Expectations - a little rant

The people that really know me know I try to live up to any expectation I know is put on me. If I know something is expected of me or I'm expected to live by a certain policy or rule, I try my hardest to meet it or live by it. And if I know there is something expected of me and I don't live up to it then I suffer the consequence. What really irks me and causes me to loose it is when I'm expected to live up to or by something that I have no idea exists. My feeling is if you expect something from me then fill me in, tell me what you want, etc. otherwise I can't be held to it and if it's not met, it's your fault. Such an instance occurred this week.

I found some items that I had meant to return to a store I frequent quite regularly. I must admit I had had these items for quite a while and honestly thought I had already returned them. When I saw that I still had the receipt for all the items I decided to try and return them. I scoured the receipt for a return policy, and return by date, or a receipt expiration date. There were none of these to be found so I thought I could return these things anytime, much like the Gap did until about a year ago. With my items and receipt in hand I headed to the store just to be told at the entrance they had a 90 day return policy. I asked where this policy was posted because it wasn't anywhere on the receipt or at their registers. They told me I could go to Customer Service (big fat joke of a name) and see what they would say. So I headed to Customer Service and there on the wall behind the register was the return policy. When they denied my return I asked again where, other then in Customer Service, was their policy posted and they said no where but because they had it posted here they could enforce it. Are you kidding me? After a couple of I understand but there's nothing I can do and because the line was growing quite long behind me, I decided not to pursue it any further with the customer service person.

As I was leaving I passed the little booth thing where other workers are standing and asked how I could talk to the manager (yeah I was miffed about this) and the lady asked how she could help. I went on to explain that I didn't see how I could be held to a policy that I didn't even know existed until I tried to return something. I pointed out that it wasn't at their registers and it wasn't anywhere on their receipt. She told me that it was their store's policy and not everyone needed to know about it because not everyone returned things. Once again...Are you kidding me? So now I have to eat the cost of the items because of a policy that I didn't even know existed and had no way of finding out existed except to visit their Customer service, which I know for everyone else must be a common occurrence. And I am a slave to this store at least for a few more months since it's the only place that provides what Beckam eats. So for the time being or until I know I'm not going to ever have to return anything there again, Brandon will be making the purchases there.