Is being helped too much to ask?

My husband and I are in the process of buying a house - we close in about a month. We’re very excited, and have a lot of plans for our new house. We also have several relatives who have offered to buy us various pieces of furniture, which is very generous of them. My grandfather has offered to buy us either a small table and chairs, or a mobile kitchen island/server for the bay window in our kitchen. So we’ve been looking around quite seriously at them. When we find one, we’ll go ahead and purchase it for delivery when we move in. He and I are also on the lookout for a dining room table to purchase on our own, as well as a new living room set. No, we’re not going to buy it all at once, but we’re trying to get ideas on what to get. We probably will purchase the dining room set within six months, and the living room set within nine or ten months.

So last night I had dropped some pictures off at the drugstore from our house inspection to have developed, and went to run some errands while that was being done. I ended up with a little time to kill, so I went into Ashley Furniture to look at kitchen tables.

Now, I’m 29 years old, but I fully admit that I look younger - probably around 23 or 24. However, I was nicely dressed, my hair was combed, I have a wedding ring on, and I don’t look like a bum. I expect I looked quite serious about the furniture I was looking at. But you know, even if I HADN’T been any of the above, I still deserved better treatment than I got.

No less than FIVE salespeople looked me dead in the eye, then ignored me and turned back to chat. Never mind that I stood within earshot of one, talking to another customer who was looking at the same kitchen table that I was, and said that we’d bought a house and were looking for several pieces of furniture. I’m pretty sure they were doing the same thing to her, as she mentioned being unable to get anyone to help her, either.

I did try to find a salesperson myself, but the one above walked off before I could get to him, and they all seemed to disappear when I wanted to talk to one about the table.

The piece de resistance was when a salesperson walked RIGHT BY ME as I tried to flag him down and went to help a couple who had JUST walked into the damn store. What the fuck? I’ll admit that I laughed when they left five minutes later without buying anything.

So, fuck you in the nostrils with a 40 oz beer bottle, Ashley Furniture. I really liked some of the pieces in your showroom, and I even liked the prices. But because not even ONE of your lazy-ass salespeople couldn’t be bothered to ask me if I needed help or STOP when I tried to get their attention, no way in HELL am I buying anything from your store. The sad thing is, I found a kitchen table, dining room set, and a living room set that both my husband and I would like - and he’s picky as hell, so your salespeople could have made some nice commissions from us if they weren’t too damn lazy to get off their asses and DO something.

I’m half-tempted to call the manager, but I’m not going back into the store, so it’d be pointless.

E.

Methinks a letter to the manager is a good idea. Tell him about how much money you were willing to spend and how a major competitor got it because his employees are all lazy bums.

I’ve actually been in stores before where I’m being ignored so badly that I had to grab someone by their shirt as they walked by saying, “I’d like to exchange money for your merchandise. Are you at all interested in helping me do this?”

Call (or print this out and mail it) anyway. You may be helping the next person like you who shops there. Boycotting a shop without telling them why is non-productive.

Print the OP out, sans cursing, and mail it to the store? Give the date/time you went in. I’m sure the store owner/manager would like to speak with the sales people. I’d send the letter, even if I wasn’t going back, just to try to see to it that no one else had to go through what went through.

I’ve found a fax number for them, so I think I’m going to fax it over to them (sans cursing, obviously).

I was just so ticked off that I was still stewing on it this morning. I mean, no, we weren’t going to buy out the store, but we’re planning to outfit three rooms in the next year - so I don’t think getting service is too much to ask.

E.

I was in a party store once and couldn’t get any help. Eventually I found what I wanted and went to the register, where I waited for quite some time. Finally I yelled, “Hello! Is anyone working here?” A little piece of fluff came bouncing up, sneered at me, and informed me in a very snotty voice, “Yes, someone is working here.” And then she flounced off! I put down my merchandise and left.
Some stores don’t seem to understand the concept that selling things to customers is the point of being in business. The party store, incidentally, was out of business within a couple of months.

