“Thank you kindly. This won’t take long; we know how valuable your time is.”
Then fucking get on with it.
“The reason I am reaching out to you tonight is that it was brought to my attention by our quality and assurance team that a mix-up occurred during shipment, and you were inadvertently provided with a defective Serviteur.”
William frowned. “A what?” he said, careful to keep his voice low.
“A defective Serviteur. Regrettably, the model you received did not meet our rigorous standards. We sincerely hope no incident has occurred since you came into possession of it?”
William glanced at the pieces of broken glass sitting in a puddle of beer and blood. “No.”
“That’s wonderful news! Please rest assured our team is working tirelessly to ensure a timely resolution.”
“Resolution?”
“Gabriel, the Serviteur you were supposed to receive, was inadvertently shipped to another continent, but it is already on a plane back here as we speak. In the meantime, we can send someone to retrieve the defective—”
“Wait. What?” William said, glancing at Adathan, who was admiring a painting on the wall.
“Of course, we can’t have you keeping a defective—”
“You keep using that word. What does it mean?”
“One moment, Mr. Mitchell, while I access its file...” She hummed. “The Serviteur you currently have on hand was deemed unsatisfactory in both fine motor skills and emotional regulation, and was found to have manipulative tendencies. Gabriel, on the other hand, was—”
“I’m not interested,” William said, struggling to stay civil. Those weren’t defects; they were proof that Adathan was a fucking human being. That wasn’t something those pieces of shit would understand, though. They were just as brainwashed as their so-called products.
“You...” Barbara trailed off, clearly taken aback. “Would you like to browse our catalog?”
“No.”
“Are you unsatisfied with our services, Mr. Mitchell?”
“Yes. Very.”
“I’m deeply sorry to hear this. Please rest assured that we will do everything in our capacity to ensure your entire satisfaction.”
“Like what?” William asked, hoping it might benefit Adathan somehow.
“We don’t normally offer refunds, but seeing as this regrettable situation was caused by our own negligence, we are willing to make an exception. However, please know that service fees are non-refundable.”
“How much?” William’s mouth asked, his heart thumping in sickening anticipation.
“For the refund?”
“Yeah.”
“Minus the service fees... four hundred twenty-three thousand dollars.”
William gripped the counter to steady himself.
“I’ll just need your bank details to initiate a deposit, which you will receive by the end of next week. If it suits you, I could arrange for one of our employees to retrieve the defective Serviteur tomorrow morning. You can keep its accessories, of course—free of charge.”
“Can I think about it?” William whispered, his stomach twisting as Adathan chose that exact moment to give him a smile.
“Of course! We will be awaiting your call. You will find our customer service number on the back of the instruction manual.”
“Okay.”
