A Letter of Complaint

To the Customer,

It's hard working in a shoe store. I worked today. I know, ew. Working for eight hours with shoes is terrible!! Especially serving angry mums who want school shoes for their screaming kids! Okay. Not literally. Screaming kids usually go next door to Betts Kids, but we still get isolated teenagers who won't take out their ipods or walk in their shoes properly that make the job so much harder than it already is! I mean come on, what is so hard about putting a shoe on and letting us tell you in it fits or not? Occasionally walking a few meters from your chair so we can tell you if your heel is slipping out, and maybe we'll ask you to take them off or tie them up. It's not that hard, people. So why do they make it so hard? I don't have a clue to be honest. Does it make them feel in charge and give them a boost in their self esteem? Are they too scared to talk to another adolescent? If anyone has the answer please let me know!

Okay, just to set you straight, when you buy a pair of shoes and someone says to you, 'We highly recommend using a Water and Stain Protector on the satin because any water or liquid that drips onto the shoe will stain, and using this spray will prevent it from staining' we are not, I repeat, not, trying to scam you out of your money! These products actually work and we use them ourselves on our own shoes! We work in a shoe store, we can tell the difference between shoes that are well kept and ones that are not! So much so I even polish my own school shoes! They don't look as bad as I once thought they did. The reason we say to use a Water and Stain Protector is because we know how much damage a bit of water can do to your shoes. We're not stupid, we know when you say 'Oh I've got it at home' that you really don't. We know you just want us to shut up and let you buy the damn shoes. We know. But the products we're selling you are to help preserve the expensive shoes you're buying! I'd want to know how to take care of them if i was buying $140 shoes. Really. Bottom line, we're not trying to scam you.

When the sign says '25% off School Shoes' and has an astrix (*) down the bottom in very small print that no normal person can actually read says 'Selected Styles', we understand you didn't know they were 25% off because you couldn't read it. We understand the print on the sign should be bigger and we understand how you feel scammed and are not enjoying your 'Betts Experience'. So could you try to understand that it's not our fault?! We don't have a factory out the back where we can just dash out and make a new sign you know. We are sent the signs from Head Office. We just put them up! So could you please stop abusing us and we'll give you the mailing address of Head Office. Maybe you could put in a good word for us while you're there!

Regards, Sarah. Betts Employee 2009