An Open Letter to Saddles N’ Such

I don’t know all that much about horses. At least, not to the degree people who do ride and care for them, and who would own a store dedicated to them would. I do know they are expensive creatures, as are the items related to them; even the things you wear when riding can be costly, especially for dressage. Of course these items would retain a good second hand value, so the idea of selling something you don’t think you will be using again makes sense. What makes even more sense is to sell such via a store which specializes in equestrian items.

That certainly is what my girlfriend thought when a pair of boots she had owned for many years were placed on consignment at your store. While certainly not the western style that is popular here, they were still something that might sell.

The agreement as presented was that wen the item sells, she owner would be contacted. Of course, she would call from time to time (by that, periods ranging from a few months to nearly a year later, depending on how things were going) and these boots had been in the store for many, many years without selling, but they were there. The owner of the store was very nice to her, and she waited patiently. These boots had been in the store before I had even met her, several years ago, but nothing had happened. That was fine.

We move to yesterday. She had found a riding helmet that she wanted to add to consignment, since it’s not only too small for her, but does her no good now anyway. Makes sense, right?

Upon reaching the store, and asking about consignment, she was told that the store was sold about 2 years ago, and that they no longer did consignment. When she asked about her boots, she was told that they were no longer there, and that everything that had been left was donated to a horse related charity.

According to her, she just immediately walked out. There was no empathy in how the information was presented, it was cold, and matter of fact. She of course texted me and continued with what she was working on for that morning, but came home still quite upset. She made quite the post online about this, which I suggested she share with the store (she originally wanted to write a letter explaining her dislike of what they had done) and off to Facebook she went, with that rant copied over as a review of the store. In retrospect, I should have given it a proofread and adjusted a few parts of it for her, but the idea got across regardless.

We thought that would be about it, although I was expecting a reply, what we got was indescribable.

Saddles N Such: Public notices were posted in the store, in local papers and on all social media outlets letting people know that the shop had changed ownership and to please pick up your items. After a year and half of returning items to hundreds of people, the remaining items were donated to a local horse charity to help others.

Let’s look at this really carefully. Now, when items were placed on consignment, information about the item and its owner was recorded – this included the phone number. Now, my girlfriends number has changed, but that was in the past year, probably about 1 year ago. Store ownership was stated to have changed 2 years ago, so they had a proper number for her when ownership changed. Oops. Too much trouble to call the owners? Sounds like it.

Public Notices, let’s go into those, which are reported to have been posted: In store, in local papers and on all social media outlets. Sure, that makes sense, and is certainly someone you should do, but it seems you failed to consider something.

What good does a sign in a store do when someone doesn’t shop there? We aren’t even in that area often at all, let alone would we think to visit the store. We do not subscribe to the newspaper. It’s 2016, relatively few people do. Also, considering we do not live in Germantown, we wouldn’t get the local “free” papers traditional to those towns, so even that option is lost – notwithstanding that very few people would look at the ads in such.

Lastly, social media. Yeah, that too would make sense, but again, it requires someone to have an active account that follows that page. At the time in question, I do believe my girlfriend was rarely, if at all using Facebook. I’m very certain she had not followed the stores page, as she isn’t exactly a power user, so to speak, liking all the places she visits or pages she thinks of.

Now, what do all of these options have in common? They require the end user to see these posts. They required her to have done something to know this was happening. all the while, you had her number and could contact her day one when you decided, upon taking over the store, that consignment wasn’t being continued.

The sickening part of this is not only that clearly, from your wording, many others lost items which were donated off, but that this, in the end, wasn’t your property to do this with. The fact remains that you gave away her items. It doesn’t matter if she wanted to sell them, she could change her mind at any moment, and take the items back. That’s how consignment works.

I suggested she get those boots back since they clearly weren’t ever going to sell, I wanted her to have them to make her happy, to help her think back to when she could ride horses all she wanted, and smile about those fun times.

All you had to do was pick up the phone and call her to let her know, but you couldn’t be bothered to do that. You couldn’t even be nice when you told her that the shoes were gone. You couldn’t be polite even in a response to a review, yet I’m sure reading this, if you even are, that you think you are right in this.

As a business owner, taking over, you owed it to the previous customers, especially those who had trusted the previous store owner with their items, to do everything you could to let them know to get their items. The most direct and proper method, calling them, clearly wasn’t attempted. You don’t even address this in your reply, which clearly means you never tried, or wanted to try contacting the properly owners. That’s low. Beyond low. I doubt the items were even donated to a charity, but that’s beyond my ability to prove or disprove, and doesn’t change the fact you didn’t try at all.

That is not how you run a business. That is not how customer relations go. You might be the best damned  equestrian goods shop for 100 miles, but the way you handled this, from beginning to end, is terrible. It’s also worth mentioning my words here are me being nice about this. What I really want to say is much, much worse.

I don’t want a reply, either. I’m letting this stand as what it is. I’m certain you would just provide the same canned, we didn’t do anything wrong response, as you did to her, and I don’t want to hear it.

You don’t even have the sense to apologize. You simply don’t care. It doesn’t get much worse than that.