That's not mold, it's plume!

[neoflex]

Sadly I have found that most shops staff is just really lacking the knowledge to decipher the difference. Not their fault all the time just lack of training in which I blame the shop owners. I have even been in a shop where I was very friendly with the staff and saw the residue that some un-celloed sticks will sometimes get from being stored close to the humidification device and mentioned it to them. More often than not they would just have that bewildered look on their face as they tried to right it off as plume. Fortunately I was very friendly with them and was able to explain the difference and they did in fact move those sticks to the other side of the humidor which showed me they actually listened rather than try and shrug it off and probably researched to check what I mentioned to them. It is unsettling how common the scenario in the OPs post is in the industry.