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Daniel wrote:

dvpierce wrote:

Daniel wrote:

I went to get copies of my apartment key at Lowes back in the spring, and not only did the copy they made not work, but in the process of making it they somehow managed to cut one of the ridges off the end of the original, making it not work either.

I was rather pissed.

My apartment keys have always said "do not duplicate." Rent is charged based on the number of people given access.

I suppose if I were trying to get keys duplicated in violation of a contract and I found somebody unscrupulous enough to do it for me, I'd deserve what I got.

Your lease may be different, though.

My keys do not say that, neither does my lease, and in fact the manager told me to get my key duplicated when I requested one from her, but thanks for the condescension regardless.

Hey now, be nice.  Both of you.  I don't want either of you holding any grudges...

Heh. I just got 2 phone calls from people at the Fremont store, one of them the store manager. Both calls were apologies. They handled it quickly and personally, and they're holding the filters for me. The ones they said must've been stolen.

They haven't lost a customer yet.

I bought a new dryer at Lowe's - they said they had one in stock, sent me up to the front.

I got up to the front, and asked to buy a warranty - at which point the store manager who was there overheard and said "He didn't try to sell you one back there?" I said - nope, never come up. Manager looked shocked. I think they are suppose to push them.

While waiting, they got a call - the one "in stock" was the floor model, and they forgot to note it as floor model when they put it on the floor.

Manager said "It was put on the floor just last week. How about 10% off - off the dryer, your warranty, and everything in your basket (not much, but still ... nice)"

Done.

We had been to three other places, and Lowe's price was $40 lower than the next lowest price for same model already. I don't mind a floor model as long as it isn't banged up and everything is there.

Last edited by resedit (2007-10-12 4:39 pm)

justine wrote:

Heh. I just got 2 phone calls from people at the Fremont store, one of them the store manager. Both calls were apologies. They handled it quickly and personally, and they're holding the filters for me. The ones they said must've been stolen.

They haven't lost a customer yet.

Some corporations make an effort to craft a customer friendly store culture and it is really obvious which ones do and which ones don't.
I have had good experiences at both Lowe's and Builders Square. On the otherhand it seems to me every time I hit Wal-Mart there is fewer and fewer staff, the lines are longer and the shelves less well stocked.
I don't know if it's a local phenomenon or not but at least to judge by the in store experience, Wal-Mart seems to be on the decline.

user wrote:

Now that they've managed to wipe out the competition, it's time for WallyWorld to take take off the gloves, raise the prices and smurf the customers. Where else are the shoppers going to go?

http://www.saksfifthavenue.com/Entry.jsp

How long before they have to start offering drugs?

Burn 'em good justine. Take you money elsewhere.

dvpierce wrote:

sturner wrote:

Burn 'em good justine. Take you money elsewhere.

Where?

It's not like the service is, overall, any better anywhere else.

I've gotten a lot better service from Home Depot. I didn't go there this time because they don't sell that specific product.

The trouble is we, as a culture, voted for the lowest possible price over any other attribute a store might have. That precludes paying enough for staff that cares, much less is informed.
Even the much lauded Apple store "geniuses" are making less than I was when I was working at an independent Apple reseller/service center. Less today than I was making 10 years ago.

justine wrote:

dvpierce wrote:

sturner wrote:

Burn 'em good justine. Take you money elsewhere.

Where?

It's not like the service is, overall, any better anywhere else.

I've gotten a lot better service from Home Depot. I didn't go there this time because they don't sell that specific product.

I've gotten better service from Lowes. I've had excellent customer experiences as WalMart, for crying out loud.

It's all percentages.

A certain percentage of employees are incompetent, but a large percentage stick around because they're not incompetent enough and they'll work for the lousy pay.

A certain amount of the data entered into the inventory control system (some of it entered by those same incompetent employees) is incorrect.

A certain number of customers will want those products.

One of them is you.

You forget the Dilbert Principle, companies tend to systematically promote their least-competent employees to management (generally middle management), in order to limit the amount of damage that they're capable of doing.

dvpierce wrote:

resedit wrote:

Still though - a manager should have personally checked before calling her about them.

A task they probably delegated to a subordinate, who checked the computer and went, "Yessir, right there. 8 in the store."

That's exactly what the manager told me yesterday. However, that's not what the same manager told me on Friday. He said they had them, and they were holding them for me. I made sure he made sure it was the right ones. He didn't check smurf.