Which chain has the WORST customer service?

[Amped]

Crap customer service = The Sports Authority.

The are like the Kmart of sporting goods stores.... oh wait! They're owned by Kmart! I don't even bother shopping there anymore. The 'tards that are supposed to help you flat out suck or can't be bothered (I've had people literally run the other way when they see me coming to ask them with a question!).. & they have the worst stock tracking system... ie - a store will tell you something is in stock, then when you drive out there, in fact, it isn't in stock... yet the computer will insist that it is. Apparently they don't update their database when items are sold. Anyhow, after having multiple bad experiences... at multiple locations... I just gave up on 'em.

[KingNor]

Frys and their legions of foreign, non english speaking employees reminds me of Macintosh Computers.

So much potential, i just cant access any of it.

I agree with the point of not asking employees for what i need. i don't go to a store until i know what i need to get, and then just ask employees where it is.

i can't remember the last time i asked a floor guy what his opinion on a product was.

[Anubis]

Crap customer service = The Sports Authority.

The are like the Kmart of sporting goods stores.... oh wait! They're owned by Kmart! I don't even bother shopping there anymore. The 'tards that are supposed to help you flat out suck or can't be bothered (I've had people literally run the other way when they see me coming to ask them with a question!).. & they have the worst stock tracking system... ie - a store will tell you something is in stock, then when you drive out there, in fact, it isn't in stock... yet the computer will insist that it is. Apparently they don't update their database when items are sold. Anyhow, after having multiple bad experiences... at multiple locations... I just gave up on 'em.

Yeah, Sports Authority sucks here too. So does Gaylans. Very surprising given the size fo that store, but they truly suck there. Modell's is pretty cool here though.

[MicronianDevil]

I agree with the point of not asking employees for what i need. i don't go to a store until i know what i need to get, and then just ask employees where it is.

i can't remember the last time i asked a floor guy what his opinion on a product was.

Same here. If I want a product I research it online then go purchase it.

[EXO]

Do we really need an uniformed security guard at the entrance of Target?

I'm actually down with having guards at Target. In the Philippines, even the nearest McDonalds and Pizza Huts have guards on duty.

huh? Every Target I know here has an armed guard at the entrance. And that old man that says hi to everyone... he scares me more, I feel like he's gonna gouge me with that stupid receipt marker one of these days....

Edited August 6, 2004 by >EXO<

[Jemstone]

They ALL suck! The only one that hasn't really screwed me one way or another is Tower Records but they are insanely overpriced so I try to keep shopping there at a minimum. HMV belongs on that list and anything regarding VIZ.. Target, K-Mart, and Walmart are just lame and have very poor selections.

[David Hingtgen]

Which is why I prefer the cold, soul-less experience of purchasing online.

[Max Jenius]

Which is why I prefer the cold, soul-less experience of purchasing online.

ditto.

Unless there's hotties at the place... but there almost never are in stores that have stuff I like.

[Max Jenius]

Oh yeah... and I was one of those grunts for 2 different stores.

I would straight lie through my teeth only when there was no clear choice(paint for example, I'd usually reccomend either A or B, A being the expensive brand that's slightly better or B being the slightly less expensive brand that didn't come in that finish etc...) I mean, it should be expected... these corporations want to put soooo much product on the shelf... they're only concerned with profit margins. Its easier to put an undertrained, inexperienced group of people and pay them minimum wage than it is to get quality help.

If I were working at Best Buy or CompUSA I'd get fired probably for sending the person to Newegg.com.

[mikeszekely]

One of the biggest things you have to understand is that, for everyone one person who's actually remotely knowledgeable about the products that they intend to buy, there are 10-20 idiots (or at least, this is my experience from four years at Ames and two years at Gamestop). If the customer really is always right, then tons of stores would go out of business and the whole economy would collapse.

With that in mind, if you really have a problem with a store, write to corporate or simply stop going there. Complaining to the manager on duty makes you look like one of the idiots, whether you actually are or not, and nine times out of ten management will, at best, say something nice to you, get you to out of the store, then talk about what an ass your were, and at worse, tell you to your face that you're an ass.

And, in the case of the original post, they should have just canceled their sale and left. Sure, they might not really have been swearing, but by refusing to leave (when, at that point, they most likely weren't going to buy whatever they wanted anyway), and even going so far as to call 911 when the LP came to remove them... that IS causing a scene. And if they were in my store, I'd have had them thrown out too.

