Sorry it has been so long since my last post. This one isn't exactly about a customer service experience I had, but it definately makes for bad customer service.

So, a few Sunday's ago Jordan and I had to stop at Walgreens after church. There are two check out lines. One across from the other. Jordan and I were waiting in line on one side and the manager came up in the line on the other side. She cut in front of someone to have a chat with her cashier. The cashier on the other side was an older women probably well into her 70's. This always makes me wonder. Does she like getting out and working or does she need the job because she can't afford her meds or something and so she has to take a job at Walgreens. The manager on the other hand couldn't have been older than 21. I'm just sayin'.

Anyway, Jordan was purchasing so I was just standing there and overheard this conversation.

Manager: So you have left early two nights in a row.

Cashier: Yes

Manager: Why would you do that?

Cashier: I told you, I wasn't feeling well.

Manager: You can't just make your own schedule. You are put on the schedule for those hours for a reason. You can't just leave early because you don't feel good.

Cashier: I am sorry, I really wasn't feeling well. I understand I can't make my own schedule. That is not what I was trying to do.

Manager: Are you trying to make me look dumb. You left two nights in a row at 8:00. You weren't really sick two nights in a row.

(Remember, this is in the front of the store in the cashiers line with customers standing around)

Cashier: I WASN'T feeling well.

Manager: Well, for now on I am going to need you to follow the schedule or we will have to try to find someone else who WANTS to follow the schedule.

Cashier: (looking mortified)

Manager: (looking very proud of herself)

Jordan and I finished our purchase and I said to the cashier checking us out, "I am not sure this is the best place for your manager to be having this conversation." He just smiled.

I should have called and complained. Whether the lady cashier is a pain or a hard worker in general didn't matter. At that point the manager was just trying to make her look bad and embarressed.

It made me sad for that woman the rest of the day!

Walgreens at Elm and Watson. You need a new manager!

BYOM (Bring Your Own Magazine)

This post is way to personal to go into the whole story, but I will try to quickly sum it up without going into too much detail. JW and I have been trying to have a baby for a year. Today we had to go drop off a sample of something for analysis. We were very confused of the process of how this was to go down and there were time sensitive materials involved. We tried to call and couldn't get a human. When we finally found a number for speaking with a human we had to leave a message and never recieved a call back. Anyway, the point of this post is....Obviously, patients might be a little embarressed, also this isn't something most people do on a regular basis, give more information , and if you are to do the buisness at the office...FYI BYOM.

I am not advocating looking at Pornography by any means. But, they could have at least provided a Maxim magazine or Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition or something. I mean they send you down the hall to a one person handicap bathroom and tell you to go to work.

I love JW for being a good sport and hopefully he will never have to do such a thing again. But, seriously we needed customer service big time today and they failed MISERABLY!

Lesson Learned: If you ever have to do buisness at the Quest Diagnostics again, BYOM.

Tin*Cup

There is a little gift shop about 20 min. from where I live. It is a cute little store and when it first opened the owner was the only worker and she was so sweet. When you came in she wanted to make a sale so she would talk to you and ask you all kinds of questions. Not annoying you, but letting you know she is interested.
The shop has been there maybe 5 years or so now and the people she has hired are the most unfriendly people. I go there maybe once or twice a year, usually looking for something specific. Over the past few years there have been different people working behind the counter and on each occasion that I have shopped there, no one greets me.
Yesterday was no different. My mom and I went there looking for monogram jewelry. There were two ladies behind the counter when we entered the store. They were putting together some kind of Halloween (YES HALLOWEEN, already) decoration. They were carrying on and having a good time laughing at how they couldn't figure out how the thing went together. We were in the store probably 3 min. or so and no one had said a word to us. Remember this is a very small store. It isn't like they didn't see us come in or we went straight to the back.
The only time they acknowledged us was when my mom asked for their help.
Once we asked for help one of the ladies was nice enough to help us and answer our questions, but the other lady never even recognized that we were in the store. She continued to talk to the sales lady that was helping us as if she didn't see us there at all.
Turns out their jewelry was WAY over priced so we didn't buy from them anyway. But, if a sales person takes extra time and is sweet, I do think twice about buying it from their store.
We left and they didn't say Bye.
Where is customer service?

Lesson Learned...Stop shopping at the place where they have been rude over and over again!

WHAT DO CUSTOMERS WANT???

