RANT: What happened to "customer service"?

[AuroraGyps]

My mother went to Home Depot yesterday to get some shelves and fluorescent light bulbs. She was going to use the $25 gift certificate she got a month or so ago, when she was almost hit by some wooden shelves with plants on it (it was outside & it had gotten really windy). It just missed her head, her extremely bad back, & her legs. The plants (small hydrangeas about 1' tall) did brush down her legs and she got pretty wet. The people putting out the plants (not Home Depot workers, the plant company's people) were there and made sure she was ok & cleaned up the mess, but didn't do much else, probably because it happened at Home D. A couple of customers checked to see if she was alright too and one left her name & number as a witness.
OK, the gardening department was kinda busy, but the 2 cashiers and the couple of other workers pretty much just quick asked if mom was ok (to which she would answer, " I think so... I'm pretty wet though") and kept working. Nobody even got her some paper towels to dry off the back of her pants.
I told her to file an accident report. She might feel okay now, but tomorrow something could be wrong. We asked for a manager. It took the manager almost 30 minutes to get to us, for which she did apologize saying that the manager's office was on the other side of the store. She asked what kind of help we got from employees, even if mom was offered some towels to dry off, and we told her what little they did.
Few days later, we got a call from whoever calls in this kind of situation. Mom mentioned how little she was helped, but he didn't have much to say about that.

Jump to yesterday. Mom goes and she's carrying her new tote/purse. She grabs a cart (she has to due to her back) and puts the purse in the baby seat. She shops, tries to get help from an employee that has no idea what he's talking about, pays & leaves. Puts her stuff into the car and drives home... where she realizes she forgot her purse in the cart in the parking lot (she's over 60 and has a lot on her mind, so her brain sometimes get really overloaded and flakey... plus new purse that she's not used to).
She calls Home D. when she gets into the kitchen. No, nobody's turned in a purse. So she goes back to take a look... nothing in the lot or at customer service.
When she gets home, she is in tears. Broke my heart. You got to realize that not only is her license, credit cards, SS card, registration, and some cash in there, but some of my & my grandmother's info (we are part of the al lot on her mind ) my mom's meds (a lot of them controlled substances), and other stuff. So we ( I made most of the calls... I can't use the phone usually, but when something goes wrong, I'm the woman) started to cancel cards. I made my mother go fill out a report with the police. I called Home D. to give her name & number so if they found anything, anywhere, they could call us.
This all happened between 3 PM and 4:30PM I'd say. At 9 PM we get a call from Home Depot. Get this... they had the purse the whole time! Someone turned it in right after my mom left the first time. What is wrong with these people? A hat, a coat, even some cash with no ID I get that you can't do much, but wait for an owner to hopefully show up. This was an entire purse! Why didn't someone look inside, find her ID, write down the info, and then call information? And don't say something about maybe there's a company policy about not doing that, because that's just dumb. Have a manager and someone else there to do it. Does anybody know about common courtesy or consideration? I mean really, about 6 hours to let her know they had it? That's pathetic.
It's just really sad. I worked at a Wegmans for almost 2 years, and was a customer for over 10 years before that, and while I might have had a small problem or two (they are human, things happen) I couldn't tell what they might be. This however, I will remember for a LONG time. Plus, they've lost customers. Yeah, it's only the three of us, but at least we'll stand by our principles.

Rant over. Thanks for place to do it.

 

[Jdvn1]

Well, this is certainly good for me to see.

Working in a retail store, I've had this happen a number of times. One employee or manager will find something someone lost, and set it aside so that it can be easily retrieved. In theory. However, the employee/manager won't tell anyone, "By the way, someone lost something... if anyone calls, I have it here."

Then, the customer calls, asking if anything has been turned in. Of course, it's never the same employee/manager answering the phone as the one who found it (there's a reason for this that doesn't really matter--at least in some stores).

So, the person answering the phone will look around the information desk, and ask some employees and possibly one of the managers on duty (depending on the hour, there can be a number of manangers working... 3pm is one of these hours), but the one manager that is asked won't know anything about it.

The person answering the phone goes back to the waiting customer, "Sorry, I asked around, and not even the manager knew anything about it."

Happens all too often. Whenever I find something, I'll try to inform every person on staff if I can--at least most of the managers and other people who might answer the phone. This doesn't always happen, and it frustrates me. Some of the customers are very friendly and I'd hate to have to actively worry that every one in a potential thief. If someone loses something in my store, I'd like to think that we'd safeguard the item until the customer returns.

That's idealistic, of course. There have been thefts in my store, and some customers have been stolen from. There's nothing I can do about it.

The situation sucks. It's partially the person-who-found-the-lost-item's fault for not telling everyone that something was found, and it's partially the person-who-answered-the-phone's fault for not asking enough people. There is a lost-and-found area, but most employees I've seen don't use it, or have different lost-and-found areas.

 

[Bront]

Some places are better than others, and it sometimes depends on what state you're in.

Targets in Illinois for example are usualy fantastic (I've found at least) as far as customer service, friendly employees, and people who will work to help you out.

Targets in Minnesota (Target's home state) are ruder, won't take returns (with reciepts) that the Illinois one will, and have driven away loyal customers.

It's odd, doesn't always seem to be rhyme or reason to it. I've heard some stories at the same store of both good and bad (and had both).

The best thing you can do is call their hotlines and complain. They'll usually be willing to compensate you for your time and input to try to keep you as a customer. I've become more vocal, and found it's not only stress relieving, but often the problems I've had seem to go away after a while.

 

[Harmon]

Ya, I can understand you bing POed. Glad your Mom got it all back. Remove the SS card from her purse and place it in a safe, she should not carry that with her, esp in the same location as her ID.

Keep an eye on her credit and its good to keep in mind that the purse was out of her control so no telling who took photo copies of what.

 

[AuroraGyps]

I get what you're all saying. It happens too often that the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing... and in places like Home Depot there are a whole lotta hands. My point is that the person that found it could have looked at her ID and tried to callher about the purse. While there is another person w/ the same last name as my mom, they live in another town from us, which the ID would show.

It's not the first time I've felt like the people that work at the local store get a new wooden brain along w/ their training. They give little to no help, usually not even knowing what you're talking about, and act like they could care less. Makes me wonder if they all just really hate working there and passit on to the customers.

They don't care for their employees much either. Our next door neighbor broke his leg this past winter (the sound of his yell woke me up and we went outside to help). He had to have pins put in and everything. Home Depot would not give him sick leave, only unpaid leave. I just don't get some people/groups of people. Is it any wonder I have a social disorder... people are mean and scary!

 

[Bront]

Some people try to not look in purses initialy in order to not intrude in people's privacy. I know I wouldn't have gone through it till the end of the day if no one came back for it.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

People are also hesitant to go into a purse because if something is missing, they might be accused of having taken it.

And trying to compare Home Depot to Wegman's is kind of like comparing a Ford Focus to a BMW. Home Depot is all about lowest possible price, that's what matters. Wegman's can be beat on price, but they focus so much on their service that people are willing to pay the difference.

 

[jaerdaph]

And trying to compare Home Depot to Wegman's is kind of like comparing a Ford Focus to a BMW.

I miss Wegmans. I wish we had them downstate and in NYC.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Tell me about it. Every time we visit the in-laws in Syracuse, stop at Wegmans, and then go back home to our supermarkets here, we get depressed.

 

[Mycanid]

Thornir - your inlaws in Syracuse? and the wegmans? not the one on the way out in Dewitt heading towards fayetville? bizarre. I grew up out there ... pardon me for the immense double take I made to hear you mention this out of nowhere.