Shoddy Customer Service!

I do all of my grocery shopping at Safeway. I've shopped at the same store for over 20 years and have rarely had a bad experience, and what bad experiences I have had was usually surrounding delivery, which is not the fault of the store.

Today I went grocery shopping at 11:00 am.  I just got home less than 10 minutes ago!

I did some shopping, sat and had a coffee and at 12:00 I went to pick up my prescriptions that I had ordered a week ago, only to find that they had been "canceled" because I hadn't picked them up.  It was only a week! No courtesy phone call or anything!!   I had to replace the order and I told the girl I would be waiting as I had some shopping to do.  She said it would be about 1/2 an hour.

I did a bit more shopping and had to sit down for a bit. Usually I sit at the pharmacy for a back break, but they were giving flu shots there today. I went to the Tim Horton's coffee area and sat having a cold drink. I ended up talking to a sweet senior lady for about 1 hour.

I went back to the pharmacy to pick up my prescriptions, only to find out that they weren't ready. The girl who processed my refills, after telling me it would be 1/2 hour, marked on them that I was picking them up tomorrow!  So I went and finished up my shopping while I waited even longer while they put a rush on it.

At 1:15 pm I went to the check out.  There was lots of room on the conveyer belt for my groceries, but there was some kind of large wet spot. It could have been water or it could have been blood from meat. I asked the checker 3 times for a paper towel so that I could wipe the area before I put my groceries on. Finally he have me one.

He was 1/2 way through my order, and literally just throwing things into bags. I took way, way more bags than I needed, and he used up every single one, and had to resort to plastic ones for the cat litter.

About 1/2 way through the order, he got on the phone and left a message for someone saying "I'm off the clock, and if someone doesn't get here in 4 minutes, I'm walking."

He finished putting my order through and was just throwing bags into the shopping cart without a care to what he was doing.

I noticed that he had thrown one of the plastic shopping bags with a cat litter bag into the cart and it had caught on something and tore open. There was a hole about the size of a quarter and it was pouring cat litter all over the floor. I pointed it out to him. He dug it out and flung it in the air, spraying cat litter over everything in my cart, including my produce, and all over me, the counter and the candy shelving beside the cart. The bag lost about 1/8 of the contents and all he did was put it into another bag and went to put it back into the cart. I told him that I wanted another bag because that one was torn and had lost some of it's contents. He told me that I would have to check with the manager. ME, not him! ME!

A girl showed up looking dazed and confused. Turns out she was the checker from the next stand.  I think she came over to help him or something.  Anyway, she had abandoned the customer at her check stand, and the woman was hopping mad and demanding someone return to her stand and finish checking her out.

In the meantime as soon as the girl came to our stand, and I was struggling to get the grocery bags into my cart, the guy that was initially checking my order just walked away.

Someone else ended up going to finish the ladies order next to where I was, and the girl that was at that stand started to help me. She went and got a replacement bag of cat litter, and someone else started to put my bags into my cart.

When the girl came back with my cat litter, she asked if I had paid yet, which I hadn't.  So she tried to process the payment, but because that guy walked off and left himself signed into the machine, something went wrong and the whole order was voided. And everything had to be rescanned again.

The woman behind me who had been waiting was on her lunch break and was livid when she found out that my whole order had to be redone.

It took me nearly an hour from the time I got to the check out to the time I finally left Safeway.

I spoke to the manager and lodged a complaint against that guy and told the manager that I wanted my groceries delivered FREE today.  She also offered me a $20 gift certificate, which I refused. I told her that the delivery was enough. 

Anyway, sorry for the length of this, but there was so much wrong there today, that I didn't know how to shorten it,  LOL

Ugh. Companies all try to save money by skimping on training and benefits, and what kind of employees do they end up with? They get what they pay for, and the customers suffer. At least you got free delivery out of it! :tongue2:

That does sound like a miserable time. I know lots of grocery store employees could not care less about their jobs, but that cashier was awful. It's good to hear that you complained about him to a manager, because he sounds like a particularly sour example of a grocery store employee.

The staff at Safeway are unionized and they make excellent money.  Here they make about $18.00 per hour, which is about $8.00 over minimum wage, plus they have benefits. 
 

Natalie_ca said:

The staff at Safeway are unionized and they make excellent money.  Here they make about $18.00 per hour, which is about $8.00 over minimum wage, plus they have benefits. 

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Wow, I wouldn't have guessed at grocery store employees being uunionized and having benefits. Around here they all seem to hire teenagers who come and go weekly (well, probably not quite that often :tongue2. Well, considering the current job situation and what he's go, that guy should really have a better attitude.

Willowy said:

Wow, I wouldn't have guessed at grocery store employees being uunionized and having benefits. Around here they all seem to hire teenagers who come and go weekly (well, probably not quite that often

). Well, considering the current job situation and what he's go, that guy should really have a better attitude.

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The super stores like Safeway and Super Value etc pay well.  For example, a pharmacist right out of university starts out at about $90,000 per year at Safeway.  A pharmacy manager can make about $120,000 per year. 

Pharmacists, yeah. That's a high-paying job no matter where your pharmacy is located (it better be, considering how much schooling you need!). But even clerks and stockboys? That's great. We need more jobs that pay a living wage.

There are times I hate living in small town America but in this case I will have to say I love my mom and pop stores for this very reason.

My local Pharmacy is owned and staffed by a local family who knows every customer by name and gives every child a lollipop when they come in.

It's also the only place I know where you can buy a cold bottled coke and use the bottle opener that is attached to the counter by a chain 

The local grocery store is the same "local owned and operated" and everyone is so friendly and knows everyone in your family and knows exactly what cut of meat you want when you visit the butcher.  Aside from can goods etc.. they sell as much fresh fruits and produce that are locally grown as they can.  The owner walks around the store and greets everyone and even checks people out if there is a long line.  Bag boys carefully take your bags and load them in your car and there is still a small full service gas station out in front that is run by a 70 year old man who loves his job becasue he just likes to visit with people.   If I do go somewhere and shop at a Walmart or big chain I cringe at the service.  I've become quite spoiled

On the other hand when I'm in the mood for a nice date night then we have to drive about an hour away to eat anywhere nice or visit a mall or something.  I still wouldn't trade my small town for anything though. 

It seems that people who work for large corp. businesses are less likely to be friendly and helpful because they fell that their boss doesn't really care about them so why should they care about going the extra mile.  It just seems that way to me.

7irishkitties said:

It seems that people who work for large corp. businesses are less likely to be friendly and helpful because they fell that their boss doesn't really care about them so why should they care about going the extra mile.  It just seems that way to me.

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This was the first such experience I've had with that level of poor customer service.  Safeway's prices are highere where I live, than some other super stores here.  But I am a loyal customer because I like their customer service and the fact that the staff will go out of their way to help you.  Until this experience that is.  I'll continue to shop there, but if that guy manages to keep his job after this, I'll be sure to avoid his till!

It all boils down to work ethic.  Working customer service is not easy.  I can't tell you how many times I just wanted to say "You are nothing more than a PITA!".  But, I have to think how I would feel in their situation.  Every time I receive shoddy service, it makes me want to do my job even better.  I do my job as how I would demand to be treated.
 

I'm sorry you've had terrible service!

Waldbaums grocery store near me has a lot of 'teenagers' who cares for nothing but their cellphones. It seems no matter who I go to at the check-out, there's always a teenager doing something on their phones. Cellphones should NOT be allowed on the sales floor, no matter what store.

I work PT at a retail store, and I never, ever take my phone with me to the floor, even if I forget my watch, I still never take my phone. It's call courtesy!