What habit of retail salespeople makes it harder for them to make a sale to you?
For me it’s about my name. First off, I worked in retail from 1988 to 2001, and I was taught always to address my customers as “Ms. Johnson,” “Mr. Smith,” et cetera. When someone who’s supposed to be serving me–particularly much younger than me–uses my first name without asking first, it vexes me.
I know I’ve lost the battle on that one, though. What really irritates me is when salespeople address me by the WRONG name. My given name is Kyle, but I never introduce myself as such; for various silly reasons that name always irritated me as a child, and even as an adult it makes my skin crawl. I always introduce myself as “Maxie.” When I do that, and salespeople proceed to call me Kyle over and over, it tells me that they either aren’t listening to what I’m saying or that they don’t care what I think. Either way I don’t want to help them reach their quota or make their commission.
What about you folks? What do salespeople do that, for reasons rational or otherwise, just pisses you off?
It wasn’t a salesperson but the manager of a Thrift Store. I called and scheduled pickups at three locations of some nice profit makers for them, unusable/unneeded for me. He called day prior to pick up to confirm they would be ready and asked about one specific location. I answered in the affirmative. He didn’t ask about the other two locations and assumed he understood they would be ready too.
Pick up was made at the one location only. When my wife called to ask why they didn’t get the items at the other two locations she was verbally abused.
I called later and asked for the manager. He allowed as how I should have asked him about the other two locations. :rolleyes:
If I were running the store he’d be out the door.
Now I’m calling a more receptive group to give them the items.
Here’s a hint, salesfolks – once you’ve introduced yourself to me, thus tagging me as “your” customer, and I politely ask you to back off and let me shop alone until I am ready for you – BACK THE FUCK OFF AND LET ME SHOP ALONE UNTIL I AM READY FOR YOU!!! As long as you aren’t an annoying pain in the ass, and I can find you within a few minutes, I WILL track you down when it is time to close the deal.
Actually, a La-Z-Boy store won a couple of points on this score on January 8th; the saleslady was available but not obnoxious, and I bought a $995.00 recliner.
The store than lost ALL the points after I’d paid up and the warehouse people informed me that If I wanted delivery on a Saturday, I’d have to wait until JANUARY 28th for delivery of the chair, an IN STOCK item located in a warehouse less than a half-mile from the store. HAVE ENOUGH DELIVERY TRUCKS, PEOPLE! I am seriously considering cancelling the sale, and, as you can see, I have PLENTY of time to think about it, given the delivery date I was given. Oh – for an additional fifty negative points, I was informed that it cost $49 to have the chair delivered OR TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS TO PICK IT UP!!! Yes, I will be charged $25.00 if I choose to pick up my own purchase. Talk about bullshit.
Kinda funny, I was going to post about the opposite story about a La-Z-Boy store. I walked in with a pocketful of tax refund, a tape measure and notebook detailing my living room dimensions, I was Ready To Shop baby! Walked around looking at this and that, sitting in chairs and measuring them, wondering which models came in which fabrics, and not once was I even greeted by anyone. Looked around a few times in that obviously questing for help way, nada. Found something I liked even, and figured I’d just sit in it and wait for someone to finally notice me, nope. The place was a ghost town, too!
After being in the store over an hour, and sitting quietly waiting for fifteen minutes, I found the desk and asked for a manager. Another ten minute wait for that, and I asked him why I hadn’t been offered any assistance. He all but sniffed at me, somehow implying I was too needy for words, total sarcasm. I smiled, showed him (and the other counter-jockeys that were eavesdropping) my tape measure, notebook and money, told them they just lost the easiest surest sale ever and walked out.
Sure I appreciate not being immediately jumped on by 4 pushy salespeople, but c’mon!
We just ordered a reclining love seat - due in stock the end of January. We could have it delivered for $55 or pick it up for free. How bizarre that you’d be charged to pick it up yourself! The only thing about getting it ourselves - they will not help us load it. Which means if I was single and friendless, my only option would be delivery…
However, I will say the sales staff at our LaZBoy is good about backing off. We’ve been in there several times over the last year, and apart from giving us a card, unless we have specific questions, they go away. Which means we can shop at our leisure and sit on as many as we want as many times as we want. It’s great
I had that problem when I was looking for a fancy dress to buy for my wedding dress. I’d had it with wedding dress salons and decided to just get a white/cream fancy dress to wear. I hit some nice department stores and couldn’t get a clerk to even look at me. I guess because I don’t carry a designer bag, I wasn’t worth their time. I’d been willing to spend several hundred dollars at least, but ended up going to a Jessica McClintock outlet and getting a $175 dress off the rack. It was lovely, and their clerks treated me like I was a good customer. (My sis took my recommendation and went there for a wedding dress. The clerk we had was friendly, picked out lots of dresses based on my sis’ stated preferences, came to check on us often but didn’t hover.)
RE: Good clothing store service. Answer: Nordstrom’s good, Macy’s bad. That is all.
The first time I ever bought expensive jewelry was when I wanted a nice pair of diamond earrings for my daughter’s 21st birthday. I was very casually dressed as I shopped. Some of the stores would barely deign to speak to me even if I approached a "sales"person to ask a question. Others ignored me. A few gave me the same attention they would have to a nattily dressed society dame. Guess who got my money and who got the satisfaction of not having “wasted” their valueable time. Right. A many-times-over loss for them, too, since I have returned to the good store almost every year since to buy nice jewelry for both my daughters.
All retail sales people should be required to watch the scene in “Pretty Woman” where Julia Roberts goes back to the store where they refused to wait on her, heavily laden with packages from the place where she got good service. “You work on commission, right? I was in here yesterday and you wouldn’t wait on me.” <displays packages> “Big mistake.”
