We were genuinely looking for a custom print t-shirt place in Edmonton, so we Googled it and Custom Ts was where we ventured to. Upon arriving at the kiosk, the lone worker was in the midst of helping another customer. In the meantime, we looked around at the several different plain shirts and book of logos/prints to choose from.
I picked up a tank top to look at the sizing and nicely folded it to put it back. Kiosk worker says, "Hi ladies, any help you need with the shirts I can help you as soon as I can." Any normal retail customer would interpret this as 'Ah, he's acknowledged us. That's great, as soon as he's done with his current customer then we're next.'
He says the exact same thing a few minutes later as we're touching the material of the Made in Bangladesh shirts - just touching, not even holding them up. Now I'm thinking, 'He doesn't actually mean we can't touch them does he? No way.' I go back to the first tank top I've been indecisive of, unfold it and hold it up again to look at the sizing. Immediately he says (still while helping the same customer), "Ok ladies, I've said this five times already. I'll help you with the shirts as soon as I can."
Holy sh*t! He actually did mean that customers shouldn't touch anything. I said, "Really? I'm just looking at the sizing. What kind of store doesn't let customers look at shirt sizes?" He says, "We're not a store, we're a kiosk. People make a mess of the shirts and I have to refold all of them." My girlfriend says, "You shouldn't be saying this to potential customers." His retort was, "Are you threatening me?" Now we're utterly shocked and definitely don't want to buy anything if he thinks unfolding and folding one item back isn't worth his time. We left in shock having not bought anything -who would after this ordeal?
If Custom Ts' service policy is to not allow any touching of their shirts, they should have signs displayed that say "Please do not touch." But anyone who knows anything about good customer service in the retail business knows that that is terrible sales practice, especially when touch/sight/feel are the most important factors for customers who are physically visiting a clothing establishment.
EDIT: Management reached out to me after I had posted the same review to their Facebook page. They were very apologetic, clarified that this is not their customer service policy, handled it with the employee and offered a 50% discount on the next visit. I declined their discount offer but found the resolve acceptable -that they acknowledged the mistake and dealt with the employee. (Changed rating from 1 to 2 stars) read more