Usually it's an okay experience with the right shift of staff at this store, but I hit the wrong…read morepeople the other night, & it was MISERABLE.
I sat on this review to have a clear head, but the unprofessional behavior is just a matter of fact, & it really needs to be addressed by corporate.
This week I visited to make a return of online items, & shop around afterward. Just before 8:30pm, I approached the counter with a genuine smile, & an apology (though unnecessary), for the fact of my return of part of an online order. The associate I encountered was a young woman (name is not on receipt). The first thing she did was complain that she wanted her 15min break. I smiled, but couldn't really help her with that, so she didn't have more to say. She took her time with the items I was returning, & somehow managed to make a 60-second transaction last for TWELVE MINUTES.
The issue? I was returning a 3-pack of baby shirts. She ripped the bag open & proceeded to scan each one. As she did it, I explained to her, "This is a 3-pack, so I don't think you have to scan all three." She insisted that she did. Of course, they didn't all register. She sat staring at them. Minutes ticked by as she looked at the shirts, scanned them a 2nd, & 3rd time. I kept patient, but gently mentioned I had to hit two more stores before the mall closed at 9pm. She ignored me, looked at the packing slip, looked at her computer. I reiterated that it was a 3-PACK, & that normally only one item scans. I said I could see on the computer that it had scanned, so that was all I needed. She ignored me. I tried explaining the phenomenon of a 3-pack to her in another way. I pointed to the title on my return slip "THREE PACK" & reminded her that, before she scanned them, she had had to unseal the package they were all in together, as a set of three. She just stood there with a pissy face, not making eye contact, like I was trying to confuse her, or return the wrong item. I have no idea why this was such a problem.
Finally, she rang everything up yet ANOTHER time & said "Ohhhh, it's a three pack."
Are you kidding me?
So she's at the tail end of this RIDICULOUSLY annoying experience, but still, calls her manager up to "make sure I am doing this right." What is there to "do right"??? The item rang up the first of the fifty times you did it. Just hit "process refund" & let me get the heck out of here.
The manager came over, & she decided to take a phone call right when he arrived. He asked me why he was there? I had no idea. I said I was waiting for my refund. The girl did not place her caller on hold to finish her job with my transaction, nor did her manager ask her to hold the call so they could take care of the customer standing right in front of them. It was the most willfully unprofessional series of choices I have witnessed at a register in my life. Who does that? ANY of that? Who does that?
So then the manager starts opening up a side register to check the balance of the gift card the woman had been using to refund my purchase (I had paid with Visa & gift card, & they were putting it, annoyingly, on gc). So I sit there while he decides to do this. WHY ARE YOU NOT ASKING YOUR ASSOCIATE, RIGHT HERE, WHAT IS GOING ON?
Meanwhile, the phone conversation was this associate telling the caller all the excuses why she was not going to go on the floor to check & see if they have X item in stock, b/c if the online data says there is one, it really means there are none, & on & on. First of all, that is totally unprofessional. Just go & check. Even if you "know" it won't be there, go & check. Second, it is not appropriate to launch into some lengthy who/what/when/where/why of the inaccuracies of the Old Navy inventory system to a customer (which I am sure this woman is not very knowledgeable about anyway, since she can't understand what a 3-pack is). She watched her manager fumble around trying to complete my transaction without having a clue what she had been doing, & she just kept yabbing away, letting me sit there.
I honestly felt like they were choosing to be obnoxious & waste my time. I know that retail is stressful, & you absorb a lot of nastiness from customers, but I behaved politely, & exercised a lot of patience, while also letting them know I needed to get to other stores before close, so why they would behave in ANY of the ways they did, is just wrong.
The manager then opened yet a third register on the other side of the original. He failed to communicate what on earth he was doing. I asked "Did she put the refund on there?" His answer was yes. Then why the HECK didn't he tell me that? Why keep checking? On top of this, the refund was less than I paid, but I neutrally told him I'd rather call online to fix it b/c I didn't have any more time. He gave me no thanks, & no apology. He did give me a snooty look.
So, this is all going on a feedback survey, & hopefully corporate cares. I definitely do NOT want to go back if these folks are on duty.