There was a furniture store close to my old apartment back in Minnesota that was going out of business about a year ago, so they had the big going out of business sale. At the time, I was in need of a new sofa, so I decided to go check them out. I’d never been there before or heard anything about them. I found a beautiful, high-quality sofa at a great price. The salespeople were extremely friendly and helpful, and I was really impressed, and sad that they were going out of business, it seemed like such a great store, if not rather expensive (the original price was listed on the tags, my sofa was originally priced at $3000, the marked sale price was $1400, the salesman offered it to me for $800).
The next day, I went to work and mentioned my purchase to some coworkers. One guy said, “you mean you actually found someone to help you there?” Turns out, he had gone in there with his wife looking for a sofa, and not only did nobody come up to offer help, but when he approached a salesperson, they were extremely rude and pretty much blew him off. Other coworkers claimed similar experiences, and expressed shock that I managed to find something there for a reasonable price. Apparently this store had a reputation for snooty salespeople and insane prices.
This is, I would assume, why they went out of business. I chalk up my experience to their staff finally getting some customer service skills out of desperation to unload their stock.
I find it rude when an unoccupied employee of a small, single-room shop doesn’t greet me when I enter. I was looking for candle-holders at a handicraft store last weekend, for example. The store was barely 7x7 metres big, with a bored-looking man sitting at the desk facing the door.
He both heard and saw me come in, was doing nothing else, and I was the only customer in the store. What does he do? Glare at me as though I’m interrupting his boredom. I ignore that, and browse until my mother catches up with me. She enters and says hello to the clerk, who looks at her without responding and continues to stare at me as though I’m stuffing my (non-existent) backpack full of his overpriced merchandise. It’s definitely not the first time I’ve had similar experiences, but it still frustrates me.
I dunno if waiters count as “salespeople,” but it drives me absolutely nuts when male waiters (waitresses never do it) address Mr. Levins, and not me, especially when it comes to the check. They give him the check, and even if I’m the one paying it, and thus it’s on my side of the table, they thank him when they pick it up. (This irks me even more so than usual when I tip well, and they come back and thank Mr. Levins. Not that Mr. Levins isn’t a good tipper as well, but dammit, THE GIRL is the one who tipped you today, you little jackass. And if you had half a brain, you’d realize that she was the one who handed you the server book with all the money in it!)
If they say anything to me, it’s something generic like “You guys have a good night!”
This doesn’t happen all the time, of course, but it happens often enough that it’s become a huge pet peeve of mine. I’ve waited tables and I ALWAYS put the check in the middle of the table, unless specifically requested otherwise. I never made any assumptions about who was going to pay the tab and thus it offends me when others do.
Macy’s is dreadful. Many times I’ve wandered around, arms laden with merchandise, looking for an open cash register. I don’t even want any help, I just want to pay for my stuff!
Once, I actually yelled in the middle of the store **“Would anyone like to take my money, or shall I just grab a bag and leave with this stuff?” **
Nordtrom’s really is great. Neiman’s, on the other hand? If I *must * go there, I really do make sure to carry my best bag. It’s uncanny. Even if everything else I’m wearing came from the Gap, the level of service can reliably be predicted by what bag I carry.
Last night, Audrey, I was at a restaurant with my SO when they brought the check, and put it down in front of him. We’d already agreed I was buying, so I did so. Apparently nobody ever looked at the card when they took it to swipe because when the receipt was brought back to sign, she STILL put it in front of him. Usually if that happens they then give it to me.
The food was FAAAAAABULOUS and the service was otherwise great, but somehow, I wouldn’t peg my boyfriend as a Rachel…I know waitpeople have a lot of stuff to do, but take ten seconds and look at the card, please? It’s my money. I earned it. He doesn’t always pay just because he’s the man!
We just bought a Tempurpedic bed, for which we paid a significant amount of cash. It took a week and a half to deliver, but that’s okay. We put a third down and the saleman told me rather pointedly when he called to tell me the bed was ready that we “would need to pay the balance before delivery”. Okay, I can understand that.
Delivery day, the movers show up right on time to my amazement. Sez I, “We’ve found someone to donate the old bed to, so if you could just put it in the garage instead of taking it with you, that will be fine.” Sez he, “We can’t move personal stuff, so unless you’re going to give it to us, we can’t do that.” Sez I, “Then stop what you are doing, go get a check from the store for $3,000, then come back and take the whole thing back to the store.” Silence while he mulled it over, then a muttered “yeah, I guess we can move it for you.” Cripes.
My peeve is with hairdressers. If I’m paying you over $100 to do my hair, don’t stand there and tear me down the whole time. The last girl I went to made several negative comments about my hair. I liked what she did with it, but I don’t think I’ll go back to her. She made me feel really inadequate. It’s weird because I’m a confident gal, but I am sensitive about my hair (it’s straight and really fine, and it’s colored so it is a bit damaged, although not as much as she made it seem). You’d think they’d know better, but I’ve had it happen several times over the years.
Naah…his signature’s pretty much unreadable. They’d never have noticed. Fortunately, I was in no mood to be seriously offended. I may live three hours away from there but I’ll be more than happy to pig out there whenever possible!
I work retail, though not the commission-based sort, so if I see somebody and ask if they need help I then tell them I’ll be right around if they change their minds, and then leave them alone. I hate having store employees breathing down my neck and I’m not about to do it to a customer (bar keeping an eye on them if I think they’re stealing or something, but even then I’d keep my distance).
Is it possible that you want to pick up the chair on a saturday. If so it could be that the warehousemen don’t work satudays and the charge is for providing a service not normally available. That’s about the only reason I can think of for a $25.00 P/U charge.
