Safeway is getting on my nerves. They are one of six large chain grocery stores in town (if you count Super Wal-Mart and the just opened Super Target - with whom I'm falling in love, by the way).
I've been a loyal Safeway shopper for 12 years now, even when their prices seem to be the highest in town and they can't decide how they want the groceries arranged and in which aisle they belong. I complain to my favorite employees, there are three of them, that I just can't understand why the management wants to upset their loyal customers with their insane midnight store rearranging, removing some of the loyal customer discounts, and even flip-flopping the way they handle buy-one-get-one sales. I've written a comment card exactly once, so in part, this is my bad.
Today I drove to Safeway to return a gallon of milk that I had just opened. When I unscrewed the cap I nearly fell over. The milk doesn't expire until tomorrow and I only bought it a few days ago. Again, chalk one up to my bad for not digging in the back for one who's expiration date was farther out. So I take the milk to the customer service counter and say it's bad and that I have more shopping to do. I had to buy ice cream - priorities you know.
The assistant manager asks me if I'd bought two gallons originally and I say yes. This means that I only paid $3.50 for the gallon and she proceeds to refund that price. I told her that I was going to buy another gallon to replace this one and she said that was fine. I asked if I'd have to pay the regular price since I wasn't buying two. She said yes.
Seriously?
"Um, that sucks," I said to her, "since I'm just replacing this one."
"Yeah."
That's what she said. As if paying to replace an unexpired bad gallon of milk was just a normal business practice.
I asked if she could just exchange it. With a (sticky) sweet smile on her face, she agreed that I could do it that way if I wanted to and she would keep the bad gallon with her.
Sigh...
What is wrong with these people!?
In the past when I've replaced a bad gallon, this very assistant manager has asked me if I left it out in the car after I bought it. As in, did you ruin it yourself? Now why in the hell would I do that?
Lousy customer service.
I've really got to start shopping at King Soopers more.
Oh, yeah! And SUPER TARGET!
As a side note - I was asked no less that 8 times if I needed help finding anything when I was in Super Target yesterday!
That really sucks! I think grocery stores are going through major re-hauls lately. The one I work at has this new system of no more than 2 high theft items on the shelf at a time. But poor customer service is just not acceptable! Seriously why can't we go back to the old days of kick ass customer service and friendliness? No questions asked just answered!
ReplyDeleteYes! Exactly!
ReplyDeleteGrocery stores are probably just trying to get us to forget how bad their customer service sucks by making us crazy about the prices. But when your faced with obvious disrespect, that makes me crazy.
Yeah, that about sums it up.
You should definitely stop shopping there and shop at Target. I love Target :)
ReplyDeleteI recently discovered something WONDERFUL about King's.
ReplyDeleteSo, let's say you buy something. And it's got price A on the tag... Well, if it rings up on a higher price B, then you go right up to the customer service desk after you've paid for it. You show them your receipt, proving it was charged incorrectly, and they will give you your money back, in its entirety. You don't have to pay for the item at all, even at the cheaper price.
I got a free bag of dog food once, a free thing of coffee once, and...
You know, I think I knew that... a long time ago. Hmmmm. I'll definately have to remember it now.
ReplyDelete