June 17, 2011
Long Island Drum Center
1460 Old Country Road
Plainview, NY 11803
Dear anyone considering patronizing Long Island Drum Center,
Today I walked into Long Island Drum Center with the intention of purchasing a few pairs of drumsticks. I quickly picked out three pairs of Vater 7A Sugar Maple drumsticks and approached the counter where the register was located. These sticks were exactly what I was looking for.
There was no staff near the front of the store when I was ready to purchase the sticks, I spotted one employee helping a customer look at stuff in the rear part of the store and it seemed Dennis Ricci was ushering a young student and his mother to the rear for lessons. I waited until I saw Dennis Ricci walking towards the counter area from the rear half of the store. When he came nearer to me I placed the drumsticks on the counter, We made eye contact and greeted eachother.
Dennis Ricci walks behind the counter towards me and asks me if that's all I'm purchasing. I reply, 'yea that's it,' with my wallet in my hand. He's still standing about three casual steps away from the register and is not showing me any sort of body language that he intends to ring me up and let me pay for the drumsticks.
Looking around, not at me, he moseys two steps over to his left, then moseys back to his right to the other side of their U shaped counter, looks at some stuff on his counter, passes some paper or a book to an employee who I didn't spot before and gives him some instruction, checks out the stack of paper a couple seconds longer... THEN he decided he was ready to begin processing our transaction, he tells me $18 for the sticks. I pull out my card; I only had ten bucks in my wallet. Dennis Ricci refuses my card, informs me of their $25 dollar minimum for card purchases and he turns his head and his body away from me. I'm livid, standing at the counter, being ignored, considering persuading/arguing with Dennis Ricci about why it would in fact be in his best interest to sell me these three pairs drumsticks using my card... but it didn't take me long to decide I'm not forking over any of my money to this place ever again because I was just treated like garbage. "Okay!" and I walked out of there, but I was livid. What a waste of my time, gasoline, and restraint.
Was Dennis Ricci hoping I'd buy another pair of sticks to meet his minimum(a pretty steep minimum too, considering I usually only encounter these policies at non-chain convenience stores and slummy delis, yea it's low class too)? Or did he just want me to shew if I couldn't produce cash? Dennis Ricci seemed absolutely uninterested in my measely $18 purchase from the very start. To recieve this kind attitude and disservice from an owner of the store is really sad and shows a complete lack of understanding of customer service.
Visa allows their merchants to place a $10 minimum on purchases at most(they state they have to, I guess that's the government's fault), making LI Drums center's policy in violation with their contract as a Visa merchant. Credit card usage fees are paid to the credit card companies by merchants(LI Drum Center), as an individual card user I do not DIRECTLY pay these fees. It's the business's job to work those fees into their overall price structure, just like they do for taxes, rent and utilities.
I've bought drums, cymbals, the big Roland drum amp, lots of hardware, loads of sticks and heads from this store over the years(This adds up to thousands of dollars, you all know that). Today I only wanted three pairs of sticks, unfortunately for me this wasn't enough money for Long Island Drum Center to be bothered with. I'll never spend another dollar there.
Sincerely,
Kenneth de Bruin
Long Island Drum Center
1460 Old Country Road
Plainview, NY 11803
Dear anyone considering patronizing Long Island Drum Center,
Today I walked into Long Island Drum Center with the intention of purchasing a few pairs of drumsticks. I quickly picked out three pairs of Vater 7A Sugar Maple drumsticks and approached the counter where the register was located. These sticks were exactly what I was looking for.
There was no staff near the front of the store when I was ready to purchase the sticks, I spotted one employee helping a customer look at stuff in the rear part of the store and it seemed Dennis Ricci was ushering a young student and his mother to the rear for lessons. I waited until I saw Dennis Ricci walking towards the counter area from the rear half of the store. When he came nearer to me I placed the drumsticks on the counter, We made eye contact and greeted eachother.
Dennis Ricci walks behind the counter towards me and asks me if that's all I'm purchasing. I reply, 'yea that's it,' with my wallet in my hand. He's still standing about three casual steps away from the register and is not showing me any sort of body language that he intends to ring me up and let me pay for the drumsticks.
Looking around, not at me, he moseys two steps over to his left, then moseys back to his right to the other side of their U shaped counter, looks at some stuff on his counter, passes some paper or a book to an employee who I didn't spot before and gives him some instruction, checks out the stack of paper a couple seconds longer... THEN he decided he was ready to begin processing our transaction, he tells me $18 for the sticks. I pull out my card; I only had ten bucks in my wallet. Dennis Ricci refuses my card, informs me of their $25 dollar minimum for card purchases and he turns his head and his body away from me. I'm livid, standing at the counter, being ignored, considering persuading/arguing with Dennis Ricci about why it would in fact be in his best interest to sell me these three pairs drumsticks using my card... but it didn't take me long to decide I'm not forking over any of my money to this place ever again because I was just treated like garbage. "Okay!" and I walked out of there, but I was livid. What a waste of my time, gasoline, and restraint.
Was Dennis Ricci hoping I'd buy another pair of sticks to meet his minimum(a pretty steep minimum too, considering I usually only encounter these policies at non-chain convenience stores and slummy delis, yea it's low class too)? Or did he just want me to shew if I couldn't produce cash? Dennis Ricci seemed absolutely uninterested in my measely $18 purchase from the very start. To recieve this kind attitude and disservice from an owner of the store is really sad and shows a complete lack of understanding of customer service.
Visa allows their merchants to place a $10 minimum on purchases at most(they state they have to, I guess that's the government's fault), making LI Drums center's policy in violation with their contract as a Visa merchant. Credit card usage fees are paid to the credit card companies by merchants(LI Drum Center), as an individual card user I do not DIRECTLY pay these fees. It's the business's job to work those fees into their overall price structure, just like they do for taxes, rent and utilities.
I've bought drums, cymbals, the big Roland drum amp, lots of hardware, loads of sticks and heads from this store over the years(This adds up to thousands of dollars, you all know that). Today I only wanted three pairs of sticks, unfortunately for me this wasn't enough money for Long Island Drum Center to be bothered with. I'll never spend another dollar there.
Sincerely,
Kenneth de Bruin