I hate W......(big retail chain)! (Rant)

I can't say I've always been a HUGE fan of W (big retail chain)...but it seems to be getting worse. I actually had two horrible experiences in the same day, from two different stores...

First, there was cheap desk lamps advertised in the flyer for $7.00. So I grabbed one, took it to the self check out. It came up regular price. ($9.98) Called the girl over and said "this is suppose to be $7.00" she replied with "well, it says $9.98, so that's what it is". I just kinda looked at her and said "Its in the flyer for 7 dollars and its on a shelf with a sign that says 7 dollars". She still didn't seem to believe me, so she goes and gets a flyer and sees it herself. So she does whatever she has to do to make it come as sale price and it gets her to scan it again and she was like "I SERIOUSLY have to scan it again?". She got it and I said "thank you" and she just sighs and walks away with this snobby teen attitude that I wanted to slap off her face.

So fast forward to last night. I went to the one in town with my sister, brother in law and her father. Mind you, it is after 10pm, so they only have a handful of people working.
First: Brother in law wants a hunting knife in a display case, finds an employee who pages someone to the sport section. We wait and wait and wait some more. He goes back and asks to page someone again. Someone is paged...So my sister and I decide we would go to the checkout so she can pay for her stuff while waiting for her husband to get the knife. She picked up an itunes card. It doesn't work when the cashier tries to ring it through. So she makes my sister go all the way down to the end of the store to get another one. She brings two back and neither will scan. (Says invalid card) so the cashier shrugs and goes "Well I don't know". Sister ends up not buying it.

Sister goes back to see whats going on with the knife and STILL no one has showed up. (Its been about 15 minutes already). He goes back and tells that same employee that no one has come. So they page the manager. Mind you, I am waiting by the doors at this point. Right after they page her to the sports section, I see her walk up the check outs and start talking to the cashier. She didn't go help. So we ended up leaving without the knife and the itunes card.

The funny thing is, the manager of the store where I live was my manager at my very first job...and the manager of the one in town was my supervisor at that same job at the same time. They both seem sort of useless now.

I just don't know whats wrong with that store. I am so tired of stuck up, useless, lazy employees. Even the "door greeters" don't do their jobs. They just look at you like you're dirt when you walk in and check your receipt on the way out. I go to big department stores regularly and never have these sort of problems. What's with this place?

Oh gosh, it would be a good idea to write or call the managers you are acquainted with. Looks like head of personnel hates his job so he hires people who feel the same way.

Sam would turn over in his grave if he saw what his kids have done to his stores. Of course, he remembers what killed his competitors, like K-Mart (bad checkout) or Gibson (bad merchandise).

I hear people complain all the time about W.... putting small stores out of business, but that is hooey. It's not hard at all to compete with them. People really will pay for good merchandise and good service.

let me guess, they were young, possibly high-school dropouts? I've been finding more and more cashiers and floor sales person, at ANY store, becoming more aloof and un helpful. It's so rare to find one sincerely happy to help you.. and when I do, I always go out of my way to praise the worker to their manager.

What I hate most is when they use their cellphones, texting while at the register. grr.

Oh, if the W store the chain I am thinking of.. I refuse to give them my money. I work on halloween packages for them through my company.. behind the scenes managers aren't much better

I've never heard tell of it but it definately doesn't sound like a place I would like to shop.

Customer Service goes along way with me, I'll pay a little more if the people are nicer

Sounds like a moderately high end grocery store I frequent because milk and good bread is cheaper there and meat and produce is better quality. Staff is mostly desultory at best, down right stupid and nasty at worst save for a few women that moved into there in the past year - so far they haven't been corrupted. While department managers are mostly good and helpful staff, the underlings in each department are useless - got told the other day that I couldn't exchange a bag of Washington cherries for BC cherries because they were different stock lots.....well, duh, lady, I hadn't PAID for them yet. I won't even try to describe the non-service at the deli - they mostly can't even get an order straight. Don't ask general staff where something is, they haven't a clue - have to track down a manager or ask the 'cart boy'/head stock clerk. Oddly, with the exception of the electronics dep't, the W place here is pretty good but that is probably because most of the staff are people retired from other jobs - a mix of teachers, service people, office workers who have dealt with the public for decades but the electronics is staffed by kids who think you are stupid if you ask even the simplest question like how much does this cost or if they have something in stock.

Good jobs are hard to come by in this state, and working at the W-place (LOL) is considered a REALLY GOOD job because they give benefits. So there's a lot of competition and they get rid of workers who aren't so great. So the W employees here are very nice, knowledgeable, and helpful, and the stores are clean and well-stocked. I was surprised when I went to Florida antd found out that not all Ws are like that. . .and then I went to California, and the W there was downright scary!

Well, I think by now you all know how I feel about W. I simply refuse to set foot inside the store. The prices at the store in no way compensate me for the rude attitudes and the sanitary issues of the cashiers and other personnel.

Bad service, dirty stores and less than average produce. I generally try and stay away from W. I will happily pay more for better service.

We have a new one just up the road and I go there a lot now because the service is so good. The people at this store are great. It comes as quite a surprise given that other W stores around here are more like their general reputation of being disorganized and staffed with rude, bored people. I don't like shopping there on principal, but the reality is I'm budget conscious, and I know I can get the same stuff there for less, plus the store is close by.

