I was in Lorimer Banstead with my family on Saturday and they clearly has no concept of 'customer service'. Lorimer provide helium balloons and up until recently they also provide an inflation service if you brought in your own balloon, they have however stopped this service, but only recently. We had ordered a special balloon for my daughters 4th birthday and had checked with at the Banstead store in May/June that they were still providing this service which they were at the time. However in the interim they have changed their policy, which wasn't a lot of help to use on our daughters birthday. What annoyed me more than anything else was the attitude of the store manager, she started off by saying that they haven't done inflation in "years" and I know it has not been "years" as I had my other child's balloon inflated at the same shop in March of this year. When my wife pointed out that she had come in and asked a few month early, the manager basically called her a liar in front of a line of customer. The store manager clearly has no concept of customer service or basic respect. The argument that they now don't inflate "other" retailer balloons because they can't guarantee the safety of the Balloon is just another example of H&S jobworth..what is the worst that can happen, the balloon bursts! Apart from calling my wife a liar and being rude to her, when she asked the manager for contact details for Lorimer's Head Office, she was sent down to the back of the shop to the assistant manager, however, what the manager didn't realise was that I was still standing by the till after my wife and children had left as she shared snide comments with a customer about the incident. I would however like to point out that the assistant manager was in contrast a far more professional and polite person, who I got the distinct impression would have been happy to help with this simple request as a once off and as an act of customer service, but couldn't do so because of the intransient stance of her boss.
We have been regular customer in Lorimar's up to this point, but will never set foot in that shop again! Shame on you for disappointing a four year old on her birthday! read more
