I'm a blokey sort of bloke and the floral charms of Cath Kidston generally fail to attract my shopping pound. However, a lot of my female acquaintances do indeed like shopping here and so, vouchers are generally a nice gift
So, off I pop to Cath Kidston last Saturday to buy £30 pounds worth of gift vouchers for a friend's birthday. There are indeed signs in this Covent Garden branch encouraging the shopper to buy vouchers with a display of all the available values of vouchers available
Now, how hard do you think can it be to buy £30 worth of vouchers at Cath Kidston? Well, let me tell you the tale, nay saga
Firstly, the open till system with no obvious place to form a queue was causing chaos with no-one sure who was first, second, etc in line.
Secondly, a lot of the staff on the tills didn't seem to be able to carry out what seemed to be simple transactions but had to get the manager to authorise a lot of transactions
Thirdly, when I get to the till and ask for the vouchers, I'm told that only specially trained staff can sell me vouchers and so, I wait until another member of staff on another till is free to serve me
Fourthly, after the server has rung up my vouchers and taken the money from my credit card, she discovers that she only has £10 vouchers in the till. Now cry you, why can't she just give me three £10 vouchers. Well, apparently, she has inputted one £10 and one £20 voucher and this is what I must now receive
Fifthly, a search then ensues at the tills for £20 vouchers and yes, you guessed it. No £20 vouchers. My server then says they must be in the safe and yes, they'll need to find the manager to open the safe
Sixthly, the safe is opened and you may have guessed by now that there are no £20 vouchers in the safe either
Seventhy, my server then says she has to now refund me £20 on my credit card and put through the £20 voucher as two £10 vouchers. She is unable to do the refund on her till
Eighthly, she has to find the manager to do the refund on my card. The manager can't do the refund on the till either
Ninthly, I hear the manager whisper to my server to just put it through. I thought that meant that I would receive three £10 vouchers in total. So, I was a bit surprised to see that my server only put two £10 vouchersinside my gift card and give me to me
Tenthly, when I question this, she shows me that she has written in pen £20 after the printed £10 on the gift card. I point out to her that this is now a rubbish present for my friend who has to run the embarrasssment of trying to explain to the store staff where she spends her vouchers that her £10 voucher is really worth £20 by virtue of someone having scribbled the number £20 on it!!
Eleventhly, I ask if I can have three £10 vouchers but am told that I can't. As I don't have the will in the world to walk to another Cath Kidston store and they can't refund me my money either on their till, I have no choice
So, half an hour after I walked into this shop, I walked out with two £10 vouchers which apparently have the value of £30 and a rubbish present for my friend
I do have to give some credit to the young server who was serving me because she was apologetic but the manager gets a big fat nought for obviously hiding when this issue was taking place rather than stepping in to solve it
Cath Kidston, you need to buck up your ideas about customer service. Give me three £10 vouchers and you sort out your paperwork later. Out of my 1641 reviews thus far, I've only given 11 one star reviews up to now. You deservedly earned my twelfth with your ineptitude read more