Was pretty dismayed with how poor the customer service was at this Lombard location. After being a frequent and happy customer the one time I needed customer support they completely dropped the ball. I went in to purchase a disposable pen. The attendee brought me to the wall and pointed a couple options out, but otherwise didnt provide much instruction. I ended up grabbing one of the cheaper options on the wall and paid normally. When I got home I realized I had left with a pen cartridge but not a full all in one disposable pen. That same day I returned and asked to replace it with an item of equal or lesser value, or to get store credit - I was honest and said the item was likely working fine, I hadnt tried it because I didnt own a battery to make it work. I was then told by the woman that because its not faulty the best they could do was 5-10% off of a battery… which amounts to a $4 discount at best. I pushed back and wondered aloud if it would have made more sense for me to lie and said it was faulty, and that a $4 discount didn’t feel like an appropriate offer. She then told me they were closing for the day (it was right at close time) but to come back tomorrow, she’d make a note and give me a credit for the full amount… Im not local so two days later I take the time out of my day to drive back, pay for parking, and when I arrive she rolls her eyes and says she needs to call her manager. She stepped into the back, proclaimed to her coworker that she couldnt get ahold of “Charlie” just loud enough for me to hear, then came back less than two minutes later saying that she did in fact connect with her boss, somehow explained the nuance of the situation in 30 seconds, and he told her not to provide a refund. She came out with her coworker for backup, which was strange because Id been pretty courteous throughout this entire process, just looking to come to a reasonable solution. This coworker then quoted me a bunch of regulations by acronym that apparently prevented them from taking the cartridge back - legally their hands were tied and no credit or discount could be provided. I said “what about not taking it back and just offering a credit because this was a miscommunication and Im w consistent and loyal customer - is there any regulation against that?” He said he could do that but in that case he simply didnt want to offer that to me. I said okay, Ill be writing a bad review and I left without the cartridge I paid for, or any kind of discount or compensation. So after a simple miscommunication where I got a cartridge instead of a disposable pen, they layered on wasting my time telling me I had a credit waiting for me if I came back, lying about connecting with a manager, and lying about what kind of support options they were “legally” allowed to offer me. They lost a loyal customer over a $35 pen cartridge, and I will be posting this review across all platforms. Truly a shame because Id been going here basically since it opened. I expected that because of the premium pricing on products that can be found anywhere, that there would be serviceable customer support, especially over something so small and trivial — I was wrong. I recommend any of the other shops in the Filmore/Union street area over this place, ive never had any issues or regulation bs thrown in my face when Ive had issues in the past with any of them. Apothecarium truly stands out as awful customer experience after this visit. Hope youre happy :/