This is why brick and mortar is dying

[jdhu]

I do. I didn't get shitty drunk on NYE, and if a store is open, I would expect service, even from a skeleton crew of tea-totalers..

Keep the damn store closed if you want, or run it like a damn business if it's open.

Yeah, agreed. If you open the store, it should be business as usual, no excuses about holiday hangovers, etc.

 

[mean dad]

Went to Best Buy for a new gadget the other day. Looked up a lower price on my phone. Showed it to a clerk. Clerk went to his terminal to confirm it.
Clerk came back a few minutes later saying he'd found an even lower price than I'd found.

That, people, is brick and mortar customer service at its finest.

And now Best Buy is solidly in the running for my new TV dollars in a few months.

 

[aminalmutha]

Sears blows and has for quite some time. For hand tools, I try to either go to OSH or Lowes instead of Sears. I've had too many headaches trying to buy shit at Sears.

Most of the times I've been in Sears trying to buy tools, there will be four or five "Sales Associates" standing around, chit chatting instead of helping people. Then, when you come and break up their party, they get all pissy.

 

[planegray]

I'd agree, this will probably be the reason bricks and mortar stores will become extinct, but my view is a little different.

Dealing with real-live people is rarely a perfect experience, and to be successful one must adapt to the circumstances at hand. The circumstances vary widely from business to business.

We are ok with adapting to the quirks, demands, flaming hoops, and limitations of an impersonal computer, but god have mercy on the salesperson/store who doesn't conform to our own personal idea of how a business should be run.


How about the next time you do an on-line transaction you just enter the info you WANT to enter and if/when it doesn't work post up on barf about what a crappy site it is

 

[zombi]

the New Year's Day thing is incidental. Customer service is horrific anywhere anytime these days

 

[DReg350]

the New Year's Day thing is incidental. Customer service is horrific anywhere anytime these days

I tend to agree. Went into a few places just before Christmas and the stress the staff was under was evident. I do get frustrated with clerks now and again, but I try to keep in mind that retail sales SUCKS. I did it way back when, so I tend to cut 'em some slack.

 

[louemc]

That wasn't due to staff cutbacks, that was simply a lazy and/or poorly managed employee.

I've worked retail, and there is no excuse for that behavior.

So True...Even though we see stores run in both ways...everyday..
I just went to a Lowes in Sonora that had several floor employees in sight no matter where Ya were, and everything I was there for was marked down to half price...And the employees knew everything, showed Ya where something Ya couldn't find was..and were happy people...The joint was packed with customers.

I needed an item at Orchard Supply..Went in and no customers, and no floor staff...Walked around, looking up and down isles, till finding someone I could ask if they would call someone to the tool dept. ...Went back there and waited for about 20 -30 min. and during that time answered my own question, finding what I was looking for..and took it to the check-out stand...The help never came.

I'm shopping at Lowes, from now on.

 

[Cereal KLR]

Sears tool dept. has been consistent since the eighties. The one at Hillsdale San Mateo was infamous for no one being around. Crap service in not a new thing at Sears.

Oddly enough, we also went to Best buy for an iPad Retina and were in and out real fast. This was not always the case so they must have stepped up the service levels,at least for holidays.

 

[DReg350]

Sears tool dept. has been consistent since the eighties. The one at Hillsdale San Mateo was infamous for no one being around. Crap service in not a new thing at Sears.

I had to think for a minute... When was the last time I walked into a Sears? I can't remember. Why? I guess they just never impressed me, plus once Orchard started selling Craftsman... what's the point?

Actually, I'm surprised Sears is still open at all.

 

[enki]

Sears used to be the go-to place for tools. Last time I went there to get a metric hex socket, they didn't even have it. Got it across the street at Pep Boys, where they actually had someone to wait on me.

 

[Johndicezx9]

OSH was owned by Sears from 1995 until last year....

 

[westie]

Freddo, my haywardite compadre, go to sears.com, order item for store pick up. Go to store and retrieve order at pick up desk kiosk. Have idiot salesperson carry out to your vehicle parked at curbside pick up. Profit!

