"Mistakes fail in their mission of helping the person who blames them on the other fellow." ~Henry S. Haskins
A little over a month ago I went to drop off a roll of film to be developed at WALGREENS. I was doing a photo collage for a friend and wanted the pictures back in an hour but when I requested this, the woman behind the counter explained to me that they were having problems with the machine and asked if I wouldn't mind getting them the following day. I said that would be ok because I still had two days to finish up the collage.
The following day I returned, paid for my photos and when I got back to my car and took a look at them, I noticed that they had given me 3x3's and NOT 4x6's as I had ordered. I went back inside WALGREENS, and when the woman behind the counter saw me returning she said, "Uh oh, what's wrong?"
I showed her the 3x3's and told her that I had ordered 4x6's. She said, "Oh, they probably should have made note of the fact that they gave you 3x3's," and I told her that I didn't really see the point in them telling me that since I ordered 4x6's which meant I wanted 4x6's. I mean, REALLY.
She replied, "Well, I will do anything to make this right for you so let me print up the pictures in the 4x6 size."
There were about 5 photos at size 3x3 that I could use for the collage while I waited on the 4x6's so I asked her if I could take the 3x3's and just come back to get the 4x6's in an hour. She told me, "NO, I can't let you have the 3x3's!"
Um...WTF? So I said to her, "You mean to tell me that you inconvenienced me last night by not being able to give me my photos in an hour only to come back today to get the WRONG size and now I have to wait another hour (at least) to get the right size and you will not let me take these 3x3's which you will end up throwing out anyway?" She replied, "I'm sorry, I can't let you have them."
I said, "Let me see if I've got this straight...you will not let me have the photos I've paid for because you need to have them in exchange for the 4x6's you will be making up for me? You've inconvenienced me twice now resulting in me making extra trips here and back to get what I want and you cannot allow me to have the 3x3's AND the 4x6's?"
She told me I had got it straight. OMFG.
I stood there debating whether to cause a scene or not, opted for NOT, grabbed the 3x3's which I had already PAID for and left the store vowing never to return. I went home, got on the WALGREENS website and lodged a complaint about the store and my experience but never heard back from them. In my complaint email I told them that I spend quite a bit of money getting film developed at their store but would go elsewhere in the future because obviously they weren't interested in making their customers happy.
Fast forward to today. I had two rolls of film that needed to be developed and had just gone grocery shopping and the closest place to get the film developed was at WALGREENS so I bit the bullet and went in thinking that things could only get better from my last experience. WRONG assumption.
I stood at the photo center for about 5 minutes and no one comes or asks to help me so I yelled to the kid at the front of the store and asked if he could find someone to wait on me. He says sure and uses his loud speaker to call for someone to come to the photo center. No one comes. I walk down to him and ask him if anyone is coming and he tells me yes. He gives another call out on his loud speaker for assistance at the photo center. As I am walking back to the photo center I look down the aisles and see various WALGREEN employees stocking shelves. Correct me if I am wrong, but SHOULDN'T THOSE EMPLOYEES BE TENDING TO THE CUSTOMERS RATHER THAN STOCKING SHELVES? I'm thinking YES, THEY SHOULD BE HELPING ME AND OTHER CUSTOMERS AND STOCKING SHELVES WHEN THERE IS A LULL IN BUSINESS BUT THAT'S JUST ME--A CUSTOMER WHO EXPECTS TO BE WAITED ON WHEN I AM IN A PLACE OF BUSINESS SPENDING MONEY FOR A SERVICE.
I go back to the photo center and decide to count up to 60 and if no one comes, I will leave the store because I have ice cream melting in the car waiting for these losers to help me. I count to 60 S-L-O-W-L-Y and NO ONE COMES!!! Inconceivable but TRUE!!! As I am leaving, I tell the kid at the front of the store that I'll just go somewhere else because it's obvious no one wants to help me which is really confusing/disturbing to me in this economy but hey, if they don't want my money, I'll spend it somewhere else. He tells me he's sorry! WTF? What is wrong with everyone at WALGREENS? They must enjoy watching MONEY WALK OUT THE AUTOMATIC FRONT DOORS!!! There is no other explanation.
