The customer service at Sears.
Every day at lunch, I drive my car to Fairview Mall and walk the aisles in air-conditioned comfort - with my only concern the meanderings of women pushing baby-strollers, love drunk couples who suddenly have no concept of a straight line, and those idiots who are constantly checking their mobile phones for non-existent messages (no one likes you) or those who are talking on the phone while standing in the middle of the aisles being complete dicks.
Along with the walk, I will sometimes frequent various shops.
I am well-known and loved at LEGO, and am treated well at Shoppers Drug Mart, Coles, and EB Games. I've hit various other places as well including Manchu Wok, where they greet me with a friendly smile and decent friendly conversation because everyone is very nice there. I will add that the McDonald's is also very efficient, and I will forgive their very short shortcomings in the friendliness department only because they are so efficient with the larger hungry crowds.
And then there's Sears.
Sears - like many large retailers - has been having a tough time of it sales wise and I feel a tinge of sorrow for all large retailers.
While I have requested help (once) and was efficiently helped at Sears, my experience at lunch time on October 8, 2015, left me with a bitter bile taste in my mouth and a desire to never shop there again.
I needed a new belt for my pants, and easily found what I was looking for and moved towards the checkout.
There is only one checkout on the second floor - and that is a central one near the escalators, where there are four cash registers…
I got in line… standing in one line that would break up to the corresponding checkout depending on which one opened up first. Fair and easy to follow.
The line-up, however, was 12 people deep when I arrived. That's not a lot, so no big deal for me or the other patrons waiting to cash out.
After some 10 minutes of waiting, things hadn't moved up much—there were only two clerks working the check-out, when a third clerk arrived.
Of course, by that time, I saw three people leave the line in disgust throwing down their purchases at the long delay in being served.
Their departure, of course meant that I could move up in line a bit quicker… hence I only had to spend 12 minutes in line. Moving up via attrition.
So… I hand my belt to the clerk, she looks at it, asks if I will be paying with my Sears credit card - I don't have one.
She then suggests cash, but I suggest I would pay by my bank debit card.
She then tells me that the debit line is down and they can only serve me if I have cash… or if I would like to sign up for a Sears credit card.
How many people carry around hundreds of dollars with them anymore? I saw a man with a couple of pairs of coats and pants throw down his purchases with disgust earlier because of the wait.
What if he only had a bank debit card to pay for his purchases?
Sure many people have credit cards already in hand - I do - but most of us already have a lot of credit card debt, and perhaps like myself don't have the room on the card to add more.
I know I don't want any more credit car debt and am doing my best to make my monthly payments, let alone knock it down a wee bit every payment.
Earlier in line, I had watched the same clerk's incompetence in helping one woman start up a Sears Credit Card - couldn't spell the customers name correctly… it took her and the customer some five minutes… maybe more… I was only there for five minutes of it…to get a card... and another minute to pay the bill for her purchases.
I did have enough money in my bank account - today - to make the purchase, but did not have any cash on me to cover the cost of the belt.
In disgust at not being able to pay for a belt I can afford at this time, I take 10 seconds to complain to the clerk that at some point in time over the past 10 minutes-plus when I had been standing in line, they could have told us and the other customers that the bank debit line was down.
She says they had been making announcements.
Uh - no. If they had been, one had not been made in the 10 minutes I had been standing in line, or the five minutes I had spent finding a belt in my size that I liked.
I leave the clerk with the belt I was going to purchase and walk out of the store empty-handed.
Hey Sears… ever wonder why profits and sales are down, down, down?
You don't train your staff to provide even the most basic of customer service.
Sears as an entity deserves a belt.
Do you know what I hate?
The customer service at Sears.
