Masquerade-rigid, unsympathetic customer service

Below is my first comms to Masquerade: “Please could someone assist me. I took my daughter to both your stores this afternoon for a couple of items she required. My daughter is 12 and after being assisted she hired two items and purchased three items. (Please see attached)

I have a problem in that when I dropped her off at her moms in Pretoria her mom went ballistic at me asking how could I allow my daughter and her friend to wear a Corset. Quite innocently I believed it to be a fancy dress for next weekend and my daughter was going as a rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.” Below is the first response I received from Amy from Masquerade: “ I completely understand your situation regarding the costumes not being used. However, once costumes are hired out, they are taken off our shelves and cannot be rented to other customers. Our policy is to treat all hired items as being in use, regardless of whether they were worn or not. We rarely consider refunds unless items are returned on the same day, and we are notified in advance.

I truly empathize with your situation, but we need to maintain this policy to ensure fairness to all our customers and the viability of our business. Unfortunately, I cannot offer a refund for the hire itself. However, I would be happy to refund any accessories you may have purchased.” This was all very well and I absolutely understand their policy, however, I did reach out to Masquerade the very same day I had hired the two corsets and I am really disappointed that given the circumstances, along with the fact that I made contact with them the very same day, that they would have at least considered offering a voucher. Amy responded to my mails once and after mailing her now for 3 weeks, not one response.

Masquerade certainly hold a large share of the market in this industry and I am sure my grievance will not matter; but I would like to put this out there.