This is a rant, if you don't like rants, you probably won't like this one, but I had an experience in my local BORG that just absolutely set me off to no end.
Background--I am in the middle of some home upgrades---Carpet and kitchen backsplash. We were looking at carpet and tile at the BORG for the projects. LOML hadn't completely decided on tiles or carpet specifics, but about 90% at this point. While there, I decided to pick up some tools that I knew I would need (tile nippers, diamond blade, trowel, etc). The diamond blade had a shelf tag of $25.99. When I was at the register, it rang up as $29.99. I asked the cashier if they could check the price as I was sure the tag had said $25.99. Another associate came over, scanned the item with a mobile device and confirmed to the cashier "it's 29.99" without ever leaving the register or checking the actual shelf. This completely lit my fuse and I walked out. The arrogance of the employee had me so fired up I went back into the store and double checked the tag myself----it was $25.99 as I had thought. I then went to the customer service desk and asked to see a manager. It took about 5 minutes for him to show and he asked what happened. I explained the situation and he said that he was really surprised given that this particular associate usually wasn't like that, bascially defending him from the start rather than listening to all that had transpired. I explained to him that I was pretty dissapointed in the lack of effort, even if it was only for $4, it was the principle--wrong shelf tag representing the item at a lower price and no one was willing to even do a visual check. I then told him that we had been shopping for carpet and tile and that he was welcome to check my story with the associate back there that we had and that based on this arrogance and lack of customer service I would now be taking my business elsewhere and the ultimate, $4 and laziness/lack of thinking had cost him $6k in revenue. He looked at me and said "you mean I lose $6k for a $4 transaction". I said no, you lost $6k of revenue because your employees don't care about taking care of customers. Here's the part that suprised me the most--this employee was not young, I would have expected a younger employee to blindly trust the computer. This gentleman was mature, if you understand my meaning. At the end of the day, they had not updated their shelf tag pricing, which is not the consumer's burden.
Did the $4 matter, absolutely not. Did them respecting my request (and I knew I was right) matter---yes and they chose not to. WIll I ever set foot in that store again, no way on earth. I will also do my best to steer clear of all orange themed home improvement centers whenever possible.
Unfortunately, this seems to be happening more and more, which troubles me because as wages go up, service levels seem to be going down in too many instances.
Now a former BORG patron.
Background--I am in the middle of some home upgrades---Carpet and kitchen backsplash. We were looking at carpet and tile at the BORG for the projects. LOML hadn't completely decided on tiles or carpet specifics, but about 90% at this point. While there, I decided to pick up some tools that I knew I would need (tile nippers, diamond blade, trowel, etc). The diamond blade had a shelf tag of $25.99. When I was at the register, it rang up as $29.99. I asked the cashier if they could check the price as I was sure the tag had said $25.99. Another associate came over, scanned the item with a mobile device and confirmed to the cashier "it's 29.99" without ever leaving the register or checking the actual shelf. This completely lit my fuse and I walked out. The arrogance of the employee had me so fired up I went back into the store and double checked the tag myself----it was $25.99 as I had thought. I then went to the customer service desk and asked to see a manager. It took about 5 minutes for him to show and he asked what happened. I explained the situation and he said that he was really surprised given that this particular associate usually wasn't like that, bascially defending him from the start rather than listening to all that had transpired. I explained to him that I was pretty dissapointed in the lack of effort, even if it was only for $4, it was the principle--wrong shelf tag representing the item at a lower price and no one was willing to even do a visual check. I then told him that we had been shopping for carpet and tile and that he was welcome to check my story with the associate back there that we had and that based on this arrogance and lack of customer service I would now be taking my business elsewhere and the ultimate, $4 and laziness/lack of thinking had cost him $6k in revenue. He looked at me and said "you mean I lose $6k for a $4 transaction". I said no, you lost $6k of revenue because your employees don't care about taking care of customers. Here's the part that suprised me the most--this employee was not young, I would have expected a younger employee to blindly trust the computer. This gentleman was mature, if you understand my meaning. At the end of the day, they had not updated their shelf tag pricing, which is not the consumer's burden.
Did the $4 matter, absolutely not. Did them respecting my request (and I knew I was right) matter---yes and they chose not to. WIll I ever set foot in that store again, no way on earth. I will also do my best to steer clear of all orange themed home improvement centers whenever possible.
Unfortunately, this seems to be happening more and more, which troubles me because as wages go up, service levels seem to be going down in too many instances.
Now a former BORG patron.
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