Anyway... getting back on topic... I picked Wal-Mart, just because they don't have jack in their entire electronics department. As far as Best Buy goes, I've mostly had good experiences. I've even gone so far as to compliment some employees to their managers. Yeah, I've had people ask me to buy the waranties on a lot of stuff, but at my Best Buy anyway, I tell them no once, and that's the end of it. My only real gripe is that if I go in and I want to buy something, everyone is busy, but if I go in to browse, 12 people will ask me if I need help finding anything.

Wait... there was this one time... I needed a fiber optic cable for my Xbox. I'd already grabbed the high defintion pack from another store, and I just wanted the fiber optic cable. The sales guy points me to the Xbox stuff, and tries to get me to buy the Monster Cable. I'm trying to tell the guy, I already have the HD pack, I just need the fiber optic cable. Then the guy's like "The Xbox isn't in digital, you don't need that." Finally, I told him he had no clue what he was talking about, and asked him to shut the hell up and just tell me where they kept the damn fiber optic cables. That was fun.

[mikeszekely]

i vote for a tie between Target and Circuit city. last week, looking for ESPN NFL 2K5, both stores were complete asses in trying to help out. neither wanted to help me out, nor did they want to let me know when the game would be back in stock. when i asked for a damned raincheck, both stores refused to give one. to hell with them. i went to Best Buy, and they had the damned thing there. not a big deal for a 19.99 game, but damn it, i have spent some serious cash buying TV's, and other big ticket things there, it sucks to know it don't mean poo in the way they deal with you.

But see, from a retail point a view, $19.99 is the regular price, not the sale price. Rain checks are usually only given if it's a sale. And, if either are like Ames, the associates in the store really don't have any idea when something will be in. They don't know what comes in until they open the box and put it on the shelf. At Ames, I used to just tell customers when the next truck was scheduled to come in, and told them to call them, warning them that the truck might not have the item they wanted. The probelm with stores like that is they have corporate warehouses, and the merchandise is sent to the stores at corporate discretion, with little or no input from the actual stores.

[Hiriyu]

The last couple of times I've visited both Frys and Best Buy I've ended up answering product questions from other customers, since there were essentially no service people present... Though there were a bunch of deaf-mute robots in white and blue shirts alternately wandering around glassy-eyed and/or pretending to inventory and restock the shelves.

The real question here is this one, of course: how the heck do folks in retail stores always seem to know to seek me out for product advice in the first place?

[Commander McBride]

The worst on the list is Fry's Electronics. The one in Burbank has the worst customer service in town (and it's not just because the salespeople don't speak English).

I've had very few problems with Best Buy. However, I will be going there today to exchange my Sledge Hammer! DVD, as episode 4 won't play on my 5-disc changer and it pixelates heavily on the XBOX.

I wouldn't say Fry's has bad service.....

They have no service! It's possibly the biggest store of its kind, and not a salesperson in sight! And, on the off chance you find one, they have no idea what th ehell they're talking about.

I saw one salesman tell a guy that that some piece of crap with a GeForce MX and integrated sound would be a good gaming rig! I went right up to the guy and told him to leave and go to PC Club!

Fry's does have its benefits. For electronics, if you know exactly what you want, they have the best prices and selection around.

  The last couple of times I've visited both Frys and Best Buy I've ended up answering product questions from other customers, since there were essentially no service people present... Though there were a bunch of deaf-mute robots in white and blue shirts alternately wandering around glassy-eyed and/or pretending to inventory and restock the shelves.

The real question here is this one, of course: how the heck do folks in retail stores always seem to know to seek me out for product advice in the first place?

Haha, I have the exact thing happen all the time. I'll bet I have sold more products at Fry's than anyone who works there. But, yet, they for some reason won't hire me.

Edited August 7, 2004 by Commander McBride

[gerwalk25]

Pretty much most of the places I've been to had Pretty Good/Decent CS but I have to make an exception to K-mart. Personally I haven't been there in ages but the last time I went was to return an Exo-Squad toy (which was almost 8 years ago) and the place was run by employees who acted lazy and had attitude problems up the yin-yang. I never went back.

[KingNor]

The real question here is this one, of course: how the heck do folks in retail stores always seem to know to seek me out for product advice in the first place?

are you asain?

when ever i go to electronics stores with any of my asian friends, all the older white people ask them whats what.

