Is Poor Customer Service a Deal Breaker?

[C. K.]

A friend of mine who lives in the countryside, who must drive 10 miles to the nearest stores which are in a small town, has a dilemma with customer service.

He looks like a teenager, even in a suit. Apparently, this fresh face is cause for alarm in any retail establishment he frequents.

It doesn't matter how much he buys or how frequently he shops at a certain place, they often send someone to follow him around just to make him aware of their presence. This is not about customer service, this is about inventory control.

Should he shrug it off and continue to pay the salaries of people who treat young-looking customers like suspected criminals? Should he shop in more inconvenient places in a bigger city 40 miles away with relatively better customer service?

Is there another option?

[beltim]

What about shopping online?

[jba302]

Grow a beard -

[ichangedmyname]

*stole that pic. Thanks

[GuitarStv]

I'd make sure to ask the guy following me around where to find things.  Other than that . . . who cares?

The mistake that many people make in this kind of scenario is to treat it seriously.  Go up to the guy who's following you and talk to him for a couple seconds.  Joke with him.  Show him you're human too.  I'll bet that a couple times doing that and you'll be left alone.

[dragoncar]

Has he tried actually talking to a manager/owner?  If it bothers him, he could show receipts from the past year and let them know the business they will be losing if they don't stop.  Or as above just talk to the person following you. 

It might be a deal breaker for me... Hard to tell without being in the particular situation.

Even when I was a teen I don't think anyone followed me around

[Left]

I wouldn't shop there but I have other choices... if he doesn't then there isn't much choice. Is he sure it is just him and not everyone from "out of town"? Even if he shops there often, small town folks are like that sometimes in some of the small towns in midwest that I've been in. They knew me enough to know my name and recognize me, but they kept their eyes on me because who knows what I'll do? Like play loud music? I don't know and can't explain it.

[weston]

If the store met my needs in price, value and inventory it wouldn't stop me from shopping there. Until my mid-40s I looked much younger than my real age and spent a lot of years in similar circumstances. Didn't concern me at all.

Slightly off topic, but I stopped shopping at a men's store that constantly marketed it's customer service because I had the opposite experience. I attempted to shop there a few times during the weekends in my usual weekend attire of t shirts and well worn jeans. Was always studiously ignored by the sales staff so they never did meet my needs. Instead I would spend my money at other stores where the salespeople would approach me in my well worn casual attire.

I'm a trial lawyer and wear suits every single working day. It seems that those goofball salesmen couldn't figure out that people that wear expensive business attire all week long often go for comfort and practicality on the weekend. They would practically run to the other end of the store to avoid serving me.

[Eric]

Maybe they're trying to offer him exceptional customer service by providing his own personal shopping assistant?

[C. K.]

What about shopping online?

beltim, online shopping is what I was thinking. Since he's mostly in stores to buy groceries [as opposed to doing lots of shopping for clothing, for instance, which he doesn't do], I should mention buying his boxed foods in bulk online. Fresh produce he can buy in bulk somewhere other than that town, or grow it himself. He's big into salads and green smoothies.

So, less frequent brick-and-mortar shopping is the answer. Thanks.

Grow a beard -

Ha! Great image. The way things have been going for this guy, his beard would have them thinking he's a pervert or something. Good suggestion.

I'd make sure to ask the guy following me around where to find things.  Other than that . . . who cares?

Right. Shrug it off. I think it's getting to him a bit.

Has he tried actually talking to a manager/owner?  If it bothers him, he could show receipts from the past year and let them know the business they will be losing if they don't stop. 

I don't know if he ever thought about talking to the manager. I'll mention it. He's one of those people who doesn't like a fuss. If someone brings him the wrong order at a restaurant, he won't send it back, he'll just eat it.

Is he sure it is just him and not everyone from "out of town"?

Good point. Small towns tend to be suspicious of anything new, even new things that could benefit them.

