What’s wrong with our retail industry?
It’s rubbish, that’s what’s wrong with it.
My OH has been pestering me for a new coffee maker for ages and, having seen a Curry’s ad on TV last night, I gave in. I went on their website and reserved a fancy coffee machine for collection at my local store.
Now, I’ve experienced the Currys slash PCWorld service before, so it was with a certain lack of enthusiasm that I went to collect my purchase today. I paid for the item and waited while a member of staff went to retrieve the item for me. So far so good. I waited for quite some time, finally a second member of staff commented that his colleague had been gone a while, so he went to find him. After about 5 minutes he returned with the news that my coffee machine had been sold to another customer and there were no more in stock. He offered me an alternative which I declined, so he refunded the purchase.
I have to say that he was courteous and, luckily, I’m not the type to rant uncontrollably in public. However, come on Currys, what about the rubbish service you provided? Do you really expect customers to have any confidence in your company? Someone at your store made a fundamental mistake which not only wasted my time and diesel but also damaged the reputation of the company who pay his/her wages. Please don’t expect me to buy anything from you anytime soon.
Ultimately, I did what I should have done in the first place, I ordered the goods from Amazon for the same price.
Compare and contrast the above with my experiences at Apple’s retail stores:
- Interested, engaging and knowledgeable staff
- Slick and reliable purchase transactions
- Helpful technical support and speedy repair/replacement service.
British retail operations (with the exception of Apple), I submit that you are rubbish.
I rest my case.
