The worst shopping experience ever.

The Lollipop Guild Westport, CT

I thought that I would share a recent shopping experience with you. The service that I received from this store was so bad that I decided to write a letter to the owner. So grab a cup of coffee and relive my experience and let me know what you think. It really puts a stinker on the holiday season, doesn't it?

Hello xxxx,

This will not be a pleasant letter. I used to be a customer of your store. I am saying "used to be" because as of today, I will not be back at your store. This is why:

On Christmas eve, I was at your store and purchased a number of items - totaling $365. One of those items is a gift intended for my friend's daughter. The person who helped me was somewhat pleasant and wrote on my receipt that I am able to exchange the items or return them for store credit until January 3, 2010. I came back to your store today hoping to add another item to the gift that I purchased. Instead, I found a different outfit I liked though it was more money than the dress that I bought a few days ago. It was only marked down 25%.

When I went to check out, the woman at the register said that I am not allowed to return the dress. I showed her my receipt that says that I could. She was very unpleasant and rudely scratched out the print on my receipt that says the items were exchangeable until 1/3/10. She did the exchange and I paid almost $40 extra for the outfit. Please keep in mind that at this point, my total purchases now total a little over $400. I asked her to please wrap it as it is intended to be a present. She said that the store will not gift wrap items that are on sale but she will do it just this one time. I was pretty satisfied until I noticed that she only handed me a wrapped box instead of doing your signature gift wrap with the lollipop and the sticker. I asked her to please add the lollilop and I would even gladly pay for it. After a little huffing and grunting, she obliged but said that she cannot add on the Lollipop Guild sticker for fear that my friend might try to return or exchange the merchandise. Seriously? This is a $100 outfit. She would refuse to do the advertising for your store in fear of an exchange? I asked her very nicely to PLEASE add the sticker so my friend would know where it came from as she is ALSO A CUSTOMER OF YOUR STORE. She finally did and when I mentioned that her treatment of me as a customer makes it very hard for me to come back in the future. I mean, I asked her to gift wrap ONE outfit. She couldn't make an exception? She mentioned that all of this IS YOUR POLICY.

I understand the need to cut costs. But is it really worth it to save a few dollars on gift wrapping and boxes and lose a customer instead? My experience shopping at your store was uncomfortable, awkward, disappointing and overall lousy. I left with a sick feeling in my stomach because I was treated so rudely. I live in New Canaan and I shop at Krik-It regularly and I myself shop at Togs and Mitchells and I can assure you that I am a good customer. What keeps me coming back is the customer service that I receive in that store and all the stores I mentioned give EXCEPTIONAL customer service.

So if a customer like myself who just spent $400 in your shop not good enough to warrant good service? I will not be back to your shop and will be sharing my experience to my friends - especially the gift recipient of the outfit I purchased. I mean, I have to make sure that she does not come in to exchange the outfit for any reason and risk embarrassment, right?

--
Sherryl Mascarinas
Creator / Designer
Skylar's Candy Clips
Phone # 203-252-4111
Email: skylars.candyclips@gmail.com
Website: www.skylarscandyclips.etsy.com
Blog: www.skylarsclips.blogspot.com

Holidays 2009

Happy holidays!

Wishing you lots of love, joy and laughter

this holiday season!

4.

Deacon 2009 school picture

Dear Deacon,

I can't believe how 4 years flew by so quickly.

Poof. In the blink of an eye, here you are.

4 years old. Where has the time gone?

All of a sudden, my little baby boy is all grown up.

I still remember when you were born.

2 weeks early but so ready to take on the world!

Deacon James Mascarinas

December 23, 2005

7 pounds, 15.5 ounces

20 inches long

Here is big sister Skylar meeting you for the first time.

You were her biggest Christmas present yet!

One month old. And loving your bear chair. You love it still.

Your 1st birthday party.

18 months old. Mommy's belly says it all.

You are about to become a big brother.

20 months old. People say that you are starting to look like daddy.

June 2007 - your first summer at Martha's Vineyard.

November 8, 2007.

22 months old and a proud big brother to baby sister Peyton

2 years old and loving the snow. You learned to ski that year.

3 1/2 years old. I just love that big, mischievous smile.

You love to goof around with your sisters.

My little guy. My little mister.

You will always be my baby boy.

Both a little and a big brother - you don't have it easy being in

the middle with two sisters.

But you handle it with such finesse.

You are such a good sport.

May you stay this way always.

Your smile always brightens my day.