If the store met my needs in price, value and inventory it wouldn't stop me from shopping there. Until my mid-40s I looked much younger than my real age and spent a lot of years in similar circumstances.
....They would practically run to the other end of the store to avoid serving me.

Wow! Thanks for the story.

Maybe they're trying to offer him exceptional customer service by providing his own personal shopping assistant?

Ha! I got a good chuckle out of that. Thanks.

[mpbaker22]

A friend of mine who lives in the countryside, who must drive 10 miles to the nearest stores which are in a small town, has a dilemma with customer service.

He looks like a teenager, even in a suit. Apparently, this fresh face is cause for alarm in any retail establishment he frequents.

It doesn't matter how much he buys or how frequently he shops at a certain place, they often send someone to follow him around just to make him aware of their presence. This is not about customer service, this is about inventory control.

Should he shrug it off and continue to pay the salaries of people who treat young-looking customers like suspected criminals? Should he shop in more inconvenient places in a bigger city 40 miles away with relatively better customer service?

Is there another option?

Sounds like good customer service to me.  These stores probably see a fair amount of shoplifting.  That probably happens most with younger people.  They're protecting inventory and keeping costs low for all the consumers. 

Maybe he should point out that he's not about to rob the place ... better yet have him put items in his pockets and take them out when turning corners.  That way the store stops him after he leaves thinking he shop-lifted, then they look incredibly dumb.

[Dulcimina]

I wandered into a Roche Bobois store once, not realizing at first that it was the sort of place that sold $10,000 sofas.  I chitchatted with the salesman who greeted me, confessed that I wasn't buying anything that day, didn't want to take up too much of his time, would he mind if looked around in his lovely store for a bit before leaving.  He gave me the go-ahead.  I never actually saw him walking towards me, but wherever I went in the store, there he would be, just a little bit closer each time I turned around, like a Weeping Angel.    So, I had fun with it - upstairs, downstairs, living room furniture, bedrooms, hiding in a group of other customers, office, back upstairs. 

I wasn't buying anything, and obviously, I had a little fun with him.  But week after week of being chased around a store just to get groceries? Nope, sorry.  I'd go online or shop less frequently, but at the the stores farther away.

Have you read the story  about this kid who was arrested after buying an expensive belt?

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Black-Teenager-Lawsuit-Barneys-Belt-NYPD-Purchase-Detain-Fake-Identification-228915061.html

A 19-year-old college student from Queens says he was handcuffed and locked in a jail cell after buying a $350 designer belt at Barneys on Madison Avenue because he is "a young black man."

Trayon Christian told NBC 4 New York on Wednesday that he saved up from a part-time job for weeks to buy a Salvatore Ferragamo belt at Barneys.

When he went to the store to buy it in April, he says the checkout clerk asked to see his identification. After the sale went through and he left the store, he was approached by police about a block away, and asked "how a young black man such as himself could afford to purchase such an expensive belt," according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Officers hauled Christian to the local precinct, where he showed police his identification, as well as his debit card and the receipt for the belt, the lawsuit says.
 
Police still believed Christian's identification was fake, and eventually called his bank, which verified it was his, according to the complaint. Christian, who has no prior arrests, was released.
 
He told NBC 4 New York that questions were racing through his mind while he went through the painful experience of being handcuffed and taken to a cell.
 
"Why me? I guess because I'm a young black man, and you know, people do a credit card scam so they probably thought that I was one of them," Christian said. "They probably think that black people don't have money like that."

Maybe they should have arrested him for paying $350 for a belt, but that's another story!

[beltim]

Sounds like good customer service to me.  These stores probably see a fair amount of shoplifting.  That probably happens most with younger people.  They're protecting inventory and keeping costs low for all the consumers. 

Is this satire?  This is terrible customer service, and obviously pushes people towards shopping elsewhere.

[C. K.]

