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EWmums

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ewmoda

Stupidity award of the week...

156

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 12 March 2011 - 16:53

... goes to: the shop manager of Banana Republic, Dubai Mall.

Went in there, saw a lovely suit. Nice jacket with matching trousers. Looked through jackets, found a size 10. Looked through trousers (of which there were approximately 20 on the rack): all of them (!) were size 4. Found a shopkeeper and here's the conversation:

Me: Excuse me, where can I find the other sizes for these trousers?
Her (with pitiful face): I'm sorry ma'm, we only have size 4.
Me: That's strange, because you have the jackets in all sizes, so don't you have any matching trouser sizes?
Her: Oh, we didn't order like that. All trousers are size 4.
Me: But why, it's a suit, isn't it?
Her: Yes, of course.
Me (after short investigation of the blazers): So, if it's a suit, why are there no trousers in other sizes and no jackets in size 4 to match all these trousers in size 4?!
Her: I think maybe because slim people buy trousers and big people buy jackets.
Me: ?!?!?!? But it's a suit, jacket and trousers belong together?!
Her: Yes. Sorry ma'm.

A short conversation at the cashier with other shopkeepers then enlighened me that apparently the store manager decided to only buy trousers in one size and it's size 4. Not only for this particular suit but also for others. They said tons of customers complain about this (both, size 4's who can't find a jacket because all jackets start at size 6, as well as all other people who can't find matching trousers for the jackets)...

Congratulations Banana Republic, this purchasing policy definitely earns my personal stupidity award of the week.

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117

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 14 March 2011 - 12:01

I was looking for a trophy to give out for a rugby competition. Went to Decathlon to find one. They had a selection of pretty ugly cups, and some nice enough trophies, that were sport specific. Now, if you were the store manager in this country, you would probably order football, rugby, tennis, cricket and swimming trophies as this is likely what you are going to sell, right ? No, they had about 10 Petanque trophy !!!!!! wonder how long these are going to stay on their shelves !!!! They are a French company so I suppose someone thought the local French expats would want to play... after all there's plenty of suitable ground around :)

1238

Posts

EW OLDHAND

Latest post on 14 March 2011 - 09:45

HSBC has Premier, bank card is black, credit card is navy blue? Would this be it? That could be it. My DH declined the credit card because we already have an HSBC credit card from our HSBC account.

149

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 14 March 2011 - 09:39

I was looking for a trophy to give out for a rugby competition. Went to Decathlon to find one. They had a selection of pretty ugly cups, and some nice enough trophies, that were sport specific. Now, if you were the store manager in this country, you would probably order football, rugby, tennis, cricket and swimming trophies as this is likely what you are going to sell, right ? No, they had about 10 Petanque trophy !!!!!! wonder how long these are going to stay on their shelves !!!!

Sticky Wicket36659

1511

Posts

EW EXPERT

Latest post on 14 March 2011 - 09:23

HSBC has Premier, bank card is black, credit card is navy blue? Would this be it?

Pomegranate35436

867

Posts

EW GURU

Latest post on 14 March 2011 - 09:22

My HSBC premier card is black? Is that good or bad? Mine is black too. But he insisted it had to be blue. So one day, when I'm bored, I guess I'll call up hsbc and try to see what the difference is. Perhaps the blue was a one off issue or one day they just churned out the wrong color cards by mistake. Someone pressed "blue" when it should have been "black". So to avoid giving the buy one get one free deal as much as possible, they narrow down to the (very few) people who were actually given a blue card. :\:

117

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 14 March 2011 - 09:22

I love these threads. Helps me realize it's not only me that has these totally bizarre encounters in Dubai. And not only here it happens in Bahrain too - when I first arrived in the Middle East I began to wonder if it was naive little me with my bland BBC English accent and but no its definitely THEM! Yesterday am the door bell rang. Odd I thought as usually the DVD hawkers get into our place in the evenings. Anyway open door to one of the cleaning staff and a smartly dressed gentleman brandishing a hairdryer. "Test fire alarm madam?" Bemused I said yes of course come in and stood back. The smartly dressed one marched across the hall to my kitchen, looked around for a socket (we have only two in the kitchen), unplugged the kettle, plugged in the hairdryer and aimed it at the fire alarm! I stood there watching and waiting for the alarm to go off as they regularly do in our buildings waking us at all sorts of inconvenient times. After a minute he switched off the hair dryer, "Thank-you Ma'am, its working fine" and left for my neighbours across the corridor....I am still wondering what the h**k was that all about!

