Inspired by txhumminbird's Walmart post....

What have you complained to management about?

I'm usually not a complainer. Like someone else mentioned, it's always possible that an employee is simply having a bad day....dog died, mother is ill, whatever. We all have our days. I do report quite honestly when it comes to mystery shopping, or when asked in a survey. One time an employee in a nice department store had a rather large tattoo on her breast which was quite visable. She was wearing a rather skimpy tank top. That went into my report. BTW, the questionaire did ask about appropriate attire.

I'm sure some of you have some pretty wild stories.

I wrote to Albertsons once..had gone to a store that was closing down (2 or 3 years ago- remember when a bunch of their stores closed?) they had some expired food. I told an employee about it nicely, figured it was a mistake and they would remove it. Nope. The employee AND then the manager insisted it was not an exp date it was a 'special secret code' number where it read 'use before 121204'. That kinda ticked me off, I mean c'mon I know what an exp date is!

So I emailed the corp office, a mgr from that store emailed me back to apologize & said they were sending a gc to make up for their error. I never got a gc but that's ok, I wasn't out to get something-just wanted to let them know that was going on and how they handled it at the store.

I complained to management at Lowe's because they tried to charge us twice for one vanity. They delivered a defective vanity and then insisted that we pay for it twice because, they claimed, the only reason we returned it was because we decided we didn't like the color. It took them about six months and several calls to the corporate offices to get them to agree that if you return a vanity because you don't like the color, you don't reorder the same color. The whole thing was a fiasco. That was the first and last time I shopped at Lowes. I even threw away the $10 gift certificate they sent everyone as a promotion when they opened a new store.

Just last week we went to Bob Evans with my FIL who is 87 years old and uses a roller walker. We took his vehicle because he has a handicap sticker for parking. All of the handicap spots were taken and that is fine, but when we parked farther out and walked to the entrance I noticed that 2 of the spots had cars with no tags/stickers. I told the hostess when we entered and she said she would tll tell the manager. We were seated by the front window and during the entire stay there, those 2 cars never left their spots. My DH wouldn't let me pursue it.

At our local grocery store (big chain in this area) they are terrible about expired dates. I used to tell the cashier about it and intentionally go back 2-3 days later and the items would still be on the shelf. I then would go in and load up all of the items and take them to the office. Now I just load up expired items as I come across them and take them to the front as I check out. It ticks me off when I get a cake mix at this store and they are all dated less than 2 weeks away. At any other store a cake mix will be dated 8-12 month out.

That is a law enforcement issue, not a management issue.

Regardless, I get irritated when the few get overlooked because no one will stand up to them. For instance, express check out of 10 or 20 items posted on the sign. The cashier LETS them go through and you don't even have to count when the buggy is almost full! I asked once and was told he would get in trouble. Okey, dokey, let's see the manager. When I asked why the cashier would get in trouble doing his job by asking someone to go to the appropriate lane, the answer was they didn't want to cause trouble. I asked......... and yet you would inconvenience 4 or more people behind that person just to keep that person happy? Wrong.........

dl

I had a REALLY bad experience with great clips and it only got worse when I talked to the manager and tried to get the owner to call. Long story short, I went with the whole family everyone but my youngest DD got a great haircut. This is not really a big deal because I don't expect much from Great Clips.

What really made it a bad experience was when I went back to the woman and showed her she didn't do a great job and asked if she would she even it up. She ened up yelling at me and threatening to cut off all of my DD's hair. My DD was starting to look like a deer in headlight and I couldn't beleive she would talk to anyone like that esp a four year old child so we left.

She even told me she was the manager and I couldn't do anything about it. I almost called the cops. I emailed corporate and called the manager. The manager on the phone spent the whole time defending the woman and said I needed to bring in pictures of DD before and she needed to see how bad it was. She never once said I am sorry you had a bad experience or how can I fix it. I took DD in with before pictures (she was claiming she had never cut the sides of my DD's hair) she spent quite a bit of time fixing her hair and constantly defended this other girl. I was just dumbfounded. I even asked at one point if I was going to get an appology and she said she would have to have the owner review the tapes and then depending on what they found they would respond accordingly. Like she was acusing me of wrong doing.

I welcomed a review of the tape. If the manager or anyone heard the kind of things that woman was screaming at us she would have been fired on the spot. I kept calling and they just kept telling me they had to review the tape. I finally gave up knowing full well a store like that would never pay the money to have that kind of security. I really wish they had.

This was at the Great Clips on Collier Road in Atlanta. Brenda Masalamani(sp?) owner

to the manager at the Rainforest Cafe in Niagra Falls.

