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@ chaircover, let's remove sentiments and face the facts - I am not stealing from them so it does not really matter to me whether madam takes the money from the salesgirl's money or not.

chaircover:

I dont get it. Youve lost me now. What exactly are you fighting for?

The N8,000, a apology, madam to respond to your letter, or just to make them uncomfortable by your presence?

Who exactly are you fighting? The madam or the sales girls?

If madam docks the N8,000 from the girls wages; which incidentally is very common in Nigeria, (Some shop girls only have to come 10 minutes late and their salary gets docked for the whole day) It is the shop girl who will loose half her salary to this incident.

I'm not even fighting anybody. It's madam that is fighting her salesgirl now and that is outside my control. I'm not the evil customer here. I will not be blackmailed.

chaircover:

If you dont give the shop girl that N8,000 back then you have deprived her of half or more of her wages for the month (afterall she has begged you not to continue with the complaint)

If you do give the girl the N8,000 back then you have not acheived anything because you are still out of pocket, plus the time, cost of phone calls, bad feeling and energy you have spent pursuing this case and madam hasnt lost a penny except your custom and as you have said before this was the first time you shopped in her shop and you do live quite a distance away so you probably werent her best customer.

If I don't give the girl the money, I would not feel one bit of guilt because it is my money. If I give it back, I still would be indifferent to it. If she wants to sue madam for unjustly deducting her money, I will offer her my support.

I already thought about the additional cost before I embarked on this. I'm not trying to clean up or sanitize Nigeria but I don't have to take 100% of all the sh.it that the Nigerian culture rubs on me. Some people just have to be responsible when things go wrong, and you don't treat everybody like they do not matter.

chaircover:

If you carry on and insist on getting your money back, you will find that you will loose the respect that you have and it wont suprise me if the shop girls abuse you all the way to your car. (thats if you pocket the money)

This was a accident, it really wasnt anyones fault. We have all had a bag split on us in our lifetime. One of 2 people are going ot be out of pocket; either you or the sales girl.

I do not feed on their respect. I'm not stealing from them and I'm not taking advantage of the situation. Dem nor go fit abuse me to my face. dem nor dey fear face? and if they manage to talk am out, na today dem dey abuse person? as long as I don't reply them, na dem go tire. As an aside, those types of abuses are common and meaningless - imagine that I was in a public transport the other day and the conductor clearly told us the fares which was a little higher than the regular fare but I did not know and I was also in a hurry to get out of the area. Passengers boarded and the bus moved. I paid conductor as soon as he demanded for it and someone started calling me "olowo igbo" (yoruba word for useless rich man). People will abuse for any reason.
It is not my fault by any means if the sales girl is out of pocket.

chaircover:

Would you have made the same fuss if you had got home and discovered that they had mistakenly sold you a bottle worth N16,000 instead of N8,000?

It depends - most likely yes. especially if we are talking about this type of twice the price scenario on a ready made, standardized product. They can not claim that theirs is better than what obtains elsewhere and they are not providing any extra or special service attached to the sales of the readymade merchandise. God knows I'm taking my money back even if it means following this same torturous route.

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@chaircover - thanks for the Lagos rush hour traffic offer but I'll pass . I spend about 1.5 - 2.5 hours each way daily for a journey that ordinarily should last for between 15 to 20 mins. I guess it's the fact that I can't hold anyone responsible for my stress that made me go all out against this one.  Thanks for your responses.

Conclusion:
I managed to talk to her (store owner) on the phone today. She was as obnoxious as I expected but she said she had instructed them at the shop to give me another bottle or refund the money. I know the money will be deducted from the the salesgirl's salary at the end of the month.

I think that is an admission that I deserve to be paid (my point). I may not go back if I do not pass by their store within the next few days. If I happen to stop by, I will collect the money and give it to the person whose salary will be deducted.

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