Do you really want this sale? Then why are you PISSING ME OFF?

The BBQ Pit
41

Note: the following anecdote concerns Kmart. This may disqualify me right off the bat from having the right to complain, since any discussion of Kmart probably starts with extremely low expectations.

I haven’t been to Kmart since the Sears merger, so maybe they’re different now. But being in my local store used to be like The Omega Man. I once wandered around in there for an hour with literally no sighting of either an employee or another customer. Once in sporting goods there were three small children riding around on bikes; they seemed to be having a good time. I can’t remember what I was looking for, but I leaned against the unmanned counter in the empty hardware section for twenty minutes while I read a paperback I had with me; finally I got behind the counter, made a personal phone call, and then figured out how to get on the PA system. I said, “Could somebody come back to Hardware and give me a hand? I’m having trouble getting the cash drawer open.” It was still about five minutes before somebody showed up. (Note: I know I shouldn’t have done that, and was probably being an asshole. But honestly, by that time the whole thing felt like an odd dream, where anything might happen without consequence.)

Apparently I’m not the only customer who’s gotten to that point. Another time I had given up on finding what I wanted, and was leaving. I had been wondering if the store actually had any employees, but when I got to the checkout area I found about a dozen employees all hanging out there – not manning the registers, just hanging out. They eyed me briefly and then ignored me. Just then, on the PA system, I heard: “This is a customer. I’ve been here in the Gardening section for a goddamn hour without being helped.”

Things like this used to make me wonder if the whole Kmart store wasn’t a front for selling meth or something. Maybe it’s a matter of location.

42

I recently purchased a car, after shopping and investigating cars for quite a while. The reason I bought from the dealership I did? They basically dealt with me coming in, looking over the inventory and checking things out several times before actually buying. I made a point of going to the same salesman each time, because he had been pleasant the first time I was in without being pushy.
One dealership I went to had the pushiest salesman I’ve dealt with in a long time. Not only was he pushy when I was there, he called a number of times within a couple of weeks after I was there, almost always while I was at work (I only have a cell phone, no land line - one of the few times I’ve regretted not having one). Then, about a month after I was in there, I got a calls from the “floor manager” at that dealership and the salesman (who claimed not to know that I’d had the other call) in the same day. I told them not to call me again, and they didn’t, but it was ridiculous.

43

When I was about to graduate from college I went out to buy the “woman’s business suit” for interviews. At the very first store I found a helpful clerk, and a nice suit, but decided not to jump on it and check out some other places. At one place I found an item that was even better, and for a slightly lower price, but I’d not been helped or greeted at all by staff. Then a nicely dressed older woman comes in and the staff was all over her. I walked out, went back to the first store, and got that first suit, being sure to mention the clerk(for the sales credit) who had first helped me.

When my older nephew was about three I walked into a toyshop to browse for his birthday. It was the middle of the afternoon, two staff people and no other customers. I looked kind of scruffy, as I’d just got off of work. I was not greeted at all, but when, after wandering around for a while a nice dressed woman came in, a staff person did greet her and asked if she needed assistance. I walked out and wrote the store a letter about the experience. The manager called me and was extremely apologetic, even said my letter would be used at their next employee training meeting. So a couple of weeks later I went back, dressed just the same, same time of day and so on. And of course got the same lack of response. This time I got the manager on the phone and told her(politely) what had happened and got the same apologies, and she asked me to give the store one more chance. I didn’t, and have told many people that story. Sad to say the store has still prospered and even moved to a new, larger location.

44

I’ve posted about this before, but I second the “Back off trying to sell me the extended warranty.” I’m not stupid, I know they’re basically worthless and nothing more than a way to pad your sales.

I bought Ivylad a Sony Playstation for Father’s Day, and first the salesman tried to push it on me, saying how it could get dusty and ruin the innards, blah blah blah. I said no thanks, then the clerk at the register tried to tell me how fragile it was and how even the tiniest bump could break it.

:eek: “Oh, I didn’t know I was so poorly made!” I exclaim. “Maybe I better not get it at all!”

I looked at her, gave her a big grin, and she finished ringing me up without aother word.

45

Most of the time today, salespeople are part of very large organizations. Their primary responsibilities are to the organization, because the organization demands it, and their primary loyalties are to themselves, because the organization does not reward their loyalty with its own. In these conditions, customer service goes on the balance sheet under “Intangibles.”

46

I am fed up with the local Unisex Haircut Salon.

When I go in, the reception person has to ask “Have You Been Here Before?” and demand my name and phone number, apparently so they can update their Master Registry and determine the appropriate followup to every snip and comb that has occurrred over the course of my Haircut History, as well as fire up a list of useless coupons they can mail me.

I just want a goddam trim. Dry. No unguents or lotions. And I don’t wanna talk about the Buckeyes.

