Bench and its unconscionable policy

Today, after my mom and I had our hair done in Fabio Salsa, Powerplant Mall, Rockwell (thanks, Arlene for a wonderful shorter hair with full bangs! eyeloveit!) and after we ate at Cibo for dinner, we went to Bench (2/F) to buy a Baby Bench Cologne for my lil brother because he asked for it. But lo and behold, my mom ended up buying 39 items (not just the cologne, but the gift packs as well to be given to bank secretaries, my dad's secretaries, underwear for us, cologne, hair products) amounting to P6,000++. 

So while we were in the counter, I noticed a poster flaunting Bench's promo for the Lifestyle Loyalty Cardholders: that for every P2,000 single receipt of Bench purchases, the holder is entitled to a freebie (the radio bag--which is nice). So when we were claiming our freebies since I am a cardholder (how many do you think we'd get for P6,000 worth of purchases? 3 bags, right?), the cashier told us that we're only entitled to one bag since it's for a single receipt only. 

Ok.

Is it me or is it them who did not get the mechanics of the promo?

Their interpretation: For a single receipt, as long as you get P2,000 worth of purchases, you only get 1 freebie (even if you ended up paying P10,000, which entitles you to 5 freebies). 

My interpretation: For every P2,000 worth of purchases, you're entitled to one freebie, as long as that P2,000 is in a single receipt, not accumulated receipts. So if you buy items worth P20,000, you're entitled to 10 freebies as long as it's in single receipt/transaction.

So who among us is right? I still hold firm to my interpretation because never had I encountered such promo mechanics as theirs. So unconscionable and absurd!

So given the fact that it's their "company policy kasi," my mom decided to have the transaction cancelled and have it cut into 3 transactions worth P2,000 each so we'd still be able to get 3 freebies (ok, I know it sounds weird and silly but to fight over a freebie? But to our defense, the freebies are nice and freebies are still freebies, come on!). After the first transaction worth P2,000 and the cashier is about to swipe my mom's card, another cashier interrupted and said that we would have to pay cash for the next 2 transactions since they do not allow swiping of credit cards twice. It's their "company policy kasi." 

Ok. You could have told us about that earlier when you were holding my mom's card so we all didn't waste our time canceling the first transaction and doing the whole process again only to revert back to having just one transaction.

Another thing, about their "company policy kasi" on their Lifestyle Loyalty Card as not being transferrable. Fine. You have that policy and we respect that. But your staff is not even following that policy because this is what happened. When we were in the middle of canceling a transaction, my mom let a girl behind us finish hers first, since she only has an item to buy. But what the cashier did is that she mistakenly credited the girl's transaction to my card (that girl did not have a card). I'm just wondering, if that policy really exists, shouldn't their card reader reject crediting another person's transaction? Besides, to begin with, the cards are not even labeled. So that's another commotion. Why won't they credit the P6,000 worth of THEIR items to my card? Is it because it really is their "company policy kasi" or is it because you're about to credit P6,000, which makes it easy for me to get another P200 worth of rebate?

Ok. As my mom said, let's all charge it to experience but I have some thoughts on this.

To whoever made those policies, I say, as a consumer and a real and frequent consumer of Bench, Aldo, Charles and Keith, The Face Shop, Kashieca, Dimensione, and what-have-you Mr. Ben Chan (seriously, I can even endorse your shops!), those policies are not customer-friendly. Loyalty cards and promos such as that freebie for every P2,000 worth of purchases are designed to entice customers to buy more. Businessmen like it when people buy more of their products. Aren't you even happy that even during an economic crisis, people are still buying P6,000 worth of your products? So shouldn't you make it more convenient for these people to have just one transaction instead of having 2 or 3 or 10 transactions and still get what they're entitled to? Talk about consumer-first policies! 

After all this, my point is, fire that marketing officer (or whoever made that policy)! It's discouraging people from buying from you!

But for what's its worth, I'd still go back--but not tomorrow or next week when what happened is still fresh to the employees' minds. Maybe next year! Or I'll just go and buy from Ben Chan's other stores.