A bit after we were seated it became apparent that we had no server assigned to us. My kids were 6/9 and not starving (we mainly went for the atmosphere) but the table next to us had toddlers, and had been waiting over 20min. We finally flagged someone down and got our orders taken and our food, but then no one came with the bill. The guy who had taken our orders was the bartender, they were very short staffed.. and he was busy doing his regular job... seems the manager should have been out waiting tables. I'm a patient person, but it wasn't like our server was too busy, or distracted.. we had no server. Finally we asked for the manager and he took 20% off both of our bills.

When we left we talked to the hostess and told her the problems and asked her not to sit anyone else there. Of course she had no idea.

I complained once about expired dates on food too...Didn't do much good, but it made me feel better. I wanted some hot dogs at King Soopers (Krogers to you gals in the east)...All the packages of the brand I wanted had expired dates, but were only a day or so past. I found a worker for the meat dept & asked if I could have a discount since they were beyond the date. He snatched the package out of my hand & told me I couldn't buy them. I asked him why they were n the shelf & told him there were more packages on the shelf with the same date. He told me he could get fired if he sold them to me. Then he disappeared into the back of the meat dept without removing the other packages from the shelf.

So..I rounded up a store manager & told him. He told me the manager was right in not selling them to me, but had no answer when I asked why the others hadn't been removed from the shelf.

Recently I complained to Captain "D's" about their rice. It was absolutely tasteless. I wrote a note on the computer & within a couple of days had a call from the local franchise office. Really nice guy...listened to me complain & sent me a certificate for a free meal.

Years ago I was in line at Petsmart and in front of me were 3 or 4 young teenage boys buying a feeder goldfish. By the way they were acting, I began to question their integrity of what they were going to do with the fish. I began to feel very uncomfortable and when it was my turn I asked the cashier about selling a live animal to children without an adult present. He said there was no store policy against it and it was "only a feeder fish". I reminded him that it was still a live creature and didn't deserve to be tortured, if that was what the boys had in mind. I asked to speak to a manager but was told he wasn't in yet. When I left the store the boys were getting on their bikes laughing and squeezing the bag so the fish couldn't move. I went home and called the corporate office and learned that they DID have a policy that states that no live animals can be purchased by minors without an adult present. They took all my information and within 30 minutes the store manager called me to apologize, thank me for calling this policy to his attention and promising that all the employees would be reminded of the policy. He seemed really sincere but over the phone it's hard to tell. He then offered me a $25 gift certificate which I asked him to donate to the cat rescue group that displays their cats in that particular store. Hopefully he did give them the gift certificate because I know they could really use it.

That was a really nice gesture. We got our cat from PetsMart Fullerton a few years ago. The people that run it are so sweet.

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Recently married June 6, 2008! The wedding is over, now it's time to cook!

I was at our local Mobil Gas station, which is owned by a very nice corporate office in Rockford IL (Kelley's Market). We purchased $160 worth of gas, went inside and bought coffee, donuts (kids), drinks, etc totalling another $20. I also got $180 out of the ATM machine.
I asked for some change for one of my $20's. I said can I have two tens and two fives. The gal was very rude and said I can not give you that many 10's. I said, okay how about 1 10 and 3 fives? She said I can't give you any 10's. She said I can give you 1's or 5's. I said okay, 5's. She said 4? (duh!) I said, yes, that is what I am asking for.
When I left, my son was still in the store and the lady said very rudely "We are NOT a bank!". My son came out and told me, and so I went back in. She was in the back room. I walked to the back room and said, "I only asked for some change" and she said "We can't give change!" and never even came out so I could see her. I then asked for her name, she then went out the back door.
I got her name, and called in this treatment to corporate. My theory is, why have a business if you can't give change???? Ugh. We had just purchased a lot of stuff and did not deserve to be treated like that.

Then on our way to Iowa (same day) moving our son for College, a Swiss Valley semi tried to RUN ME OFF THE ROAD! He was mad that I wasn't going fast enough (55 mph speed limit, and he wanted to go 65-70) we were on a two lane road, and when the extra lane came up My dh in my son's car and my son in the Uhaul moved to the right. I stayed in the left because I knew it was a short extra lane for traffic to pass and didn't want to get caught separated from those two and be behind the semi. He got right on my tail, then bounced into the right lane and rode my dh's tail not ven two feet from his bumper. Then, when the lane ended, he tried to PUSH his way in front of me as my dh and son merged into my lane. I could NOT believe it. It was so dangerous. I was neck and neck with him and he was trying ot push me over with his long ass semi? I was being forced into oncoming traffic. At this point we had all sped up to 65 and he was still going faster.

You can bet Swiss Valley is getting a call in the morning! that kind of road rage does not belong on a small highway, or any highway for that matter. The funny thing is, after we let him pass during a longer stretch that we could move over safely without getting separated (again we were still going at the spped limit or over!) after a half hour of watching him speed his way down the mountains at 65=70 he was still only 2 cars ahead of us on this 2 lane highway!! Idiot!!!

