How to lose a long time customer

I can't remember the first light we bought from this store but we bought our house in the neighbourhood 10 years ago and it's full of their product. Having said that I always found the service to be less than generous and often rather stand offish. In fact this store has lost a very good loyal customer for a very stupid little thing relating to customer service.

Back in December late we took a oil lamp conversion that my grandmother had won for butter making about 100 years ago. When the farm got electricity my grandfather had converted it and it's been in my family ever since. It needed a new lamp shade so we, of course, headed to Living Lighting. After quite a bit of fiddling the custom shape and fabric was decided on and we went home to wait for it's arrival. Several weeks went by without hearing anything so I called only to find out that the order had been lost. Back we went, again, to get the order redone. At this point I was mystified how no one had remembered such a unique lamp, and how no one really thought it appropriate to apologize or offer a discount. The lampshade order was made up again, I asked if it could perhaps, because of the inconvenience, be expedited. That request was met with a blank stare.

Many weeks later I finally got a call that the shade was in and I dropped by to pick it up today. In looking at it I realized that the oil lamp, not being a real electric lamp, lacked attachments for it to sit on top of the bulb. I start to feel a little sick thinking they've screwed it up again. I mention the problem to the woman serving me and get another blank stare and a comment that that is what was ordered. Now, I brought the lamp in, twice, so it's clearly not my mistake if the shade is not correct. She mentions to her co-worker the problem and the co-worker says, oh yeah, it will need a add-on converter to work. I'm left thinking that if my husband had picked it up he wouldn't have known about that and we would have had to go back to the store again,!

She tells me the amount, and it is less than the price marked on the shade, so I comment that I must have gotten a discount for the inconvenience. What inconvenience, I get back, so I mention that the original order was lost and I actually assume I'd get a discount. I had just put $20 down, the adapter was extra, and no discount was being offered. When I went to pay, the amount had decreased so I asked again, and I was told, grudgingly, that I had indeed gotten a discount.

As I got to leave I then get told that the woman serving me had driven "all day" to get my shade, and that "for a $50 shade". I thank her for that selfless act and leave.

The last purchase at Living Lighting has been made.

PS There must be an enormous staff at this store composed of twins and triplets because every time I get someone who has no knowledge of what has gone before but I recognize the face every time. As I said, not generous service at all.