This isn’t really related to our business per se, but a general business principle when dealing with people.
I went boxing day shopping on the 26th, because everywhere had crazy deals going on. I probably spent more than i should’ve but I’ll just tighten up the draw strings a bit over the next few months.
On my way over to my girlfriend’s house (she went with me) I stopped at a futureshop (it’s like a best buy or circut city for you Americans) that was on the way, but kind of far from her house to try and get some of the really good deals before they sold out. So after picking up the items I wanted, I got in one of the lines (which were all huge)
After waiting for half an hour, as I was getting to the front of the line a sales associate decided to ring three people ahead of everyone else in line including me because they were purchasing appliances and they had been waiting since 5am (the store didn’t open to 9am, so the real reason was probably the big fat comission he would get on the sale as Futureshop employees earn from a comission) I wasn’t purchasing too much (maybe $100ish) in stuff…in the ensuing arguement he refused to get a manager and started ignoring me and keying in the people who weren’t in the line’s purchases. I told him I was leaving and speaking to a manager about his conduct.
I decided to wait until the next day for two reasons. First I wanted time to cool down because I was quite upset about waiting in line for thirty minutes to be treated like crap. Secondly the CS line was massive and would’ve been another hour. I purchase a lot of stuff from futureshop, I had a stack of reciepts with me about a quarter of an inch thick from purchases in the last month (christmas helped :) I informed the manager of the sales associate, what he had done and that I was no longer going to return to this store for future purchases.
The manager was very helpful, polite and offered to give me substitutions for all of the items I had wanted to purchase yesterday and missed out on because I left. Some of the items he discounted over 50% (similar product that was more money). I was happy with this result and successful resolution of the problem. I imagine the manager plans on having a little talk with the sales associate in question as well.
Moral of the story, when you’re in a retail or service industry you need to treat your customers fairly and with respect. Short term personal gain by putting your own interests first will only hurt you in the long run.
The Manager knew this lesson already, but the sales associate did not. I do suspect he will be learning this lesson in the near future though.