I love you more than words can say.

Happy Birthday, Deacon.

Love,

Mommy

Winter Wonderland

We woke up today to the season's first real snowfall. We got about 10-12 inches. I love the first snowfall - everything is crisp, white, and pretty.

This is our driveway:

And the view of the street from our front door:

And this is the pond that we have in the back. Later on in the season, once it's frozen and the ice is thick enough, we can actually go ice skating on it.

The kids put on their snow gear and went outside to play. Here is Skylar making a snow angel.

And Deacon going snow tubing on our side yard:

Chris attempting to build a snowman but the snow was too crisp and wouldn't stay together.

Even Peyton had some fun building snow balls and throwing them at everybody!

Have you guys had some snow where you live?

How to become The World's Most Annoying Etsy Member.

Wooden sign by Mojo

Interested? Just follow these simple rules. Thank you assortedgoodies for posting this at the forums. I could always use a good laugh on an otherwise stressful, holiday order catching evening. I can think of a few people I've encountered who are in the runnings for #6 and #7!

****************************************

If you want to become the World’s Most Annoying Etsy Member just pick a few of the following and practice them on a daily basis:

1) Use the forums to whine about how you hate this or hate that. Or about how you are smarter than everyone else. To make it even better; use bad language and then turn around and ask for sympathy, pity and sales.

2) Convo someone to ask for their supply sources. Etsy people are very nice and they don’t mind giving you their secret sources so you can become their biggest competitor.

3) If you have already done this (#2) and someone has been nice enough to share their sources or secrets with you, don’t go back and say “Thank you”. What for? It is not like they did anything nice, is it?

4) Demand feedback, or complain about those who don’t leave feedback, especially publicly in the forums. Who cares that feedback is optional?

5) Copy someone's pictures, design or description then use them to sell your own stuff. So what if it is illegal, don’t take your own pictures if someone else has gone to the trouble of producing a wonderful picture, just use theirs. (no, seriously, it is illegal!)

6) Convo the seller of your favorite item asking how they made it so you can make your own instead of using the Techniques section of the forums to ask if anyone out there has a tutorial available or would be willing to share some tips. And if they don’t reply, just keep convo-ing, eventually they will get tired of it and they will reply.

7) Contact a non-supply seller asking them if they could sell you that "thingy" they use to make that neat item cause you want to make your own. So what if they don’t have that "thingy" listed for sale in their shop. I’m sure they would rather sell their stock to you than use it to complete their own orders.

8) Contact everyone that hearted YOUR item to tell them it is on sale or that you have others in different colors.

9) Assume that because someone bought something from you they want to be on your mailing list. Then send them tons and tons of unsolicited newsletters and emails. So what if they could use the RSS feed to keep them updated to changes in your shop.

10) Make your Convos as confusing as possible. Each time you reply to a message start a NEW convo instead of replying to the original convo. This way they have to navigate to different pages and open up countless convos instead of having them all neatly in one page. Anyway, they can read your mind and they know exactly what you mean, right?

11) Ask a seller to waive the shipping fee and send you their item for free, or better yet ask them to discount the price and send you a bonus item free. Anyway, they get this stuff for free, it’s not like they take any time gathering supplies, making the item by hand, packaging and shipping, right?

I’m sure that practicing these things daily will win you the title of World’s Most Annoying Etsy Member.

Unique Holiday Boutique 12/5

Skylar's Candy Clips will be participating in

The Historic Ossining Campgrounds

Unique Holiday Boutique

tomorrow, Saturday, December 5, 2009.

It runs from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.

If you are in the area, please come on over and say "hi"!

Treasury West

My Happy Flower Headbands (in Fall colors) made it to

Treasury West this week. Hooray!

Be Happy and Merry...

Some fun new items for the holidays. Available now at the shop...

Holiday Happy Flower Headbands

Merry Merry Bouquet Headband

Poinsettia Glory Bouquet Headband

And introducing The Mommy Series Headbands!

Because mommies need cute headbands too!

The Heather Headband

The Dana Headband

The Rebecca Headband

Shop Etsy. Buy Handmade this holiday season.

Guess who's baaaack??!!??

Welcome back, Fred. We missed you. We're glad that you made it back safe and sound. We promise to be on our very BEST behavior because we know that you are watching.

No food fights.

Or hair pulling.

Or body slamming.

Or screaming.

Or pushing.

Or pulling on Wendy's tail.

Or giving Wendy food under the table.

Or blaming Wendy for the mess in the kitchen.