Originally Posted by pushylady

We have a new one just up the road and I go there a lot now because the service is so good. The people at this store are great. It comes as quite a surprise given that other W stores around here are more like their general reputation of being disorganized and staffed with rude, bored people. I don't like shopping there on principal, but the reality is I'm budget conscious, and I know I can get the same stuff there for less, plus the store is close by.

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Economists have said that just because W. exists, the average American family saves about $3500 per year on everything they buy, even if they never set foot in the store!

I really don't like W. at all, hate going in there, but I don't have much choice on some things. Most stores including W. are at minimum, a 20 minute drive one way from my home. Non stop traffic. I go to a Save-a-Lot to buy meat for my cats, because it is MUCH cheaper than at W.. Many other items are cheaper there as well. I have to admit though, that the W. I go to, the customer service is very good. Since this store is in a very small village surrounded by an Amish farming community. In general, the people in the whole area are quite friendly and helpful.

Originally Posted by Draco

let me guess, they were young, possibly high-school dropouts? I've been finding more and more cashiers and floor sales person, at ANY store, becoming more aloof and un helpful. It's so rare to find one sincerely happy to help you.. and when I do, I always go out of my way to praise the worker to their manager.

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The first girl was very young but it could be a summer job. The lady later that night was in her late 40s at least. The door "greeters" are often closer to 60 but here, even they are rude.

I'd rather shop at other places but there isn't many other stores (close by) that sell a bit of everything like that. We are supposedly getting Target here in the next year or two. I can't wait! I think these guys might have a lot of competition once Target has taken over.

HATE W.. Every once in a blue moon I end up having to go there for some stupid reason and it is awful. The employees are mostly useless....they had a sale on brisket once so I went and found the one package of brisket was mis-labeled and being charged as ribs. The total cost was something like $27 ....no way was that the cost of the brisket. So, I found the kid working in the meat Dept and this was our conversation:

Me: I think this meat is labeled wrong, it's priced as ribs but it's a brisket. Would you please redo it?
Kid: ma'am, that's ribs. It's priced correctly.
Me: No, this is a brisket.
Kid: takes the meat from me and says "Nope, the label says it's ribs, I'm pretty sure that's what it is"
Me: looking around for candid camera "Would you please identify one rib in this piece of meat?"

At this moment, another employee walks up and the kid tells him that I think this is a brisket and won't believe him that its ribs. The older man looked at the kid, took the piece of meat and said "Because it's a brisket".

I thought I was losing my ability to tell cuts of meat apart.

You said it, it's the employees and not the store that is the problem. The W I go to is wonderful because the employees care and have always taken good care of me. I had a coupon for a large bag of cat food but they didn't have that size so I bought two smaller bags that weighed the same amount. The cashier said she wasn't supposed to do that...but she did and I was able to use the coupon for the two smaller bags. Like I said, it's the people, not the store.

Wow some of you have been to some really bad W. stores. The ones I go to are very clean and the employees are mostly older and they are very nice to the customers. I also have never had to return anything I bought there. I bought a portable phone from them last year and it is working great, never had a problem. I'm thinking it may be the area the store is located in that you're shopping at plus you have those young employees who don't know diddly squat. I WILL NOT pay more money for something of the same quality, for me that is totally ridiculous. I hope W. sticks around for a very long time, I'm enjoying the savings.

I don't know if any of you have Target's in your area but I know they always compare equally to Walmart 's pricing in basket-to-basket tests. And on things that do have a price difference, it is typically only a cent or two....totally worth paying a couple extra cents for a clean store/knowledgable staff.

Originally Posted by RAFM

I don't know if any of you have Target's in your area but I know they always compare equally to Walmart 's pricing in basket-to-basket tests. And on things that do have a price difference, it is typically only a cent or two....totally worth paying a couple extra cents for a clean store/knowledgable staff.

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I do have Targets in my area but to be perfectly honest, the people at Walmart are much nicer to the customers...as I said, it's not the store, it's the darn people.

Meh, I just grin and bear it when I go in there. I am in and out and bad customer service is what I expect these days (unfortunately sad to say but true).

Originally Posted by LuvMyParker

I just don't know whats wrong with that store. I am so tired of stuck up, useless, lazy employees. Even the "door greeters" don't do their jobs. They just look at you like you're dirt when you walk in and check your receipt on the way out. I go to big department stores regularly and never have these sort of problems. What's with this place?

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The door greeters at the one here are nice. When you walk in, they say usually say Hi and are usually standing there offering people carts.

I had a bad experience once, but the manager came over and explained what happened. I was trying to get paint and was waiting for over 10 minutes for someone to come and mix it. Employees kept getting paged and nobody came so the manager came over. She apologized and said they were really short staffed since 2 people had called in sick and 1 had a family emergency. They only train so many people to mix paint so we understood.

When it comes to retail chains, I would much rather go to Wal Mart than Zellers. Zellers are always dirty, their items barely ever scan properly and the staff are usually rude and not even trained to do their job properly. I used to work at one and know just how bad it is.