1238

Posts

EW OLDHAND

Latest post on 14 March 2011 - 09:19

My HSBC premier card is black? Is that good or bad? Mine is black too. But he insisted it had to be blue. So one day, when I'm bored, I guess I'll call up hsbc and try to see what the difference is.

455

Posts

EW EXPLORER

Latest post on 14 March 2011 - 09:18

Mine is red ! The colour of my face everytime I have to speak or deal with them !

Pomegranate35436

867

Posts

EW GURU

Latest post on 14 March 2011 - 09:14

My HSBC premier card is black? Is that good or bad? Mine too, I wonder if all these different colors is a secret code of importance/or lack of....much like the thread on the gold Airmiles card ;)

634

Posts

EW GURU

Latest post on 14 March 2011 - 09:12

My HSBC premier card is black? Is that good or bad?

117

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 14 March 2011 - 09:09

I would alert the head office of Banana Republic about that. When I asked the girl in Nike what the difference was between all of the running shoes - she said, "These are white colour...these are purple colour...." so I went home and wrote to Nike that their usual standard of education and service was not being offered in MCC - they wrote a personal note back. That's ridiculous! Miss Balamory - I am a size 4! Just...two of them. 44 ;) Haha me to !!! And me :-)

5499

Posts

EW MASTER

Latest post on 14 March 2011 - 08:35

My HSBC Premier card is blue :)

654

Posts

EW GURU

Latest post on 14 March 2011 - 08:34

I did an online google search and the only reference to a HSBC blue premier card is....ta de dah...this thread. Does one even exist? I love these threads. Helps me realize it's not only me that has these totally bizarre encounters in Dubai. I nearly lost it when I went to the movies at MOE this week. I saw an HSBC price so I asked, "If we pay with our HSBC card, do we get a discount?" The man said yes, two for one. Buy one, get one free. So I pulled out my credit card and he said, it must be premier. So I pulled out my premier card and he said, "No, the blue premier card." As I didn't realize there was more than one premier card, I clarified. "So we don't get the discount if we use our HSBC card?" He said, "Yes, two for one. Buy one get one free." Now I thought I understood that we didn't get the discount, but now he says we do. So I clarified again. "So we *do* get the discount if I pay with this premier card?" And he said, no, only blue premier card. So I said, to clarify, "So we don't get the discount?" "Yes," he said. "You get a discount. Buy one, get one free." We didn't get the discount. But how do I get this blue premier card? edited by guinness on 14/03/2011

173

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 14 March 2011 - 08:28

... goes to: the shop manager of Banana Republic, Dubai Mall. Went in there, saw a lovely suit. Nice jacket with matching trousers. Looked through jackets, found a size 10. Looked through trousers (of which there were approximately 20 on the rack): all of them (!) were size 4. Found a shopkeeper and here's the conversation: Me: Excuse me, where can I find the other sizes for these trousers? Her (with pitiful face): I'm sorry ma'm, we only have size 4. Me: That's strange, because you have the jackets in all sizes, so don't you have any matching trouser sizes? Her: Oh, we didn't order like that. All trousers are size 4. Me: But why, it's a suit, isn't it? Her: Yes, of course. Me (after short investigation of the blazers): So, if it's a suit, why are there no trousers in other sizes and no jackets in size 4 to match all these trousers in size 4?! Her: I think maybe because slim people buy trousers and big people buy jackets. Me: ?!?!?!? But it's a suit, jacket and trousers belong together?! Her: Yes. Sorry ma'm. A short conversation at the cashier with other shopkeepers then enlighened me that apparently the store manager decided to only buy trousers in one size and it's size 4. Not only for this particular suit but also for others. They said tons of customers complain about this (both, size 4's who can't find a jacket because all jackets start at size 6, as well as all other people who can't find matching trousers for the jackets)... Congratulations Banana Republic, this purchasing policy definitely earns my personal stupidity award of the week. LOL ... i often wonder how people get the jobs they have