I'm about to get into my car when I see him chasing me down in the parking lot (and God Bless him, at least HE cared enough to try to get someone to help me), and he told me that finally someone was in the photo center to help. Huh? This must be a new thing where you have to leave the store in disgust and be getting in your car to leave before they believe you might want to get waited on SOME TIME THIS CENTURY. Reluctantly, I go back in and give the girl behind the counter a piece of my mind but wouldn't you know it, she told me SHE WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE AT THE PHOTO CENTER EITHER. It was like she was condescending to help me out. Un-f-ingbelievable.
She did not apologize for making me wait because IT WASN'T HER FAULT. WELL WHOSE FAULT IS IT YOU DIMWIT? No one will take responsibility for anything. No one will step up to the plate and say, "I'm so sorry for the long wait, how can I help you, how can I make this right so that you will want to come back again?" WALGREENS DOES NOT CARE ABOUT THEIR CUSTOMERS!
WALGREENS? YOU SUCK. Those will be the last photos I ever get developed in your store and this time I will keep this promise because of the total lack of respect you have for your paying customers. I'm done paying money to be dissatisfied and ignored. I'll travel an hour out of my way if I have to NOT to go to your store ever again. I will tell anyone and everyone I can about my experiences at your store and how in a recession you don't mind pissing off customers to the point that they will never come back. Must be nice.
I think perhaps a company pow wow is in order where you teach your employees that THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT AND THAT THE CUSTOMER COMES FIRST (before stocking shelves and having a smoke break out front) because your employees don't seem to know this, or they missed the memo, or maybe it's that they just don't care. Either way, I'm done and it's YOUR LOSS, not mine.
*excessive use of CAPS totally necessary*
A little over a month ago I went to drop off a roll of film to be developed at WALGREENS. I was doing a photo collage for a friend and wanted the pictures back in an hour but when I requested this, the woman behind the counter explained to me that they were having problems with the machine and asked if I wouldn't mind getting them the following day. I said that would be ok because I still had two days to finish up the collage.
The following day I returned, paid for my photos and when I got back to my car and took a look at them, I noticed that they had given me 3x3's and NOT 4x6's as I had ordered. I went back inside WALGREENS, and when the woman behind the counter saw me returning she said, "Uh oh, what's wrong?"
I showed her the 3x3's and told her that I had ordered 4x6's. She said, "Oh, they probably should have made note of the fact that they gave you 3x3's," and I told her that I didn't really see the point in them telling me that since I ordered 4x6's which meant I wanted 4x6's. I mean, REALLY.
She replied, "Well, I will do anything to make this right for you so let me print up the pictures in the 4x6 size."
There were about 5 photos at size 3x3 that I could use for the collage while I waited on the 4x6's so I asked her if I could take the 3x3's and just come back to get the 4x6's in an hour. She told me, "NO, I can't let you have the 3x3's!"
Um...WTF? So I said to her, "You mean to tell me that you inconvenienced me last night by not being able to give me my photos in an hour only to come back today to get the WRONG size and now I have to wait another hour (at least) to get the right size and you will not let me take these 3x3's which you will end up throwing out anyway?" She replied, "I'm sorry, I can't let you have them."
I said, "Let me see if I've got this straight...you will not let me have the photos I've paid for because you need to have them in exchange for the 4x6's you will be making up for me? You've inconvenienced me twice now resulting in me making extra trips here and back to get what I want and you cannot allow me to have the 3x3's AND the 4x6's?"
She told me I had got it straight. OMFG.
I stood there debating whether to cause a scene or not, opted for NOT, grabbed the 3x3's which I had already PAID for and left the store vowing never to return. I went home, got on the WALGREENS website and lodged a complaint about the store and my experience but never heard back from them. In my complaint email I told them that I spend quite a bit of money getting film developed at their store but would go elsewhere in the future because obviously they weren't interested in making their customers happy.
Fast forward to today. I had two rolls of film that needed to be developed and had just gone grocery shopping and the closest place to get the film developed was at WALGREENS so I bit the bullet and went in thinking that things could only get better from my last experience. WRONG assumption.