I never actually saw him walking towards me, but wherever I went in the store, there he would be, just a little bit closer each time I turned around, like a Weeping Angel.    So, I had fun with it - upstairs, downstairs, living room furniture, bedrooms, hiding in a group of other customers, office, back upstairs. 

...
Have you read the story  about this kid who was arrested after buying an expensive belt?

Maybe they should have arrested him for paying $350 for a belt, but that's another story!

Ha! I love your story, darting in and out of other customers... hahaha!

I have read of the teenager who was approached by the police for daring to buy something expensive. Apparently, that store called the police to investigate another customer just after this incident.  A female customer was accosted by  policemen for buying a purse that cost upwards of $2000.

It's not how I would spend money. But to each his own.

To be followed about must be irritating enough, but to be arrested because you somehow look like a pauper... It's just unnecessarily cruel.

Hearing all of these stories aggravates my introversion. Now I want to live as a hermit. :)

[wtjbatman]

Sounds like good customer service to me.  These stores probably see a fair amount of shoplifting.  That probably happens most with younger people.  They're protecting inventory and keeping costs low for all the consumers. 

Maybe he should point out that he's not about to rob the place ... better yet have him put items in his pockets and take them out when turning corners.  That way the store stops him after he leaves thinking he shop-lifted, then they look incredibly dumb.

Yikes! As someone who worked loss prevention for four years, I don't encourage you to put a store employee in a position where they believe you are shoplifting and they stop you, even though you have nothing on you. For the two retailers I worked LP for, stopping someone for shoplifting who hadn't stolen anything was grounds for termination of employment. And by grounds for, I mean the person was fired 100% of the time.

Of course, a small town store that's not part of a retail chain may be a lot more lenient when it comes to stopping shoplifters. Or following them in the store.

[dragoncar]

I wandered into a Roche Bobois store once, not realizing at first that it was the sort of place that sold $10,000 sofas.  I chitchatted with the salesman who greeted me, confessed that I wasn't buying anything that day, didn't want to take up too much of his time, would he mind if looked around in his lovely store for a bit before leaving.  He gave me the go-ahead.  I never actually saw him walking towards me, but wherever I went in the store, there he would be, just a little bit closer each time I turned around, like a Weeping Angel.    So, I had fun with it - upstairs, downstairs, living room furniture, bedrooms, hiding in a group of other customers, office, back upstairs. 

I wasn't buying anything, and obviously, I had a little fun with him.  But week after week of being chased around a store just to get groceries? Nope, sorry.  I'd go online or shop less frequently, but at the the stores farther away.

Have you read the story  about this kid who was arrested after buying an expensive belt?

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Black-Teenager-Lawsuit-Barneys-Belt-NYPD-Purchase-Detain-Fake-Identification-228915061.html

A 19-year-old college student from Queens says he was handcuffed and locked in a jail cell after buying a $350 designer belt at Barneys on Madison Avenue because he is "a young black man."

Trayon Christian told NBC 4 New York on Wednesday that he saved up from a part-time job for weeks to buy a Salvatore Ferragamo belt at Barneys.

When he went to the store to buy it in April, he says the checkout clerk asked to see his identification. After the sale went through and he left the store, he was approached by police about a block away, and asked "how a young black man such as himself could afford to purchase such an expensive belt," according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Officers hauled Christian to the local precinct, where he showed police his identification, as well as his debit card and the receipt for the belt, the lawsuit says.
 
Police still believed Christian's identification was fake, and eventually called his bank, which verified it was his, according to the complaint. Christian, who has no prior arrests, was released.
 
He told NBC 4 New York that questions were racing through his mind while he went through the painful experience of being handcuffed and taken to a cell.
 
"Why me? I guess because I'm a young black man, and you know, people do a credit card scam so they probably thought that I was one of them," Christian said. "They probably think that black people don't have money like that."

Maybe they should have arrested him for paying $350 for a belt, but that's another story!

Wow that's hilarious and nice dr who reference