47

Once I walked into a bed store and told the sales person that I was there to buy a water bed. I said it just like that. I didn’t say I wanted to look at them, I wanted to buy one. While she was talking to me another sales person asked her a question aned she wandered away to answer questions posed by a nice young couple. I hope that they bought a bed from her, because she lost me as a customer.

48

They THINK it makes people more comfortable, makes us seem more friendly. Or so I have been told at two retail establishments. We don’t use last names among ourselves, either, even with the store manager. That doesn’t bother me. I don’t really mind if they use my first name (though I hate it when customers do, oddly, even though I wear a huge-ass name tag) but I would feel uncomfortable assuming other people like it when I use theirs. Fortunately, where I work, I don’t see people’s names, and don’t know them unless they tell me. So it’s sir, or ma’am. Nobody’s been offended by either of those yet.

49

Ack. “I don’t really mind if they use my first name when I’m a customer”. Of course my coworkers call me by name.

50

I just want some friggin-fraggin’ slipcovers. Is that so hhhhharrrd, JCPenney?

I tend to shop and compare quite a bit before I buy. I rarely make impluse purchases. So, I’ve perused JCPenney’s slipcover selections in the store more than once. I know the selection they have in the store sucks.

As I’m getting closer to making my purchase, I get a coupon in the mail for 25% off on catalog orders. At the same time, the JCPenney in-store flyer says all its slipcovers are 50% off. Good deal, says I. I’ll order the slipcovers via the 1-800# and get the additional 25% off. No go. After going through the whole shebang with the phone rep, turns out the 25% discount doesn’t apply to slipcovers. (This is not my biggest problem. It was in the small print - which I hadn’t read, the rep was good and nice, and even made sure that the gift card I’d given him as part of my payment was properly credited back before he would conclude the call). Also, the slipcovers via the catalog are 20% more expensive. This is because the stores are allowed to run their own, seperate, promotions from catalog. So if I want the best price, I have to go to the store.

Ok, so I go to the store. Not easy since I don’t have a car, and my sister graciously offers to take me. Now, remember their instore selection sucks. But, last time I bought something there, they didn’t have the style I wanted on the floor, so they ordered it through the catalog and didn’t charge me shipping.

So, I think I’ll get to the store in the mall and just order it through the catalog, get the best price, not have to pay shipping.

No go. Cashier can’t find what I want in the catalog (they have red and yellow on the floor. I want white. White they offer online, but I don’t want to pay the shipping). They send me to the catalog department. Catalog lady can’t find it in the catalog, either. Have to repeat at least three times that I want the SURE FIT cover in WHITE. No, they don’t have it on the floor. Yes, the cashier checked in back. Catalog lady sends me BACK to the cashier to see if they can get it from another store. (What, she can’t do that? No, apparently she can’t.)

Go back to the cashier. Sister insists I ask for a manager. Manager comes. No, says I multiple times, I want the SURE FIT COVER IN WHITE. WHITE. WWWWWHITE!!! I do not want the red or the yellow!. She checks her computer. They don’t carry it anywhere in the region. White is not available in the store. It’s not in the catalog, so she can’t order it via catalog. I have to order it online.

Fun JCPenney facts: the catalog, brick and mortar, and online departments are all apparently seperate business units. They have nothing to do with each other. They don’t carry the same things. They don’t honor each others’ pricing.

Goddammit.

Go back home. Discover that another slipcover might work better, anyway. Order it online. Use my gift card to pay for part of the cost. Get confirmation email.

Wait. And wait. Charge not showing up on my credit card. Get email this morning that, so sorry, the item you ordered is not available to be shipped after all. So sorry.

Checked my gift card balance. It’s zero. ::sigh:: So now I guess I’ll have to call and fight to get my $21.78 put back on the card.

Fuck JCPenney. They apparently really really don’t want my business since they’re making it so hard.

Guess I’ll go to Target.

51

Speaking of car dealerships, the local Hyundai dealership lost our sale when we were ready to buy. We had decided on a very nice 2004 that was still in the dealership (the 2005’s had already come in, so they were eager to clear out this 2004), I discussed leasing with the salesperson, there were no problems, so I brought my husband in later that evening. In the couple of hours it took for us to come back, all the stories had changed and the deal we were interested in was no longer possible. Okay, we’re not impressed, haven’t been from day one with Hyundai salespeople (we were practically forcibly confined by one early on), so we forget about that car.

A short time later, Hyundai is advertising a fantastic deal on leasing 2005’s, so we trundle back to the dealership to discuss getting a leased 2005 Elantra. The salesperson basically told us that the deal advertised in the paper doesn’t exist. We leave, make a mental note to tell everyone we know about how crappy Hyundai dealerships are, and go buy an $18,000 Toyota at a Honda dealership.

