Shades of Crested Butte

Ripped off and unreasonable policy
My 16 year old son took down a pair of Chums eyewear retainer and pulled on the rubber part that fits into the eyeglass arm.
And it promptly came off. He did not snap it off or pull on it with excessive force; he was just pulling on the rubber piece to see what kind of end piece it was. Because it came off, he offered to buy it, not understanding that a defective product should not be bought, and the clerk at the register should not have sold him something that was clearly defective.
Chums sells thousands of retainers every year and a person pulling on the rubber piece to get it out of the cardboard packaging should not make the product damaged.
When my son told me about this, as we were in the adjacent store, we went to the clerk to explain what happened. He would not refund or even exchange the purchase which had been made 5 minutes ago, pointing to the no refunds or exchange signs on the counter, even though the receipt says exchanges allowed with receipt which we had. The manager did not return my call.
We will continue to support local retailers and locally-​owned businesses, as we always have, and loved the service from all the other Crested Butte stores.
This easily-​remedied issue, with a refund or even an exchange, would have kept me as a customer and given them respect and my loyalty for making an exception to the unique situation or even just honoring their receipt verbiage, which stated exchanges were permitted with receipt. All the retailer had to do was send that one back to Chums on their business end. Now, I will have to contact our credit card company and file a grievance with Shades of Crested Butte, which they may or may not support, and if they don’t, I’ll need to contact Chums and go through their warranty department. Ultimately I am disappointed that Shades of Crested Butte would not stand by the products that they sell, that common sense and a tendency towards customer service had no play here, and all of this nonsense over a $ 13 purchase.
I am not going to suggest that you don’t shop here; I am merely retelling our experience and state that I will take my business elsewhere and support the other fine, locally owned and operated shops in Crested Butte.