Am I Invisible?

This week a customer satisfaction survey was released naming the 10 worst retailers to shop at.

Amongst those that made the list were all 3 of the top drugstore chains. Not surprisingly that all 3 made the list simply because they are amongst the highest priced places to shop at and among the hardest places to find employees.

Also on the list is Macy’s. I am not surprised about this one as I have found most of their employees ignorant or just plain rude. Why are none of their employees ever look happy? Maybe they just hate their job because they are so overpriced.

Topping the list is the biggest retailer that everyone loves to hate and that is Walmart. Ever ask for help there? Good luck on finding anyone who is actually willing to help. I have found that if I don’t see it, they probably don’t have it. To make matters worse, a few weeks ago I was looking for new shoes in the store and it took me about a 1 ½ hours to find my desired size. The shoe department was a nightmare and last week I revisited the department to find a second pair and the area looked just as I had left it weeks before. It didn’t even looked like it was even touched for the last month. I have visited other Walmart stores and have had much better results. I blame the management for how disorganized and messy this store is. There is absolutely NO reason that a store cannot be kept up better than that.

One store not on the list but should have been is Books-A-Million. Try and get help at this store and you would be wasting your time. Sadly this store is no better than the Borders store it replaced. In fact, in the last couple of weeks, I have had complaints about the store and I filled out one of their online surveys to have management contact me regarding my issues with them. Unfortunately, it has been over a week since I took the survey and issued my complaint and still have not heard from any member of their management staff. I don’t expect to ever hear from them because they just don’t care and I am not the least bit surprised.

Finally, one store on that list is #7 and it is the dreaded Best Buy. Walk around the DVD/CD department and you will never find an employee. Same is true in the video game department as well. You may find an employee in the video department if you are lucky, but that is if you are lucky. However, go over to the computer department and there are employees all over the place.

That was until I had arrived looking for a new printer.

Usually I am bothered by at least one employee when I am in the store checking my email or checking on Facebook, but on this particular day while I was looking for a new printer nobody bothered me.

Why was I being ignored on this particular day? Do the employees not care about the printers unlike the computers? Or is it that they think that the printers are there to sell themselves?

Ironically, the one printer that I was looking at was missing the power cable so I had to disconnect the cable from the printer next to it and plug it into the printer that I wanted to try out. Still with everything I was doing, I was still ignored. After bouncing back and forth between a nearby computer to check reviews and trying out printers, I finally decided on one without any employee help and nearly 2 hours later. This is certainly an uncalled for approach to making a sale. It was a treat; however, to find out that by purchasing a printer and cartridges at the same time, there was a discount on the ink as well. In the end I felt somewhat satisfied despite my do it yourself sales approach.

The next day I checked the Target Cartwheel website to see what they had for weekly offers and surprisingly I found a better printer I was considering with a 25% discount making it cheaper than what Best Buy was selling it for.

Yesterday, I proceeded to Target and purchase that printer with no employee interaction in less than 15 minutes. I felt very satisfied compared to how I was treated at Best Buy. The printer from Best Buy will be returned back to them along with the cartridges unopened in the very near future.

One thing I did find interesting about the list of bad retailers was that Staples was not on the list. Could it be that they just don’t have enough customers to make the list in the first place? Certainly Staples as I have mentioned in previous posts do not have great customer service and seems to be dropping considerably in the last few years.

But then again, I am the invisible customer no matter where I go.