Home Depot is another place that has lost a great deal of my business because no one was available to help me buy stuff from them.

Was there a manager in the store when you were looking? That would have been a good time to point out to him/her how much money the store was losing by having salespeople not do their jobs. “Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I found $XXX worth of furniture here that I’m not going to buy because I couldn’t get a salesperson to help me. Bye now.” That has the potential to get you a seriously good deal, actually.

Barring that, a phone call would be in order today. I had a crappy experience at a walk-in medical clinic, and I made a point of calling the next day, because they needed to get their shit straightened out.

Or just buy elsewhere, and wait for them to go out of business. Or just forget about them, because they’re not worth getting upset over. So many responses to choose from.

Send them the fax sans cursing like you were planning. If the manager is smart he will make som ehcanges to the store and maybe some heads will roll. iIf they don’t do anything, then they will keep losing business and will soon be deservedly out of business.

I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t have bothered to wait on you, the last time I went to a furniture store, we had salespeople almost flock to attend us and we certainly don’t look that affluent. I can’t imagine that they are making so much profit that they can afford to ignore customers. Granted, I wouldn’t expect that kind of customer service in an IKEA, but if I ask for help, I damn well wouldn’t expect to be ignored.

IMHO, the manager at the store won’t do a damn thing. I think it’s pretty rare for a local manager to have such a load of shit staff without knowing they suck. Better bet is to go higher in the food chain.

There’s this form: http://www.ashleyfurniture.com/ContactUs/ContactUs.asp

But letters work better. I couldn’t find the HQ address.

I’ve worked retail for large companies in the past, and I know that the big wigs take this kind of stuff very seriously. After all, it’s them usually and not the local managers who take all those fancy courses that stress the importance of word of mouth.

Most of all, do write something. As a former retail employee, I hated working with jackasses like these, they only fucked up the reputation of my store and when the community got to know it, everyone who came in was pissed the moment they entered the door.

  • Rebekkah

I just bought a dining room set last week, and it was made by Ashley Furniture. (The place we bought it from sells for lots of different companies, of course.)

I won’t buy from them again.

What we bought was a (beautiful) black cherry wood table, 4 chairs and a bench. We take delivery on it the other day, right? The table and bench are fine. One of the chairs had a 5 inch crack in the wood. Another one of the chairs had a LEG LOOSE, really wobbly (and not the kind of flaw you can fix on your own). Brand spanking new furniture! They also did a sloppy job on the finish in other places. Not the quality I was expecting considering what I paid, ya know?

I called the saleslady we worked with and the store sent a guy to look at them. They’re going to replace the two chairs (everything has a 1-year warranty), so as far as customer service goes I’m happy.

But still. I’ll never buy Ashley again. When I buy something like that I want it perfect when it gets to my house. I’m glad they’re going to replace the chairs, but why are they putting out furniture with defects like that to begin with?

If you really want a revenge that will have teeth, don’t simply send it to the store manager, send it to the Letters to the Editor section of the local paper, with a cc going to the store manager. Not all such letters get printed of course, but, how would you like to see your store labelled in the eyes of everyone reading the Op-Ed page as the home of impossible to get service?

related more to thread title than to contents of thread so far, but it made me disgusted.

Hello, KFC worker? It’s really nice of you to assure the patron after me that if she needs something all she has to do is ask. But it would be even nicer if you wouldn’t DISAPPEAR immediately after doing so. (And is it too much to ask that you not spend the entire time I’m in the store chatting with your co-workers except the bare minimum amount of time spent interacting with people wanting food?) The poor lady only wanted butter for her biscuit- it isn’t like she wanted something weird, but the person who offered to get her anything else she needed said it by rote as she walked out of sight.

Another vote for sending a letter to both the local manager and HQ if possible. It sounds to me like they were ignoring you because you weren’t there with your husband and thus not likely to buy anything. That’s abominable customer service, and you should speak up about it. If you don’t, those salespeople have no reason not to waste other people’s time who mistakenly thought they’d entered a furniture store.

