The Customer Is Always Right? Ha!

From incompetent sales people, supermarket clerks who don’t know the store’s stock and uninterested customer service representatives who rush to put you on hold, it seems the customer doesn’t always come first. The Better Business Bureau reports complaints, overall, are up.

MAURA E. MONTELLANO spoke with a retailer and consumers about the kind of service they’ve had recently.

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CLAUDETTE COLIMON

38, retail shop general manager, Universal City

Have you ever heard the saying, “Good help is hard to find?” This is what I think has happened to the retail industry and customer service. Kids today are growing up with a different work ethic. I think the work ethic is where good service begins. Salespeople with manners, pride and self-confidence make better and more competent employees. As a manager, I try to lead by example. I don’t want to just sell the customer something and take their money. When a customer comes back with an item to return, I try to turn the sale around and let them leave with the feeling that they will come back even though they were dissatisfied with that particular sale.

As a consumer I have more of a critical eye. I try to see the salesperson as someone I would have in my store. I absolutely hate when people say, “There is nothing we can do,” when I know there is always something you can do to make the customer happy. I especially appreciate salespeople who aren’t pushy but acknowledge my presence with a greeting and a smile. Sales help should try to be just that--helpful. Being on both sides of the counter, I know what is required of salespeople and yet as a consumer I demand a lot more.

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JANET NYMETH

31, administrative aide, Montebello

I’ve had to deal with different department stores and a cable company and telephone company. I have had better luck with the department stores because you can go see them in person. You have to deal with the cable company, for the most part, over the phone. The phone company is the same deal. It took me literally three months just to get the cable company to acknowledge it had overcharged me, much less to deal with it. Then before they could possibly reimburse me, I had to send full payment. It was their fault the charge was placed on my bill in the first place and yet I was the one inconvenienced.

It’s amazing what some businesses get away with when it comes to service. Some seem to think that because we need their service, they have the right to treat us irresponsibly and then act as though they shouldn’t be accountable for it.

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JIM SLATER

50, sales and marketing representative, Van Nuys

Around the holidays I went to one of the more upscale department stores to buy a gift for my fiancee. It wasn’t what she wanted, so I took it back to the store. I didn’t have the receipt, but I returned the item in the same box, which clearly showed I had purchased it there. The sales person could not find the exact item in the store inventory so she called her supervisor. The supervisor also could not find the item. The supervisor couldn’t help me either. She told me to come back when another manager was there. The supervisor finally told me that there wasn’t anything she could do. I have never shopped there again. They made their problem my problem and that’s not how it should be.

I’m not upset at the people so much as I am at the store and the way it’s run. Basically, if you are going to present a certain image then back it up with knowledgeable salespeople and reasonable policies.