Quickets thing to do i to post the email I sent the store GM
I just got back home from making the mistake of shopping at Best buy 946 in Midland Michigan, which I am told you are the General Manager of. Big surprise given what I dealt with there that you were not at work today. I walked in the store at about 1:30 pm on the afternoon of Wednesday 1-20-10 with my mother who was looking to buy a new HDTV. We were promptly greeted at the front door, in fact the only thing your staff did right in the entire experience. We walked over to the home theater area, 2 of your employees were playing some sort of game on one of the systems and ignoring us and the other 2 customers wandering around obviously looking for something. We spent over 20 minutes looking at TV's, moving them around, even climbing on the shelving units to look at the boxes on top to see what was and was not in stock as the shelves under the samples were empty in several cases. Not once did anyone come to see if we needed help. A customer is climbing your shelves and moving stock and nobody notices? Wow. At this point my mother wandered around looking for some help, she was ignored. I found one of the TV's we had chosen without any help, or interrupting what obviously was an important game for your staff and we carried it to the checkout area. a cart to move it would have been nice, but again, that would have involved some employee actually acknowledging that customers were in the store other than your greeter.
We get to the checkout area and nobody is there at the registers, a gaggle of about 8 employees was sitting just to the eft of the place that says "Stand here and wait for the next available." They were loudly, and crudely discussing who got drunk with who last weekend. Who is getting drunk with whom next weekend, and who is sleeping with who. after 2-3 full minutes of us standing there, and this point we were purposefully LOUDLY discussing how terrible the customer service was, and asking each other LOUDLY how this place even stays in business a blond young lady finally turned, and looking angry at the interruption told us, "I can help you here." We walked over, my mother asked if there was a discount for paying cash as opposed to using a credit card and she answered, "NO!" in an angry and derisive tone of voice complete with a look of disgust. This was the only communication she offered for the rest of the transaction. After checking my mother out I told my mother that I was going to count the employees at the store because I planned on calling about how terrible the service was here. I walked completely around your store for another 5 minutes being completely ignored by your staff. I counted 19 people wearing Best Buy blue shirts, I counted 3 people in Geek Squad shirts. I counted a total of 8 customers, only 1 of whom was being helped.
We walked out of th store AMAZED that any service business could stay in business run like this. I decided to call the store and seek answerers from the General Manager, big surprise you were not there. I did talk to someone named Crystal who claimed to be the Manager on duty. I told her what I have just told you and the first thing she wanted was the names and physical descriptions of all 22 employees we saw. This merely made me laugh at that point. I did describe the 2 game players in the TV area and the girl who checked us out but that was it. She then offered me a completely inappropriate religious blessing (I do not go to electronics stores looking for religious things and I do not go to church to find electronics) and suggested I call 1888-Best-Buy if I wasn't happy.
I have more than 30 years in service business management and never in all that time have i seen or even heard of anything like this. I will not even bother to tell you the 1.5 hour, keep getting hung up on ordeal with 1-888-Best-buy but suffice it to say I am amazed you are still in business. This was a complete and utter systemic failure, the one and only person I saw in your store that did ANYTHING right was the greeter at the door who was prompt and polite both on the way in and the way out. If ANY customer EVER had an experience even approaching this in one of my places of business heads would roll. Who hires these people? Why do they think it is acceptable to loudly discuss each other's drinking and sex lives in front of 80 year old women and other customers? Why is it more important for them to play games on the merchandise than to try and sell it? Why can customers who are outnumbered by staff 3 to 1 wander all over the store, CLIMBING UP YOUR SHELVING UNITS, and never have any help or acknowledgment that they even exist except by the greeter? Do you consider this an acceptable customer experience in any way? If yes, why? If not, what do you plan to do about it?
@Dorothy_BestBuy
Private Message