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Never grow a wishbone, daughter, where your backbone ought to be!

Funny that this should come up. tomorrow Target and Rite Aid are getting a note from me. Had enough of them tripping over coupons!

I am calling Burger King today as a matter of fact. We had won a $25 gift card in the INdiana Jones game and when I went in to redeem it the cashier told me we had to mail it and then gave us the wrong address to mail it to. SO when we went back and asked for the correct one, I realized it had to be in tomorrow! It'll never make it so I guess I;m out $25 unless I overnight it for $17?

And all the manager said was "sorry I can't help you". After it was their mistake that caused me to lose out, that doesn't seem fair.

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SAHM to Thomas Aiden 9-17-01 and Erica Nicole 5-29-03.

I went into Boston Market. There was about 4 people in front of me. I waited about 15 minutes...it was like everyone working there was in S L O W ~ M O T I O N....finally it was my turn & I asked for the $19.99 family summer feast.. He pulled out a chicken from the cooker, which was still spinning & the timer said 30 more minutes... He cut into this whole chicken & blood was spewing all over the cutting board... I kid you not... he dished it right up into the foil container.. I told him I'm not eating that because it was raw & asked if there were any more that were fully cooked & he claimed it wasn't undercooked & was a jerk about it. Needless to say I left without anything. I emailed the corp office, about 2 weeks later I get a phone call from corp & he was all nice & told me to please give them another shot, he said he would send me $25.00 in free coupons, I said OK, Thank you... It's been almost 2 years & NEVER got coupons from them & have never gone back...... STINKS, because we USED to go in there almost every week for years.

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Mommy to Samantha ~ Charles ~ Derrick

at our walmart when they let someone with more than 10 or 20 items in the express line, the cashier will tell anybody that complains that its up to the people in line to tell the violaters to get out. I can really see that happening!

steph

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IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v487/my2cuties/diabetes_1.gif[/IMG]

I went to a Starbucks a month ago, and waited in line. There was one young man in front of me ordering. The Starbucks employee (an older male) was friendly to the young man. When the transaction was over, I stepped up and waited for the "May I help you prompt". The employee's demeaner quickly changed. A stern, "What can I get you", followed with no conversation, no friendliness etc. A strained thank you followed as he gave me my change. I thought, I certainly didn't look like the blob coming in, and in no way reflected a nasty attitude. The ironic thing is that all Starbucks had closed their stores for a few hours the previous day in regards to improving service.

I fired off an email to corporate, and received an apologetic response from corporate the next day, along with a $10 GC for my unpleasant encounter.

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We're off to never never land

Tomorrow Michael's will be getting a call from me. Their corporate office. I tried to purchase an item at our local store, and they were out. I called the next closest store, oh, 30+ miles from here. They had the item, and said they can ship it to the store near me if the store calls to initiate the transaction. No problem....so, I called them and explained it, giving names, and everything necessary. This was Thursday. Today I called the store where the item is to come from, and they still have it on the shelf. I then called the local store here, and the guy told me he was talking to the woman there today, and she said the item is on her desk. Well, um, did you think to tell her it's supposed to be in YOUR store??? So, I had to practically beg the guy to get it shipped to me. Sorry, but, IMO, any good manager would drive out there and get it for me, at this rate. No one seems to care anymore, it's really a shame.

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No Piece, No Peace
Know Piece, Know Peace

TLJ Women United in Spirit!!!

I agree. Several years ago, I had a problem with Sears credit card. When I called, I got the standard run around. After calling a half a dozen different numbers, I'd had it. I told the person that I was going to hang up and cut up my Sears credit card. She replied with "OK".
Problem solved. LOL

I can't believe that the stores hire people that they know have been fired for poor customer service. There is an older lady that worked at Kmart and treated customers like dirt. She worked at Kmart for a year or so, and then I noticed her working at Target....she didn't last long working there, lately I have noticed her working at Goodwill. She has to be the nastiest person I have ever had wait on me. I actually avoid her. The last time I went to Target she had no line, and I opted to wait in a long line at another register. One of the employees came over and told me there was no line at her register....I let them know I would rather wait in the long line then deal with her. You honestly would have to see this woman to understand just how rude she is. Its amazing me that she keeps getting hired at various stores. Sooner or later, she will run out of stores to work at......

I had a problem with an A/C company, locally owned. The witch answering the phone made a rude comment while she thought she had me on hold. I tried to get ahold of the owner, and every time I called, she managed to circumvent the phone call......talk about frustrating. I never did get to talk to him, but, this town is so small, I know eventually I'll run into someone who knows him. Not to mention all the bad publicity I give them.

