Calgary News Watch

The situation only got worse. The (description removed) cashier who was dealing with me, treated me as if I was a thief and suggested that the pants were not from the store at all. Here I am, an innocent shopper who is just trying to exchange the damn thing, and I am being accused of switching pants? Obviously something has gone wrong and there was a mistake. Fine I can deal with that, but she certainly could not. She was THE worse customer representative I have ever met in my life. She was not helpful at all! She did not suggest ANY solution, she made the situation seem impossible and unworkable. I kept asking her to call the TD store to find out what was going on and at least see if there are still those pants there so I can go there without having to call myself or making the long trip to downtown for nothing. But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooo, she said there was nothing she could do. Sure there was! She could have stopped wasting time and make the phone call! The TD could have confirmed the tagless pants purchase, so maybe the Chinook girl would quit embarrassing me in front of the rest of the store. She finally said she would make the call after I asked her 5x. Then of course, the TD store was closed early.

In addition to this (description removed) cashier with terrible customer conflict issues and not being able to deal with me conclusively, the rest of the girls were just as awful. The female employees expressed a lack of social perceptiveness, they were unaware of me as a customer and displayed inappropriate interpersonal skills. They would walk by, hangers in hand, trying to look busy but not really doing much. They would stare at us with this weird dead look in their eyes, as if we (or they) were statues. It was really bizarre!!! I would expect one of the girls to DO THEIR JOB by offering to help, maybe calling the TD store while the (description removed) girl dealt with me, or maybe one of them could search the racks to see if any the pants in the store matched mine. All me and my mom got were them walking by giving us, were weird looks.

EXCUSE ME I DO NOT DESERVE THESE STARES AT ALL! I was not an angry customer when I walked into that store! I only became frustrated after the (description removed) girl refused to call TD and see what was going on. It did not help that the other employees looked at me as if I was a bad person. Nor did it help that none of them gave me a fair chance at solving my problem. I told the main girl that I was becoming very frustrated, and whoever her boss is, would be thrilled to hear how she answered “well YOU are making me very frustrated too”.

I left the store feeling completely dissatisfied with the way I was treated and how poorly the situation was handled. They had not helped me whatsoever, I had not exchanged my pants, I did not know what I was to do with them and how the situation would be resolved. This is why I am writing this letter, because something should be done effective immediately of this kind of behavior and customer treatment.

There are so many ways in which she could have dealt with me in an effective, assertive and proper customer service fashion, starting with:

- someone could have greeted me in the beginning

- the main girl could have apologized and explained the situation to me in a friendly, respectable tone, instead of making me look like a fool and giving me unneeded attitude

- she could have also TRY to help me by suggesting a solution, for example calling the store to figure out what’s happened and then tell me what I can do to fix things or fix things for me

- the other girls could have acted more friendly, by smiling at me or maybe do their job by calling the other stores or looking through the sales rack for my match - do their job successfully, efficiently and properly

- work together as a team productively to solve my issue

- do SOMETHING, ANYTHING that did not offend me

I have had experience working in a retail environment as a salesperson, and there is no way in hell my boss would ever let me respond to a customer by telling them that they made them frustrated. In no excuse was that a proper reply to me, it was not courteous, it was not polite and it was definetly not a way of making a customer feel better about the situation.

The inconvenience and poor customer service has enraged me. Instead of making my life easier, she has put me in a seriously bad mood, discouraged me from ever shopping from there again and perhaps even persuade me to convince others that the Chinook location is a waste of time, a bad experience and a place that surely does not deserve shoppers’ time or money.

Let me remind you that I was not an unhappy customer until I left the store. It was a bad experience from the beginning, having the employees ignore me, to having one of them refuse me any service, to having the rest gawk at me in the most unflattering demeanor, to leaving with more baggage than I came with.

I cannot stress to you the importance of useful customer service and so I must repeat, she was THE worse customer representative I have ever met in my life, for SO many reasons. I thought that retail motos are “the customer is always right” and to “keep the customer happy”, to avoid conflict or at least be able to deal with conflict effectively and assertively. I thought their goal was to serve the customer the best way possible. Isn’t one of the rules to greet every single person who enters the store?! WTF! I thought these girls worked on commission?! Don’t they want to impress the customers, win them over with their charisma and influence the customer’s decision to buy their products??!?! How on earth did any of these girls pass interviews to get hired?! From the time I walked in, to the time I left, I had not witnessed any girls doing their job competently, energetically or adequately.

If I were a part of that team, I would be ashamed to be to working in relation to the Chinook location. I do not see how any of them qualify to work as customer service representatives. I recommend that if you truly deem them worth of working in your organization, that giving them proper training in customer service would hopefully give them appropriate skills in making them a capable customer service rep. The only thing worse than the annoying salesperson who doesn’t leave the clientèle alone, are the lazy ignorant and rude employees who do not greet you, or do anything to correct the predicament.

All in all, although I wouldn’t mind being the reason why the Chinook employees receive further training, the reason why I am writing this is because I want someone to care and fix my problem, and their problem as well. I did not pay money to be stuck with a garment that I cannot wear and should not be stuck with a piece of clothing that was not supposed to be sold to me if it was switched in accidentally. It is not my fault that it did not have proper tagging (especially when I made it noticeable to the staff), and it is not my responsibility to make sure the cashier is supposed to give me a tag in case I should have to exchange. The girl at TD told me I wouldn’t have any problems just bringing it in with my receipt.

I would appreciate if someone there is prepared and available to discuss this horrible shopping experience with me and relieve me of my customer service angst. Please respond to me by calling me at ####### or emailing me back at this address. I would be very grateful if I could be handled in a grateful manner, and I hope that by writing this you are able to actively change your procedures at the Chinook location so that this type of ordeal does not happen again.