I stood at the photo center for about 5 minutes and no one comes or asks to help me so I yelled to the kid at the front of the store and asked if he could find someone to wait on me. He says sure and uses his loud speaker to call for someone to come to the photo center. No one comes. I walk down to him and ask him if anyone is coming and he tells me yes. He gives another call out on his loud speaker for assistance at the photo center. As I am walking back to the photo center I look down the aisles and see various WALGREEN employees stocking shelves. Correct me if I am wrong, but SHOULDN'T THOSE EMPLOYEES BE TENDING TO THE CUSTOMERS RATHER THAN STOCKING SHELVES? I'm thinking YES, THEY SHOULD BE HELPING ME AND OTHER CUSTOMERS AND STOCKING SHELVES WHEN THERE IS A LULL IN BUSINESS BUT THAT'S JUST ME--A CUSTOMER WHO EXPECTS TO BE WAITED ON WHEN I AM IN A PLACE OF BUSINESS SPENDING MONEY FOR A SERVICE.
I go back to the photo center and decide to count up to 60 and if no one comes, I will leave the store because I have ice cream melting in the car waiting for these losers to help me. I count to 60 S-L-O-W-L-Y and NO ONE COMES!!! Inconceivable but TRUE!!! As I am leaving, I tell the kid at the front of the store that I'll just go somewhere else because it's obvious no one wants to help me which is really confusing/disturbing to me in this economy but hey, if they don't want my money, I'll spend it somewhere else. He tells me he's sorry! WTF? What is wrong with everyone at WALGREENS? They must enjoy watching MONEY WALK OUT THE AUTOMATIC FRONT DOORS!!! There is no other explanation.
I'm about to get into my car when I see him chasing me down in the parking lot (and God Bless him, at least HE cared enough to try to get someone to help me), and he told me that finally someone was in the photo center to help. Huh? This must be a new thing where you have to leave the store in disgust and be getting in your car to leave before they believe you might want to get waited on SOME TIME THIS CENTURY. Reluctantly, I go back in and give the girl behind the counter a piece of my mind but wouldn't you know it, she told me SHE WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE AT THE PHOTO CENTER EITHER. It was like she was condescending to help me out. Un-f-ingbelievable.
She did not apologize for making me wait because IT WASN'T HER FAULT. WELL WHOSE FAULT IS IT YOU DIMWIT? No one will take responsibility for anything. No one will step up to the plate and say, "I'm so sorry for the long wait, how can I help you, how can I make this right so that you will want to come back again?" WALGREENS DOES NOT CARE ABOUT THEIR CUSTOMERS!
WALGREENS? YOU SUCK. Those will be the last photos I ever get developed in your store and this time I will keep this promise because of the total lack of respect you have for your paying customers. I'm done paying money to be dissatisfied and ignored. I'll travel an hour out of my way if I have to NOT to go to your store ever again. I will tell anyone and everyone I can about my experiences at your store and how in a recession you don't mind pissing off customers to the point that they will never come back. Must be nice.
I think perhaps a company pow wow is in order where you teach your employees that THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT AND THAT THE CUSTOMER COMES FIRST (before stocking shelves and having a smoke break out front) because your employees don't seem to know this, or they missed the memo, or maybe it's that they just don't care. Either way, I'm done and it's YOUR LOSS, not mine.
*excessive use of CAPS totally necessary*
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3 comments:
WOW. Maybe you should print this up in a letter and send it to them? I know it would cost you more time/money (though the money part is negligible), but I think hard letters are better than email.
On the other hand, you're probably done with this, yes? :)
i wish it was just walgreens...no one seems to understand the concept of "customer service" anymore. i swear service has gotten worse at every store i go to. no one seems to care anymore. God forbid you ask someone a question, they act like they're doing you a favor by responding. it's this general attitude of "what? you want me to do my job? don't you see i'm busy standing around doing nothing?" yeeesh. and corporations wonder why more people shop from home. who needs the attitude?
LAME! have you tried their online service? not that that would work any better. but you wouldn't have the front end person to deal with.
i like target's one hour service.
did you write a letter? i just wrote an email to vons.
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