Corporate Bull

Posted on Thu 02/16/06 in My So Called Blog

Below is a submission to CompUSA’s in-store comments form on their website:

The following was written quickly in an email to a friend
and modified slightly for the sake of letting you know
what is going on in your stores. Having been a
supervisor at Best Buy, I KNOW that you want to know
about these things.

Last week I ordered something online for pickup at
CompUSA. The printed receipt states that the order should
be ready in 15 minutes. I was only picking up a couple
of items, but I was hoping it would be ready and I could
assure it was in stock before going there. Having been
working for Best Buy when they rolled out the same
program, I know the system did not work (product was not
brought to the front) until Best Buy made it a priority
and handed out beepers and held people accountable.

So, I show up and head for customer service, which is
setup like a V… on one side, there is a huge sign that
says CORPORATE SALES and the other side there is a huge
sign that says CUSTOMER SERVICE. Under the Customer
Service sign, it says SERVICES (a black sign).. and lists
the services offered, “returns”, “credit application,
“product pick-up”, etc. Oh, ok… I’ll stand at the
customer service counter since I am picking up product.
The store is fairly empty for a Saturday morning and
there are employees everywhere walking around and not
making eye contact with any of the customers (something I
rarely did when working in retail); It means you don’t
want to help. So, I am standing in line while all sorts
of random comotion is happening around me. I’m second
person in line, BTW. After about 15 minutes, the girl
behind the counter asks if I need help (she is still
ringing up a computer package). I tell her I’d like to
pickup product. She points to the other line and says,
“Oh, you’ll need to go to corporate sales for that.” I
pleaded with her about the sign above and the fact that
it was a personal sale. “It’s corporate. I can’t do
anything about it,” she explained again.

I moved to the other line and waited again. I could have
EASILY picked out the three items I needed and left, but
I figured my CC had been charged and that this was my
only option at this point. After waiting for the guy to
run around and pick up my stuff (since it wasn’t ready),
I mentioned the sign to him. He didn’t seem to really
care, and he said, “Yeah, it’s a corporate error; I can’t
change it.” I asked if corporate knew. He said they
did. I asked how he knew they knew and when they found
out. I asked if other customers were frustrated like I
was. He affirmed. I challenged him to be proactive and
take down the portion of the sign that said Product
Pick-up (it was little slide in pieces, easily
removable). He looked at me and gave a frightened smirk,
like he sorta thought I was joking. I then suggested
that they might make him CEO if he would just take some
initiative to help the customers.

So, got my stuff and sought out a manager, Derek. The
manager came out from the manager bench, and I told him
about my concern. He asked me to take him to the sign
(he was new and didn’t know which sign I meant). I
showed him and he told me that I hadn’t seen the sign
that said “Online Pick-up.” THAT sign was located in the
crest of the V, standing low on a pole, and not posted at
a visible angle. It was red and matched the colorful
wall decorations. I explained that had I seen that sign,
I would have still had to make a decision as to where to
stand, SINCE IT WAS BETWEEN BOTH SECTIONS. I told him
that if I worked here, I’d take the other sign down and
move the ONLINE sign to a more visible, informative
location. I told him straight up that he should go take
the sign down. I assured him that if corporate walked in
the store, they would be proud of him for his actions. I
explained that if they walked in now and overheard my
complain, they would walk over there themselves and DO
SOMETHING. He acknowledged that it was a problem. He
thanked me and told me to enjoy my purchase. Nothing
will be done.
—-

Thank you for hearing my comments.

On a good note, I have had satisfactory customer service
during my other visits to the store, although it is easy
to impress a south floridian—our standards are VERY
low.
Best regards,
inspectaneck