I've been shopping at Hot Topic in the Vista Ridge Mall for over a decade (I even worked there for about 8 months when I was 16). Now I don't expect for the employees to follow me around and wait on my every need, but I also don't expect poor customer service. Normally, we get greeted once we walk in the door and there's normally someone to tell us the current sales. Being in store, there's not really bad customer service, but yesterday I called the Lewisville location to inquire about exchanging something I bought online. The receipt that came with my package specifically says "May return in store" with a web address for finding the closest location. I didn't want to do a return, I merely wanted to exchange. I called at about 10:15 yesterday morning and the guy who answered said he didn't know if I could exchange it in store and that I would have to call back in an hour or so when he had a manager I could talk to. So I called back at 11:45 and the lady that answered was extremely rude just answering the phone, I hadn't even said anything yet and I already didn't want to talk to her, but I went ahead and explained my predicament and she told me that if I wanted to do an exchange in store from an online purchase I should probably go to a different location...? I said fine and called the Grapevine location. The lady that answered at Grapevine was extremely personable and told me there would not be any trouble with doing the exchange in store. I went to the Grapevine location today (even though I live five minutes from the Lewisville one) and worked with Mike, the Assistant Manager. He was super kind and efficient, he clearly knew what he was doing. I asked how long he had worked there and he said four years, so I knew I was in good hands. He explained the entire process of the exchange and had the new product (which he didn't have in store) shipped to my house.
Long story short, I don't care how much farther the Grapevine location is from my house, I won't be going back to the Lewisville store. Thank you Mike and the Grapevine staff for showing me that not all Hot Topics are the same. read more