This was a story on MSN's homepage this morning. Just thought in case any service might be reading this blog....This is what good customer service should look like.
Check out this website if you want to read the whole article.
What Customers Want From Customer Service
By Barbara Findlay Schenck

http://businessonmain.msn.com/knowledgeexchange/articles/expert.aspx?cp-documentid=20740096&source=msneditorial&gt1=25049

Now if only the places I shopped followed these guidlines, I would be one happy shopper!

A few nights ago it was a pretty humid night here in STL. JW and I were thinking we wanted to rent a movie. There is a Mcdon*alds pretty close to our house. It is 3 miles round trip to the McD's and back. We decided that we should walk to McDs to rent a movie. So we leave and walk the mile and a half down to the McDs. When we get there all the doors are locked, but it was only about 9:00. There are people inside that see us outside, but no one feels the need to come out and tell us what is going on. A girl in the parking lot says her boyfriend works there and he is inside texting her. He says that the electricity went out for a short time and they will reopen, but it will be a little bit. Finally after waiting about 10 min. the manager comes out quite annoyed at the fact that people are actually waiting around and tells us that they will reopen, but won't be serving food for awhile until they get everything back up and running. She doesn't state that she is the manager (she visably is by her uniform) or that she is sorry for the inconvience to everyone. As a matter of fact, she kind of acted as if we were to blame for the electricity going out. We tell her we just want to rent a movie and she does tell us we can come in. We are visibly hot and now a little upset that we just wanted to rent a movie, but had to wait so long to come in. She never apologized, didn't offer anyone a free drink for waiting outside for so long and really made us feel as if we were suppose to do something to make her job easier at that moment. When we were leaving we asked if we could buy a drink because we still had to walk home and they said no because their registers were not up and running yet. Again, could have just given us a cup for water, but never even offered. WHERE IS CUSTOMER SERVICE?

Lesson learned? You never get nothin' for free! Even if it is one million degrees and you have to walk home.

"Pretty Shiny"

My first rant...
So yesterday I had to go to SEARS. Now this is not a place that I frequent often. However, awhile back I had to get new tires on my car. I called around and they had the best deal at the time so I took my car to SEARS to get new tires. They seemed competent at the time. The tires work well, they haven't fallen off, I haven't had any complaints.
In the past couple of weeks I have had this strange shimmy when I brake if I am going over 30mph. My dad took a look at the car and thought it might help to have the tires rotated. They needed it anyway so I headed to SEARS. When I arrived I was greeted by a sweet looking older man who was happy to help me.
I explained that I needed a tire rotation, but while they had the tires off could they inspect under the car to see if anything looked off. I told him about the shimmy and he suggested that it might be the rotors.
I should tell you my dad knows a lot about cars and he is always my first pick for mechanic.
He just put new rotors on not that long ago, so I was pretty sure that wasn't it and I informed him of this little tidbit of information. I again asked if they could just look around under the car and let me know what they thought might be causing the shaking and to call me before they did any work.
About an hour later I get a phone call from the nice man at SEARS.
SEARS: Mrs. Wyatt, I wanted to let you know that your car is finished and you can pick it up.
ME: Did you find anything out about the shimmying?
SEARS: Well we don't think it is the rotors. We looked at them and the are "PRETTY SHINY". We can replace them for you if you want, we just aren't sure.
ME: Well if you aren't sure I don't think I want to replace them, but how much is it to replace the rotors?
SEARS: Oh, let's see to replace the rotors would cost around $340 dollars.
ME: So you are telling me that you don't think it is the rotors, but I can replace them if I want for $340, but they look SHINY so that might not be the problem?
SEARS: Exactly!
I picked up my car, tires rotated (I think) and drove off with my shiny rotors and the shimmy!

What did I learn today? Don't trust the nice older man at SEARS with my car. Get a second opinion!

Blogging Virgin

Today is my first post.
My sister and friends have been blogging for awhile and I guess I am slow to catch on. They tell me I should start blogging, but I really don't lead an exciting life and didn't know why other people would want to read my blog.
Then I got to thinking... For a long time I have complained about customer service. I have heard many times in my life the quote "The customer is always right". The person saying this obviously doesn't frequent the same places that I do. I am pretty sure this slogan has gone by the wayside. At least once a week I find myself asking the question "Where's customer service?". My husband JW tells me that I should write a book. Well, that isn't ever going to happen so I guess a blog is the next best thing.
I get so upset with the way that I or others are treated in stores sometimes that I decided I needed an outlet. Not all of my post will be about customer service, sometimes I will just post about life in general, but I just need to know that I am not the only one out there aggrevated with the way society is going. Sooo here it goes. We will see what happens from here. I am divin' into the deep end!