[Jolly Rogers]

Wow, keep the warnings coming. Here are some of my sour deals:

Tower Records: they probably still have the best selection among the brick and mortar stores. Unfortunately not all the geeks and freaks they hire have a good attitude in the CS department. I bought a CD that has a manufacturering defect that is visible on the disc (the metal disc in the plastic shows signs of oxidation) so I took it back for an exchange, and the manager refused to replace it, saying it's "normal". I never bought anything from Tower since then (several years ago). At least Best Buy replaces the discs you buy for the same title, no questions asked.

K-Mart: they always have the longest checkout lines and usually when you try to look for an employee in a certain department they are always nowhere to be found. I remember one time I tried to buy a LOTR figure and the price rang up higher than the shelf tag so I asked them to verify the price. This turned out to be a 20 minute ordeal, apparently not every K-mart employee is capable of the simple task of walking to the toy section and look up the price tag... no wonder we always hear about K-Mark seeking bankruptcy protection in the news.

Fry's: bought a PS2 game that was defective. Took it back for a replacement copy and the person who helped me had no idea how the procedure works. After he unsealed the replacement copy and left his fingerprint on the under side of the disc he just stood there like an idiot hoping his manager would walk by. I asked him what were we waiting for and he handed me the game and said it's done. Mind you, this is not a kid we're talking about, but a middle aged man who should know what he's doing even if this was his first day on the job at Fry's. Even though Fry's has great price on electronics, one should keep in mind that Fry's is refurb central and most of these deals are opened/refurbished items. I'd only buy software/content-based products from them, not electronics.

Target: overall they are OK, except the store employees don't seem to have a good grasp of their own store policy. I got a raincheck for a game and it was printed right on the raincheck that Substitution was an alternative to waiting for the item to be restocked, without any clauses or conditions to invoke its application. However, one store made me wait a few days to see if they get the out of stock title in before I use the raincheck for a substitute item. Another store had no idea how the raincheck worked. A 3rd store lets me use substitution upon issuing the raincheck. Go figure. I do love it when they are so clueless that new items without prices in the computer are often sold at a bargain price when you have the patience to wait for them to attempt in vain to pull up the prices from their system. Got a bunch of HGUC Gundam kits way back for like 5 bucks a piece.

Best Buy: I am amazed at how far ahead they were compared to the competition. I tend to avoid buying electronics from them these days so I don't have the extended warranty problem. Their selection do suck though, I could never find what I wanted unless it is uber mainstream fare. Every time I ask for something I can't find on their shelves I get the standard response of "you can order it from Bestbuy.com for free shipping". If I wanted to buy online why would I be in your sorry store to start with?! In my experience, most of the time the girls on the floor tend to try and be helpful but the guys for some reason are rather clueless. For example, a few days ago I checked out the Eva Platinum DVD and asked for the version that comes with the box. They had none on the shelf and this guy looked up Eva DVDs on their computer. I saw the Platinum Collector's Edition listed and told the guy that's the one and he insisted that's the version without the box even though there was a Eva Platinum DVD listed without the words "collector's edition". I guess a low IQ is a requirement for employment at Best Buy. Their video games selection is also extremely poor. Now that they've discontinued the Gamer's Gift Card (which comes with the $5-off coupon), I will never buy another game from them unless it's on sale, which never happens with them. Thank Target for their raincheck substitution...

So nobody ever shops at Sam Goody? Or are they just awesome with customer service?

Edited August 7, 2004 by Jolly Rogers

[F-ZeroOne]

In the interests of balance - and on behalf of all of us who have, or had, jobs related to customer service, I think the following link will be enlightening:

http://www.actsofgord.com/

I'm very much aware its a two way street; 99% of my customers are great but there are always those that stick in the mind (usually for the wrong reasons); while I'd be the first to admit I'm not perfect and have made, and will no doubt continue to either make mistakes or have situations which I wished I'd handled differently.

I will say, though, that every so often my company sends me on a "customer service" course. There have been occasions where I've felt that its not the staff that need these courses...

Edited August 7, 2004 by F-ZeroOne

[Terpfen]

This thread is amusing... maybe it's just the nature of living in suburban South Florida, but I've shopped at Wal-mart, Target, Radio Shack, CompUSA, Circuit City, Best Buy, Gamestop, and Electronics Botique. I've never had a problem with any of them. Of course, my shopping methods may be a bit arcane: I learn about the products online, decide which I want to buy, decide whether or not online purchasing is suitable (for example, purchasing major appliances such as TVs should be done in person), and then I go and buy it at a store that has it, be it online or physical.

Of course, I also have Tech Bargains bookmarked, so maybe I'm just savvy like that.