Having worked in retail in the past, I have to say that I was always annoyed by that type of co-worker. My approach to customer service was always to be as unobtrusive as possible, while still remaining available.

If a customer was simply walking from point A to point B, I’d leave them alone. Maybe make eye contact and give them a nod and a smile, to let them know that I knew that they were there. If the customer was closely examining any of the merchandise, I’d ask them if they needed any assistance. If they did, I’d assist them (or find someone who could). Either way, I’d conclude by telling them to fell free to ask if they needed any further assistance. At that point I would leave them alone while they shopped (unless they just looked really confused), and let them come to me if they needed anything. I know that I hate to be constantly bugged by sales people, and I was sure as hell not going to annoy our customers.

See, you’d be my favorite kind of salesperson. I don’t like being bugged or followed around, but I don’t mind being asked if I need help once or twice - it makes me feel like they’re interested in my business. What bugged the shit out of me was to be completely ignored by the entire showroom of folks.

I’m going to stop by after work tomorrow evening - I showed my husband some of the furniture I saw and he really likes it. We’ve been to several other furniture stores together and absolutely can’t agree on anything. So the fact that we both like the same items at one store is too good to just walk away from - I’ll give them one more chance. When I stop by tomorrow, I’ll ask to see the manager and explain the situation. I usually don’t try to ‘get stuff’, and that’s not what I’m really going for - I just want them to be aware of customers and realize that even though we may not LOOK like we’re going to purchase, there’s a very good chance that we are. And I’m really annoyed that I have to be with my husband to make a purchase. We may discuss all major purchases, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t go out and make them alone at times.

E.

I’m the same way, and I always tried to treat customers the way I would prefer to be treated. I had quite a number of customers compliment me on my helpfulness, and I’d always tell them (quite honestly) that I’ve had the deal with unhelpful salespeople myself, and I wasn’t about to inflict that on anyone else. It makes me wonder what the people you dealt with expect to be treated like when they’re the customer. Probably like kings and queens.

Yeah, there’s really no excuse for that (outside of sheer laziness). I could understand if there just weren’t enough salespeople, and the ones who were there were running ragged trying to help customers. After all, this time of year is notorious for slashed budgets, so coverage tends to be rather thin. However, this doesn’t sound like it was the case for you.

I hate to say it, but you should have gotten aggressive. Walking up to an employee and saying, “I’m interested in purchasing that piece of furniture over there” works wonders. It shouldn’t be necessary, but there are always time when employees just get so busy or distracted that they fail to notice that you need help. I’m not saying that that was the case with you, but there’s no way they can ignore you if you get blatant about wanting to buy something.

Yeah, that’s pretty much inexcusable.

Try this.

Wow. You can’t even get past the door frame at our Ashley’s without 15 salespeople descendling upon you like a horde of Vandals.

Sounds as if the ones at the one you visited were clueless idiots.

snort That reminds me of the time my bf wanted to browse The Good Guys, just to kill some time. We weren’t buying anything, but the salesmen were on us like flies on shit. We weren’t in there ten minutes, but no fewer than 5 guys came up and asked if we needed any help. It was creepy. I went back the next day to buy something I’d seen there, and not only did nobody approach me, but I had to stand and stare, bug-eyed for at least a solid minute, before a salesdrone, who’d been looking right at me, would come over. Some people still haven’t figured out that chicks also have money. :mad:

I was a college kid, dressed in pre-punk college kid clothes, knapsack on my back. I walked into a department store and went to the perfume counter to purchase a $50 bottle of perfume for myself (I’ll wear cheap clothes, but NOT cheap perfume.) I was pointedly ignored, even when I raised my hand politely when a saleslady walked by, sniffing. I understood that I didn’t LOOK like I might be a good customer, but it wasn’t like any other customers were there… and then there were. A suburban matron type walked up to the counter and two salesladies descended on her immediately. So I grabbed a book out of my knapsack and slid down to the floor in front of the counter to read.

It’s AMAZING how fast that will get a saleslady to notice you.