched the existing one, attached with an oversized screw that was too long and wide (having stripped the threads of the frame socket in the process of jamming it in place) and with my fairly new glasses now sporting an evident scratch on the interior surface on the left lens.
I am now clearly worse off than when I went into the store. I should have heeded his initial advice and gotten myself out of there.
I realize that I went into the store 40 minutes before closing time and the poor man wanted to get himself out of there also, but a lot less attitude and more will to help would have garanteed him and the company a future repeat customer. That won't happen now.
As a post-scrip, I did go to one of their competitors who attempted to satisfactorily correct the situation (in spite of the damaged stripped mount socket). And they did it with a helpful smile, for free and (more impostantly) successfully. Guess where I will be going for my next set of glasses?
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