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You make the call - customer service edition

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by BurnsWhenIPee, Jun 4, 2013.

  1. BurnsWhenIPee

    BurnsWhenIPee Well-Known Member

    Made a trip to an outlet mall about 45 minutes from home for the sole purpose of buying my daughter a very specific kind of volleyball shoes for a club team she's playing on this summer. In, out and got them for $50 at a brand (should rhyme with Bike)-specific factory store.

    That was Sunday, and the first real workouts start Tuesday. She's putting her bag together on Monday evening, and realizes they didn't take the theft-protection tab off one of the shoes (the alarm didn't go off when we left the store with them). So I hopped in the car and drove the 33 miles each way to have them take it off. When I walked in with the shoes, again no alarm. The clerk at the door asked if I had a return and I told him what happened. His response: "Sorry". Then I told him I wasn't really happy because I had to make a special trip of 60-some miles, taking 90 minutes out of my evening and spending probably 4 gallons of horribly overpriced gas ... all to fix a pretty basic mistake by the initial clerk. His response to that, "Oh, sorry about that."

    How pissed would you be? I think it would have been appropriate for the second clerk to ask me to wait a minute and he will get the manager on duty to make this right, or take my name and number and he would have the manager call me, or even just tell me to grab a package of socks or something like that to make up for my time and inconvenience. But I can't tell if I'm rightfully pissed he couldn't add more than 5 grunted words in my direction, or if I'm too worked up over this.

    Obviously, the moral of the story is to check the theft-deterrent tags when you walk out of a store. But when the clerk checks the shoes, boxes them up, then bags the box and you walk out the store with no alarms going off, I'd take the bet that she did everything correctly.
     
  2. JimmyHoward33

    JimmyHoward33 Well-Known Member

    What happened to you stinks, its entirely possible that the clerk you saw had no idea that compensating you somehow was possible, they're usually pretty low level and (generic retail) management doesn't (usually) encourage rank/file employees to give things out because they'd all give the house away. They might also be trained not to offer any free stuff unless you ask.

    It would've been nice for them to be more heartfelt with the apology.

    If you e-mail the company they'll probably send you a gift card, I've had that happen before with other companies. Not the best thing but better than nothing
     
  3. House M.D.

    House M.D. Guest

    The question is why do we expect any better from people making minimum wage? It's called that for a reason.
     
  4. PCLoadLetter

    PCLoadLetter Well-Known Member

    I've never been a big believer in the "where's my free stuff?!?" school.

    Someone fucked up. The worker apologized and fixed it. Move on.
     
  5. Rhody31

    Rhody31 Well-Known Member

    If you misspell a kid's name in the paper, do they get a free subscription?
    Person apologized, fixed problem and ... there isn't an and. It's not their fault you don't live closer.
     
  6. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    I'm pretty much in that school on low budget items. It seems a tad disingenuous to
    expect free stuff which still don't really offset the original problem.

    On big ticket expenses though I'm all over it. If an airline screws up I'm on
    the phone to the CEO's office expecting points to my frequent flier card
    as compensation.

    For problems with major companies you are always better going right to the top.
    You won't get the CEO on the phone but you will get an assistant who will help
    even if they just pass on complaint to customer service. The low level customer
    service folks take complaints seriously when they come down from above.

    You want to have some fun, call Phil Knights office.
     
  7. KJIM

    KJIM Well-Known Member

    Yep. You're getting too worked up over a simple mistake.

    Yeah, eye contact would be nice, but so would letting go of a petty grudge.
     
  8. RickStain

    RickStain Well-Known Member

    I thought this was going to end with them refusing to take off the antitheft device.
     
  9. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    I was thinking arrest for shoplifting.
     
  10. BurnsWhenIPee

    BurnsWhenIPee Well-Known Member

    Those both were in the back of my mind. They didn't even ask to check my receipt to show I paid for them, though. I guess if I turn to a life of shoplifting, I know where my first stop is.

    I'm over it the morning after. I filled out the "rate your experience at our store" online survey they had a link to at the bottom of my receipt and that's where it ends for me.
     
  11. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    Here's what should have happened:

     
  12. heyabbott

    heyabbott Well-Known Member

    thank you
     
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