 

[aminalmutha]

Freddo, my haywardite compadre, go to sears.com, order item for store pick up. Go to store and retrieve order at pick up desk kiosk. Have idiot salesperson carry out to your vehicle parked at curbside pick up. Profit!

I did that once. Took a freaking hour to get my shit. They move like frozen molasses in there.

 

[Cereal KLR]

Don`t even get me started on their appliance delivery morons. I bought wash/dryer/refig/micro all at once. Because there was five steps they said it needed a "foreman delivery". My 110 pound ex wife carried the stuff in...

Plus they forgot the dryer cord. Cut up the card at the store managers office,she shrugged with a meh, have not spent a dime there since.

 

[gsxr_paul]

Sounds about right. Went to buy a dishwasher a month back and had similar experience, except the sales guy handed me off to the computer to check myself out, while he went to help someone else out. I was thinking, I could have just done this at home and not wasted my time coming into the store. So I left the store and ordered from home.
It's funny, cause when I worked at sears back in 97 the tools people got paid on commission. Wonder if that is no longer the case.

 

[Bay Arean]

Sears blows and has for quite some time. For hand tools, I try to either go to OSH or Lowes instead of Sears. I've had too many headaches trying to buy shit at Sears.

Most of the times I've been in Sears trying to buy tools, there will be four or five "Sales Associates" standing around, chit chatting instead of helping people. Then, when you come and break up their party, they get all pissy.

We went over this a year or two ago, when I was convinced Sears was getting ready to close the Hilltop store because there was so little stock on the shelves etc. I have had all the same types of negative experiences there, no matter what I was buying with one exception. We did buy a vacuum cleaner there because of a motivated salesdude who actually did answer every question, demonstrate every model we asked about etc. It was atypical. Normally, I can stand there for half an hour without being noticed in most departments.. I can't figure out why they are even in business, at least in our locale...

 

[Kornholio]

I can't figure out why they are even in business, at least in our locale...

Old people can't figure out how to use the internet?

 

[n10sive]

Old people can't figure out how to use the internet?

yeah..maybe that tool clerk was stuck at another checkout stand waiting for some old lady to write a check out by hand, and to make it an even number, then digging in her purse for 3 pennies!

 

[aminalmutha]

We went over this a year or two ago, when I was convinced Sears was getting ready to close the Hilltop store because there was so little stock on the shelves etc. I have had all the same types of negative experiences there, no matter what I was buying with one exception. We did buy a vacuum cleaner there because of a motivated salesdude who actually did answer every question, demonstrate every model we asked about etc. It was atypical. Normally, I can stand there for half an hour without being noticed in most departments.. I can't figure out why they are even in business, at least in our locale...

Sears' shitty service goes back decades. I think it was 20/20 or 60 Minutes or one of those shitty old tabloid-news-parading-as-real-news shows that figured out they were doing unnecessary work on people's cars way back in the day. A few years later (some 12 or 14 odd years ago now), I go in to have a couple new tires installed. Dude says I need new brake pads, rotors, ball joints, etc, etc. Uhhh... no, I actually just installed all that shit. Con artists.

Went back to check out tires there and about gagged at how much they were charging for Brand X tires. Went to Costco and got Bridgestones for less than 1/2 what Sears was asking.

 

[Bay Arean]

Old people can't figure out how to use the internet?

Yeh, maybe. I only go there for tools (like the odd socket or something), accessories for my shop-vac, and, even then, I end up having to go over to Concord or Pleasanton because they are so poorly stocked...It's the kind of place that I dread going to and procrastinate because I know I'll be bummed out by the non-service. That is the exact opposite of what retail calls "goodwill" which is a tangible part of any business, written into the contract when sold. I wonder if the whole chain is being sucked dry by a Bain-capital type of deal, like what happened to Mervyn's. Those stores had employee shortages etc, right up to the moment that they closed them.