I placed an order online for a rather expensive item (a pair of gaming headphones) around 2pm, for curb-side delivery. According to the email, my pickup was scheduled for an hour later that very day and I would be notified when it was ready for delivery - perfect, I live 40 minutes away - more than enough time.
I arrived at the location at about 3:20pm; I still had not received an email, so I decided to wait in my car for about 40 minutes. When I still had not received an email, I decided to call and see if perhaps I could just come inside and grab the item myself. I was greeted by an accented woman who I asked if it would be okay if I came in to grab my purchased item, as opposed to curb side service. She said it was completely fine, then proceeded to ask me my name, as well as the item I had ordered and told me to walk through the doors and come to the right to the customer service/online pickup area.
I get to the online pickup area and wait in line to be greeted by the same, familiar accented voice in the guise of an older woman with glasses and her hair in a ponytail (descriptors are only relevant because I didn't catch her name). I tell her I had just spoken to her on the phone was was here to pick up my item. To my dismay, her reply was "well, your item isn't ready yet" and my reply being "oh okay, well you didn't say that over the phone."
She then replied with "well I hadn't checked your order when we were on the phone." I was baffled because what was the point of her asking my name and product order over the phone if she had no intention of checking?
So I ask her if she could please check the status of my order, as I lived quite far from town and didn't have much time to be there. She proceeded to call on her headset, asking if anyone had an order under my last name. After a few seconds of silence, she just shrugged her shoulders at me and said "we'll try to get this settled ASAP".
I've worked in the service/retail industry for 7+ years, so my patience and understanding is unusually high and I'm very sympathetic to the job, so I said it was fine and I would wait.
After 30 minutes of waiting near the counter and the same woman walking past me multiple times without so much as a word, I grew tired and decided to go wait in my car in the curbside parking.
As another 25 minutes passed, I watched multiple people pull up beside me and the same woman come out multiple times to deliver their orders; at this point I began to grow irritated.
Eventually she approached my car saying "still no email?" to which I replied and exasperated "no." Her only reply being "I'm sorry" and again shrugging her shoulders.
"What time do you guys close again?", I asked.
"6 o'clock" she replied, and then walked away from my car.
At that point it was almost 5pm. I decided to wait until 5:30 to see if I would receive any email confirmation.
When I received nothing, I went inside with 30 minutes until close and got back in line. A line of two other people formed behind me as I patiently waited for her to acknowledge me.
When we finally locked eyes, she again asked me if I had received an email to which I replied "no, but my pick up is scheduled for today, and you close in 30 minutes." She once again called into her microphone, appeared to have received no answer, shrugged her shoulders and proceeded to go and answer the phone.
After that point, she called the two people behind me to the front of the line to help them, having them cut me and completely disregarding that I was still in need of service. The gentleman behind me even said "he was here first" to which she replied "it doesn't matter, his order isn't ready".
By this point I was past irritated and to the point of complete anger. I had been more than patient, waiting at the location for almost 2 hours. "Is there a manger I can speak to?" I said, to which her wordless reply was simply a finger pointing me to the direction of a ponytailed blonde woman at the entrance.
I walked up to her and explained my situation. She seemed appalled that I had been waiting for 2 hours for my order, and proceeded to tell me that curbside usually only takes about 20 minutes. She looked up my order, and explained to me that there must have been a "lag in the system" and that's why the status of my order was still incomplete. She called over the headset and asked an employee to bring the item up front; we then cancelled my initial online order and I just purchased it in store.
I understand that technology isn't always reliable, and I in no way fault the manager or the warehouse staff; however I completely fault the rude woman who blatantly disregarded my order, ignored me multiple times to service customers who came after me, and gave absolutely no effort in seeing that I was taken care of.
I would hope that some form of action would be taken for her behavior or at the very least, she be retrained in proper customer skills that she so clearly seems to be lacking. read more