Have I mentioned, Hyundai dealerships are the worst? Elantras and Sonatas might be great cars, but I doubt we’ll ever find out.

52

This drives me absolutely batty, to the point that I automatically walk out of any store where I’m being shadowed by a salesperson after I tell them that I’m just looking for the moment, and I’ll be back if I have any questions.

53

This is absolutely 100% on the nosey. Salesmen are not only scum to the buying public, they are usually scum to the business they work for, even though that’s where the profits come from. Commission salesmen are generally ONLY loyal to themselves, to the exclusion of even other salesmen. They have to be or they starve. In my short tenure as a salesman (related elsewhere on this board), I tried to extend professional courtesy to all customers, even the knuckleheads. Longtime sales folk that I worked with had mostly contempt for customers and it’s possible I may have ended up with the same outlook, had I stayed with it.

54

Yeah, that bugs the hell out of me too. I want to patronize small local stores who I know are having a tough time against the mega-retailers but about half the time you get this evil “cooler-than-thou” attitude. It makes me reluctant to even go into smaller stores sometimes.

After having worked years in retail, service is one of my big pet peeves. I won’t buy from Best Buy or Circuit City because I hate being badgered. I’d rather get it online at Amazon or get a cheaper alternative at Target. If I’m pointedly ignored when I walk in, I won’t return. If I have to wait an unreasonably long time to get rung up, I set my merchandise down and walk out. Retailers need to wake up, with the advent of online shopping, there’s very little I have to actually enter a store to buy.

55

I was car shopping and was looking at the Subaru Forester. We drove it and liked it. The salesperson was pushy, but I have some tolerance for pushy. She asked if I had a trade in. I said no. She asked if I had a down payment. I said no. She asked what she could do to get me in the car today! I said Blah blah blah. She went, came back triumphantly, and told me she could do it. I was extremely surprised, since I wasn’t offering much. Then it turns out she could do it with a big trade in and a big downpayment. I told her that wasn’t in my offer. She stomped away and refused to speak to me again.

I bought a Jeep.

56

Last night I was watching a documentary called Slasher, directed by John Landis. It’s about a guy who specializes in conducting “slasher” sales to clear out car dealership inventories. One of the salesmen explained that he’ll agree to anything a prospective customer asks for, then backslide a few seconds later. For example, if a customer says, “I can only afford to pay $350 a month,” he’ll say, “Sure! Fine! Let me go tell the manager!” and then, after taking a few steps, he’ll turn back and say, “Oh, we might not be able to do that $350. How about $450?” If I were the customer, that would be the end of the conversation. (The same salesman, later in the documentary, complains bitterly about customers “wasting his time” because they didn’t buy.)

The last time I went to a dealership on my own, I explained that I wanted to trade in my Ford Ranger for “something smaller that gets better gas mileage”. That was the phrase I used, repeatedly. The guy responded by trying to sell me a full-size van. The easiest way to not sell me something is to make it clear you’re just not listening.

57

Hah - I can one-up that story - nearly identical experience when I was travelling with a male co-worker. Only, instead of just putting the card/receipt back down in front of my colleague, the waitbeing addressed him by name. My name. As in “There you are, Mister Zappa”. :rolleyes:

Proving that the waiter had read the name on the card and still did not mentally process the information - it’s not like my first name is even remotely gender-neutral :smack:

58

I almost always love Target. I can always find someone to help me.

However, I had a bit of a problem a few months ago. I was at Target with my mother, and had left my purse in the car. We saw a lipstick color we both wanted to try, and so my mother picked it up to buy it. When we got to the register, the salesgirl started giving us a lecture on how I should pay for my own lipstick, etc. I was thisclose to walking out.

59

When did the official greeting by by 20ish female clerks become “hi there?” (And always spoken/sung in a melodic, tremolo manner. You know, with 2 or three syllables for they-ey-eyre.)

When did the official response to “thank you” become “uh huh,” or “sure.”

Why does every single person in every single store need to tell you to “have a nice day-ay-ay?”

Why, more times than not, when I say “hello” is the answer “not bad, you?”

60

I was going to buy a car about a year ago when mine was costing me way too much in repairs, and was talking with a salesman at a Honda dealership. I felt like he wasn’t taking me quite seriously enough even though I was asking intensive and probing questions, and when I mentioned that I was pretty serious about buying it today, he replied - completely seriously, without a hint of condescension, “Well, why don’t you come back with your Dad and we’ll talk about payment options.”

I’m 25, and I know that I look younger, but not THAT young. He should have taken my dress (business casual instead of skater shoes and a t-shirt), my WEDDING RING, and my fucking DEMEANOR and general way of carrying myself as BIG FREAKING CUES that I wasn’t some HIGH SCHOOL kid. I told him as much (I think I started with, “are you fucking kidding me?”) and left.