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No Piece, No Peace
Know Piece, Know Peace

TLJ Women United in Spirit!!!

I'm sure I've made dozens of complaints over the years, but they were all legitimate IMO. However, this one wins the gold for the absolute worst customer service!


This happened a few years ago at Best Buy just after they'd opened a store in our area. I'd only shopped there once before the incident and haven't been back since. (Will never go back, either.) DS and I had went to BB and he found a DVD he wanted to get. When he was at the register checking out, I overheard the cashier ask him if he would like to receive a free trial subscription to 'Entertainment Weekly' and 'Sports Illustrated'. She said, "If you take the free magazine trials you'll get 2 free movie tickets." (1 for each trial subscription) Sounded good to me, so I asked her for the details. She said you have to make a purchase to get the offer. (Mind you, up until this point, I was leaving BB empty handed.) The trial subscription details were standard.... If you don't cancel, you'll be charged.... yada yada yada. When I asked her the details for the free movie tickets, she told me they come in the mail after the free trial subscription has ended and they'd be good for any movie at any participating theatre (like Movie Cash). She said that she and other employees had done the free trials just to get the tickets and some of them had already gotten their movie tickets in the mail. Well, at the time I was planning to buy 'The Wizard of Oz' on DVD (which was $14.99 at BB), but I'd seen it on sale for $11 at another store. I went back and got the DVD and came back to the same cashier and asked her, if the movie tickets were not as she promised, could I return the DVD? She said, "Yes, as long as it's unopened and you have your receipt." BB would not price match, but I went ahead a bought the DVD there anyway for $14.99 just so I could get the 2 free movie tickets. I kept my receipt and never opened the DVD just incase the movie tickets didn't come through as told. Well, almost 3 months later, when the movie tickets finally arrived, it turned out that they were only good for the movie 'Spiderman' (not my 1st choice of movie), only good at one particular theatre (30 miles away) and only for one particular showing (when I had to be at work). Needless to say, I was not happy! So, I went to BB armed with my unopened DVD, my receipt and the movie tickets. I explained the situation in detail (calmly) to the manager on duty and asked for a refund. "Sorry, no can do! It's been over 30 days and we do not give refunds after 30 days!" But, I didn't know that I would need to return it until the movie tickets came. And, if not for your cashier telling me the tickets would be good for ANY movie at ANY PARTICIPATING THEATRE, I would not have even made this purchase! "Sorry, can't help you." Well.... Can you at least refund me $3.99 since at the time I was planning on purchasing this DVD elsewhere for $11? "Sorry, no can do!" Soooo, I get the number to their home office and speak to their customer service department. Once again, I calmly explain the entire situation in explicit detail. They were every bit as unyielding and unconcerned with customer service/satisfaction/loyalty as their store where I bought the DVD. They just told me the same exact things, "Sorry, no refunds after 30 days!" & "Sorry, we don't price match." I told him, "All it would take to keep me as a customer is $3.99..... The difference of what I would've saved had I purchased this DVD elsewhere, instead of being lied to by an employee and buying it at BB. And, you mean to tell me that you'd rather LOSE A CUSTOMER and get a BAD word-of-mouth reputation, instead of just refunding $3.99??!!!! His response was, "If that's the way you feel about it. That's you, there's nothing I can do about that." I've never encountered a company with less regard for customer service, satisfaction or loyalty in my entire life. And, this was only my 2nd (and LAST) shopping experience with Best Buy. I will never step foot in one of their stores again. As a matter of fact, when their ad is in my Sunday paper, I look at the CDs, DVDs and video games ONLY, just to see if there's something I want to price match at WM. BB can kiss my @$$!

.

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No outfit is complete without cat hairs!

~~~MsMiser

You don't even want to get me going about Best Buy. Short version of a very long BB story. We bought a fridge, and purchased the extended warranty. Fridge stopped working, all the food in our freezer spoiled (for which I didn't not complain). Got the run around for a week about the extended warranty. It actually was still under the manufacturers warranty, so BB wanted that to kick in before they helped. Finally they sent someone out to fix the problem (three weeks later). Turns out the problem they fixed wasn't the only problem, because two days later.....we lost all our food once again. We went another two weeks before they sent someone back out. Now mind you....we now have gone a very long time without a fridge and I am starting to lose it with BB, I had made a total of 22 calls to BB. I was smart enough to write down, dates, names and times of all calls. I actually caught them in many lies. Once they did send someone out once again, I found out that it was the compressor. It needed to be ordered and BB would not pay for the expedited shipping, so it would take another 10 days. The repairman was shocked that they didn't just replace the fridge, because the compressor costs almost as much as a new fridge. The entire time we went without a fridge was a nightmare, and BB made it a terrible experience. I will NEVER go into Best Buy again....horrible company with horrible customer service.