Wow! So sorry this happened to you. Personally, I think you should get a partial payment on this job. What happened with the store owner was part of your experience in performing and evaluating the specific transaction (the credit process). You asked the questions about the return policy because it wasn't posted, as you were supposed to. After selecting three different products to meet the requirement (financing with a certain company), if you'd said "Oh, never mind, then," your fear about outing yourself as a shopper was (imo) founded.
Sounds like you did everything correctly. You had no control over the store owner's actions.
My guess is that the store owner wasn't following proper procedure with the credit-issuing company in holding the paperwork for two weeks. That doesn't sound kosher to me. I would think that your shop, as it occurred and if you'd been allowed to complete it, would be useful and valid information for the end client to have.
It's easy for people to say, post facto, they would have left and not completed the transaction or would have made an excuse to go outside and make a call (ostensibly to your husband, but to your scheduler), but in reality, when on the spot like that and faced with something totally unexpected and out of context with the MSC's assumed situation, not everybody can come up with the "right" way to handle it.
In any event, I hope you can get the store to waive the re-stocking fee. But this is why I won't do any shops that could potentially end up costing me money! The MSCs won't assume risk in the event the shop doesn't happen as it's "supposed to." Even when not the shopper's fault, as in your case, apparently many, if not most, won't lift a finger to assist. But I know that's not true with all MSCs. I guess the key is to find those who will stand behind their shoppers to a certain extent. And stay away from jobs and MSCs like this!
I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/11/2015 05:57PM by BirdyC.