Or sneak snacks in our rooms during nap times.

And we promise to listen to mommy and daddy.

And flush the potty after we use it.

Always.

Really. We promise.

Pinky swear.

What time did you say you leave our house at night?

Love,

Skylar, Deacon, and Peyton

The Elf on the Shelf - it will help keep order (and sanity) in your house.

Seriously, it's the best thing since pumpkin bread after Thanksgiving.

so thankful.

Banner by bekahjennings

I recently saw a quote that says:

"Life is not about the amount of breaths that we take.

It's about the amount of moments that take our breath away".

Life is indeed about those moments. Here are some of mine:

Marrying my husband Chris on June 21, 2003.

We've know each other since we were children.

He is my true soul mate.

Our first born Skylar Elizabeth (October 17, 2004)

Our son Deacon James was born the following year on

December 23, 2005

Our beautiful Peyton Isabelle - our last baby - born on

November 8, 2007

So today and everyday, I am thankful for

being a wife,

a mom

a sister

a daughter

a friend

and my beautiful family.

Thankful to life and the beautiful moments

it's given me.

So very, truly, thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!!!

busy days ahead

I love this sign! Visit Mojo on Etsy

I will be holing myself up in my craft room for the next few days to catch up on some orders.

I want to be able to send out as many packages as I can by Wednesday (before the PO closes for Thanksgiving).

So wish me luck.

Send tons of coffee wishes my way.

WINNER! WINNER! WINNER!

Congratulations to

#20 Badger Momma

for winning the

Paint Me A Picture Giveaway!

Congratulations and enjoy your beautiful Christmas Calendar!

spread the word.

The Famigletti Family (Casey, Regan, Gracie, and Doug)

I met Casey at the preschool where my youngest daughter Peyton attends. Her two year old little girl, Regan is in Peyton's class. Along with Regan, she totes along little Gracie in her infant carrier. Gracie is beautiful - with bright blue eyes and the best demeanor you can ask for in a little baby. So it was weeks when I even noticed that she had on hearing aids and to find out that what I thought was a two month old baby is actually almost 8 months old. Casey told me a little bit about Gracie - born premature at 30 weeks, she spent 2 1/2 months at NICU and is profoundly deaf in both ears. Then just last week, she invited me to join a meeting that she was having at her house to raise awareness on Gracie's condition. It was only this time when I realized what really caused Gracie's condition and how serious it is. And worse of all, how little information soon to be or pregnant women are given on this virus.

It is called Cytomegalovirus (si-to-MEG-a-lo-vi-rus) or CMV. It is a common virus that infects people of all ages. Once CMV is in a person's body, it stays there for life. Most infections with CMV are "silent", meaning most people who are infected with CMV have no signs or symptoms. CMV can be transmitted to the unborn child of a mother with a primary CMV infection. When a baby catches CMV prior to birth, this is called Congenital CMV.

Every year, 1 in 150 children is born with congenital CMV.

Congenital CMV causes deafness, blindness, cerebral palsy, mental and physical disabilities, seizures, and death. It is more common than Down Syndrome, Spina Bifida, and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and yet so many people remain unaware of it and it's effects. Transmission of the virus can be prevented by educating yourself on the risk factors, symptoms, and ways to prevent transmission. This is Casey's goal - to reach out to as many people as possible starting in our area to raise awareness and to educate women who are pregnant or planning on becoming pregnant.

For more information, please visit Stop CMV. To read Casey's story, click here. Reach out to help by spreading the word on CMV.

Ta - Da! Our new art wall!

After months of drooling over this picture, I finally put up our new art wall. Don't you just love it? It was the best $50 I ever spent!. Each of the kids have their own designated "wire" and a number of clips so they have to rotate their art in order to make them fit. It is brilliant.

Ready to do your own? To do three wires, you are going to need 3 sets of these:

IKEA Dignitet Curtain Wire $14.99 each

And a pack or two of these (you'll probably want at least two packs):

IKEA Dignitet Curtain Ring with Clip $4.99 per pack

It was a little tricky to install since it did not come with the wall screws. You have to take the curtain wire set to the hardware store so you can buy the screws that will fit them for mounting. You will also need a wire cutter to cut the wire to the desired length. And lastly, you need to measure your wire spacing evenly and make sure that they are straight. It sounds like a lot of work and it is but trust me, it is worth it! Your kids will love having their art displayed on the wall so fashionably! Let me know if you do it - I would love to see YOUR wall!