Date: Sun, 5 Apr 2009 15:09:02 EDT
From: Bprentice2
Subject: Customer Service is hard to find in PBO
This weekend I had 2 examples of terrible customer service in PBO, and if they weren’t offset by other examples of really good service, I’d have said customer service is DEAD in Pittsboro.
Yesterday, while running my normal Saturday chore run to town, we stopped at Subway (falling victim to the ever present “$5 Foot-long” ads). After waiting in line while 3 teenagers who seemed completely untrained made sandwiches to order for the people in line, I finally got my turn. Upon hitting the cash register part of the journey, the young man looked at me like I was Beelzebub himself when I presented my debit card. Now, I know they take debit (and credit) cards, because it says so on their front door, and I’ve done so many times in the past. The conversation went like this:
Boy: “He’s got a debit card, what do I do?”
Girl: “I don’t think its working…”
Boy: “So what do I do?”
Girl: (silence)
Boy: “Do I just give it to him?”
Girl (silence)
Boy to older girl: “Is the machine working?”
Older girl “no – she told me to unplug it and now it doesn’t work”
Boy:”Can I use the one in the back?”
Older Girl: “that’s not working either.”
Boy: “Should I just give it to him?”
Older Girl: “The food? NO!”
Boy: “Then what should I do?”
Boy to me (obviously just having had an idea): “Can you go get some cash
somewhere?”
Now, my toasted sub was by now getting soggy, and if I were to leave the store “to get cash somewhere” you can bet your butt I would spend it elsewhere. Not wanting to totally lose the 20 minutes I now had invested in getting my lunch to within 12″ of my hand, I suggested “Maybe the manager can get this fixed… who is the manager?”
Boy: “I dunno”
Older girl “She’s not here today”
Me “So who is in charge?”
Older girl “I guess I’m the closest there is, since I’ve been here the longest. Suzy Something (I cannot remember the name she actually said) became manager yesterday under some weird circumstances, but she’s off today”
Me: “So no one is in charge?”
Girl “That’s Subway for you!”
By this time my wife, digging through her purse, finds her checkbook. “Will you take a check?”
“Yes”
Problem solved… and lesson learned. No more Subway.
Then today, same plaza, Food Lion. Buying a few supplies, and some soft drinks. Pepsi products are on sale, buy 4-12 packs for $11 and get 2 2-liters free. Good deal. Big end cap display with Pepsi products in 12 packs and 2-liter bottles. I pick up 4 12 packs of Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max, and notice there is a list of exceptions to which 2-liters can be had for free. Looking over the list of exceptions, I see that the Tropicana (a Pepsi product) sodas displayed on that end-cap are not on the exception list, thus, can be had for free. I pick up one, and a Sierra Mist, also eligible for “free-dom!”.
Of course, when I get to the checkout, the Sierra Mist goes through for free, the other one doesn’t. No one knows what to do. Vicky, the “Customer Service Manager” (a bit of irony in THAT title!) comes over, grabs up the Tropicana as if I am trying to steal it, and clutches it in her arms. “This isn’t included in the free offer”. I ask her why its not, as it is clearly NOT on the list of products not included. I show her the list in the ad, and it matches the list on the sign on the display where the darn Tropicana is displayed, right with the 4/$11 Pepsi products. She marches the soda off to the office, and 5 minutes later comes back, gives the clerk the bottle, refuses to even look at me, and says “He can have this one, but no more.” and starts to walk away. I said “Excuse me, Vicky… you should either fix the sign or include the Tropicana products…” and she just gives me a nasty look, and rudely just walks away, like I created the problem, not them!
So this is the level of customer service we can expect from the “Customer Service Manager” at Food Lion. And you wonder why people are willing to drive to Sanford, or Cole Park to do their shopping?
The high point of the weekend in terms of customer service (and the examples both the aforementioned businesses should try to emulate) is our weekly visit to the feed store. Dave and Christine at Pittsboro Feed know how to keep customers happy, as do Dallas and Jason over at Southern States. While we now tend to do a lot more business at one place than we do at the other, mainly due to product mix, both shopkeepers know that if you lose your customers, you’ll soon lose your business. That is something PBO Food Lion and PBO Subway
ought to take heed of.