I've never rated an experience a one star - until now. Very simply, we were returning customers who came in to look to update 4 chandeliers. The ceiling fan we had purchased about a year ago was a good purchase. Also a good customer experience. So we returned to the Milford store to look at replacement chandeliers. The store did not have customers in it when we arrived. A very nice sales woman came over to help. She was very responsive and helpful. We looked at several lights, one of which I took a picture to see how it would look in our home. After about 15 minutes working with the sales woman we went off on our own to look at a few more lights in the store. We had some questions so we returned to the sales desk. The sales woman who had helped us, plus a gentleman and a second woman were in a glassed in office. I called into the office asking if someone could answer a few more questions. The gentleman came out of the office. He answered the question, then immediately returned to the office. Five minutes later we had another question. I again called into the office. The gentleman came out, as if I was bothering him. I asked him if I was interrupting a staff meeting because he didn't seem to want to work with us (and we still the only customer in the store). He said 'are you going to buy a light today'? Strange question to ask I thought. I said I wasn't sure - we were looking. It was clear he had no intention of waiting on me if I wasn't intending to buy that day. With arrogance and rudeness he said in this business people come into the store, asked lots of questions, take pictures, and then go make the purchase somewhere else. He had no interest in assisting those customers. So if I wasn't going to purchase today, he wasn't going to spend time with me. I told him I wasn't someone off the street, I was a returning customer. It didn't matter to him. He continued to ask me if I was going to make a purchase today. I asked him his name and position, which he would not give me. I still do not know who he was. Needless to say, we walked out of the store, and will never return.
While the initial experience with the sales woman was fine, the experience once the gentleman took over was as poor as they come. I can't believe he refused to work with us. He totally alienated an existing customer, a customer he has now lost forever. Interestingly, in place of telling me his name and/or position, he gave me a card with a customer care number on it to call. I have called three times and left three messages with no response. read more