173

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 14 March 2011 - 08:26

I love these threads. Helps me realize it's not only me that has these totally bizarre encounters in Dubai. I nearly lost it when I went to the movies at MOE this week. I saw an HSBC price so I asked, "If we pay with our HSBC card, do we get a discount?" The man said yes, two for one. Buy one, get one free. So I pulled out my credit card and he said, it must be premier. So I pulled out my premier card and he said, "No, the blue premier card." As I didn't realize there was more than one premier card, I clarified. "So we don't get the discount if we use our HSBC card?" He said, "Yes, two for one. Buy one get one free." Now I thought I understood that we didn't get the discount, but now he says we do. So I clarified again. "So we *do* get the discount if I pay with this premier card?" And he said, no, only blue premier card. So I said, to clarify, "So we don't get the discount?" "Yes," he said. "You get a discount. Buy one, get one free." We didn't get the discount. But how do I get this blue premier card? edited by guinness on 14/03/2011 may be he was not stupid rather cunning enough to make you pay for two when you could have got the discount? Trust me there are many who are not stupid infact they will rob you if you are not paying attention ... like a year ago i bought some caps from a shop in mercato and the cashier asked me to pay 106 AED ... i was too distracted as DS was being cranky and all ... but when i asked them for a reciept they got all confused and said ohh our machine is out of order etc and then when i did the maths i only needed to pay 96 AED ... and they were trying to trick me into paying 10 AED extra .... still feel angry when i think about it

1238

Posts

EW OLDHAND

Latest post on 14 March 2011 - 07:01

I love these threads. Helps me realize it's not only me that has these totally bizarre encounters in Dubai. I nearly lost it when I went to the movies at MOE this week. I saw an HSBC price so I asked, "If we pay with our HSBC card, do we get a discount?" The man said yes, two for one. Buy one, get one free. So I pulled out my credit card and he said, it must be premier. So I pulled out my premier card and he said, "No, the blue premier card." As I didn't realize there was more than one premier card, I clarified. "So we don't get the discount if we use our HSBC card?" He said, "Yes, two for one. Buy one get one free." Now I thought I understood that we didn't get the discount, but now he says we do. So I clarified again. "So we *do* get the discount if I pay with this premier card?" And he said, no, only blue premier card. So I said, to clarify, "So we don't get the discount?" "Yes," he said. "You get a discount. Buy one, get one free." We didn't get the discount. But how do I get this blue premier card? <em>edited by guinness on 14/03/2011</em>

784

Posts

EW GURU

Latest post on 13 March 2011 - 23:47

weeelll... what to do when companies out there pay peanuts...you'd definitely get ..... :D:D

2937

Posts

EW EXPERT

Latest post on 13 March 2011 - 23:00

I noticed today on my Citibank credit card statement they'd charged me a late payment fee. My payment was due on March 1, and I made payment on March 1 at one of the machines. It died halfway through me making the payment, so I called straight away and notified them in case of any problems. Turns out the payment went in fine. I called them today to complain about the charge. The guy spends ten minutes tapping away while I wait. Then he says he's sent a request to the 'concerned department' to reverse this charge. OK, I say, thanks. Then he says, "They need to approve it." I ask why it needs to be approved, when I made payment in time and they have this on their records. He tells me it has to be approved but they usually approve it. I ask why it wouldn't be approved when I made payment in time. He tells me I've been charged late payment fees before (yeah, when I was abroad!) so they might not reverse it because of this. I ask him how they can refuse to reverse a wrongly-charged late payment fee when payment was made in time because of late payment fees previously charged (and paid). He doesn't seem to get why I'm confused that you can be charged a late payment fee not for the month in question, but based on previous account history. Funnily enough, no answer forthcoming. Eventually he says, "Uh..... they will approve it."

Sticky Wicket36659

1511

Posts

EW EXPERT

Latest post on 12 March 2011 - 18:33

You must report this to BR head office. Really how do these people get jobs????

455

Posts

EW EXPLORER

Latest post on 12 March 2011 - 17:28

I would alert the head office of Banana Republic about that. When I asked the girl in Nike what the difference was between all of the running shoes - she said, "These are white colour...these are purple colour...." so I went home and wrote to Nike that their usual standard of education and service was not being offered in MCC - they wrote a personal note back. That's ridiculous! Miss Balamory - I am a size 4! Just...two of them. 44 ;) Haha me to !!!

858

Posts

EW GURU

Latest post on 12 March 2011 - 17:16

That is hilarious!! And so typical of Dubai. Definitely copy and paste onto the 'Overheard in MacDonalds thread'!

CanadianInDXB420

409

Posts

EW EXPLORER

Latest post on 12 March 2011 - 17:01

I would alert the head office of Banana Republic about that. When I asked the girl in Nike what the difference was between all of the running shoes - she said, "These are white colour...these are purple colour...." so I went home and wrote to Nike that their usual standard of education and service was not being offered in MCC - they wrote a personal note back. That's ridiculous! Miss Balamory - I am a size 4! Just...two of them. 44 ;)

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