Jos A Bank: Returning Winter Clothes For Spring, And Jerk Asst Managers

Due to his incredible "return game" the Deal Messiah has only been denied a return twice, and one such occasion happened the other night.  The Deal Messiah was bored (again) on a Thursday night, and went out to return some worn winter clothing to Jos A Bank.  It is the first week of spring, so therefore time to recycle. 

I walked into Jos A Bank and immediately asked for the manager so that I could make a return.  The manager came out, and took a look at the three used shirts I'd placed unceremoniously on the counter. 

He asked "Have you worn these?"  I replied, "Of course."

He then proceeded to have an attitude with me.  I suspect it had something to do with my fancy hat, and he was probably having a bad night.  No offense, but every night would be a bad night working for Jos A Bank in some marginal strip center where I live. 

He continued to question my return, and after I pressed him a bit, he went to call his manager for approval.  The manager must've been off duty, I've dealt with the guy before, and he's let me return some pretty outrageous stuff there without an issue. 

Asst Manager huffypants returned with his feathers quite ruffled and told me that I could not make the return.  I proceeded to get pretty pissed off, and told him that the reason I shop with Jos, is for a level of customer service that I was clearly not getting tonight. 

He said that he could not in good conscience take the returns back, and I told him that I knew his manager and he would allow it.  He said in a big big puff, "You're dealing with me tonight, I"M IN CHARGE."  This really set me the wrong way, and I blew him up.

I ended up leaving in a big huff with my three shirts, and promptly drove to the other Jos A Bank store located in the big mall about 15 minutes away.  There I was greeted courteously and my return promptly processed.  Within 5 minutes, I had a credit of $106.33 on my credit card.  What's up.

This wasn't the end of it though, see my next post on how I dealt with the assistant manager, at the corporate level.  Shit rolls downhill.

Menage Trois Trader Joe's: The Deal Messiah Gets A Two For One

It has to happen at least once in every man's lifetime, and today it happened to the Deal Messiah. The mythical Menage A Trois. However, this wasn't of the sexual nature, although the Deal Messiah certainly felt gratified afterward.

I've had an old office chair up for sale on Craigslist now for at least two weeks with absolutely no interest.  Finally, out of the blue, I get a call from a German lady who just moved to the area.  However, she lives about 45 minutes away, and was really weird about coming to pick up the chair.  We decided that I would meet her friend, who happened to work at our local Trader Joe's, and I would do the deal with him there.

We're moving out of this god forsaken place at the end of the month, and it occurred to me that we probably have a bunch of food in the pantry that we're not going to use.  I did a quick sweep and pulled 3 cans of light coconut milk, a box of pumpkin pancake mix, and a bottle of maple syrup (all trader joe's brand).  What the hell, let's try to return this stuff, I seem to be able to return everything else known to man...including dog food.

Dude met me as promised outside of Trader Joe's, and I collected my $ for the used chair.  Sold sight unseen, only via photos.  I also mentioned to dude that I had a few returns to make, and asked if he could help me.  He said sure, no problem, and we went inside.

He turned out to be the assistant manager, and processed my returns in no time flat.  I got an exchange coupon worth enough to buy a sixer of their Fat Weasel Ale (7.1%) and a bottle of their Prosecco, which Mrs. Messiah can't seem to get enough of.

Excellent.  I love getting it a two-fer.

Wintergreen Ski Rental Discount: 25% Off For The Deal Messiah

The Deal Messiah takes his "game" on the road, even for a fun ski vacation. Resorts and those patronizing tourists love to stick it to you, while you're relaxing and not on your A Game. The Deal Messiah aims to be a beacon of light, that people should follow on their vacations, so they don't get unnecessarily hoodwinked.



I went down to figure out my ski lift ticket, and rental early Saturday morning, and discovered the place to be a full blown circus. Apparently every yahoo in the southeast got a memo to descend on Wintergreen Ski Resort last Saturday. The rental line alone was 2 hours. So I bailed and decided to come back later in the day.

Upon my grandiose return, and after a few Coors Light, I discovered that the resort had "run out of snowboard rentals". Non sense. I told the lady at the ticket window that I wanted to buy a half day pass, and she said she couldn't sell it to me today because they were so busy. I made the argument that they were out of boards, and I was being asked to wait 30 minutes for other people to return their boards.

I dropped my classic line, "What can you do for me."

She said she could ask the manager, and returned to grant me a 25% off discount on my snowboard rental. Not too bad, just for asking. Also, it turned out that I went back and checked at the actual rental station, and they had a board that had just come in, so there was no wait. Nice.

PETCO: Recycling Dog Stuff, Why Not?

The Deal Messiah loves to push the boundaries of "the establishment". Also, being an environmentalist, he staunchly supports recycling efforts. Everyone should follow his recycling efforts, of used dog toys and items that he simply doesn't need anymore.

***
A pretty ridiculous idea occurred to me while cleaning out our "dog bin". We had a bunch of old toys and miscellaneous non sense items leftover from our old dog. They either wouldn't fit our new dog, due to size differences, or were just stuff we wouldn't use anymore, as shown below.



So, I put everything into a grocery sack (not recommended) as I was feeling pretty bold that day, and rolled over to Petco. I told Michelle at the checkout lane that I needed to return "some stuff I didn't need anymore" and they went to get the manager. "Linda" the manager, came out, and I noticed that she was wearing a studded black belt. Classy. I didn't have a receipt, or most of the original packaging, and the items were for the most part, very used. It was awesome.

They didn't even question the fact that I was returning a bunch of used stuff. Linda told me that they couldn't issue me a refund, but that I could go pick out other items in the store and they could do an exchange. I said no problem and picked out some dog stuff that we didn't need. It felt good, it was like winning a shopping spree.

I returned with a few AKC stuffed squeaky toys, a bag of rawhides, and some greenies for our new pup, and the manager proceeded to process my return. She went to get SKU's for items I was returning, as I didn't even so much as have the packaging. So to make it easier on them, I found a few new versions of what I was returning, and brought them up to checkout. This helped, as they were being lazy, and a huge line had built up behind me, so they just scanned the new items straight up. I definitely maxed out my return of $46 at Petco.

Thanks guys.