Height of Disregard for Customers

[jake75]

I stopped at Giant Eagle Supermarket (Columbus, OH) last night to pick up a few things. It was a little after 10 pm when I went to check out. Apparently their new customer dis-service policy is that there will be no manned checkouts after 10 pm - everyone must use the self-scan lines. It took me over 15 minutes to checkout 6 items and even then required the assistance of an employee because one item would not scan and a free milk coupon received the week before for buying 4 boxes of cereal was deemed "not acceptable" by the machine. IMO what is "not acceptable" is not having at least one manned checkout open. If I had it to do over again I would have left the items there and told the employee that they could put those grocery items where the sun don't shine.

[Vinlandr]

Sadly its the reality of today./rant onThe banks are notorious for that, much less opening hours with actual clerk to help you (use the ATM you fool) and higher administrative fees.Savings on salaries but still increasing fees...We could also go onto that Green move for Environment or how to use the recycling trend to ca$h on people's good conscience (bags anyone)Recycling became important the day it became a business.../rant off

[03VibeOttawa]

I've been lucky with customer service in Ottawa for the most part.The only place I refuse to go now is the Zellers at the St. Laurent Shopping Centre in Ottawa. A summary of the last 3 times I was there:#1 - Stopped in on a Friday after work (around 5PM). Only two cashiers on in a big-box department store - Waited in line for almost 15 minutes.#2 - Just like #1 (Whyyy meeee?)#3 - Went in because a vacuum I wanted was cheapest there, with my g/f. Cashier interrupted the basic transaction process three times to ask us to sign up for their crap credit card, even after we clearly expressed NO twice. My g/f is pretty easy going, but even she thought the cashier was a creep.Yeah, I get that they are being taken over by Target soon.. but come on!Well that's my rant. I feel better now lol.

[csxt8058]

My wife and I went to grab a quick bite at a BK a couple days ago and went to the drive thru. Before I could even finish telling the idiot in the speaker what I wanted, he's asking me what I want to drink and basically interrupting me. So I stopped and told him I wasn't finished yet. I was able to get my order out and began to give him my wife's order and he did it again with the whole drink thing. At that point I said, basically yelling ' you know what, forget the whole thing', and I drove off. I could hear him saying 'well, ok have a nice day' as I drove away. This particular place is notorious for rude and dry 'behind the counter staff'. They won't even respond if you greet them at the counter with a hello, or how's it going, they just stare at you and wait for you to begin your order. Probably a sign that we should'nt be eating that greasy mess, although it's rare that we eat it. JR

[star_deceiver]

Quote, originally posted by csxt8058 »This particular place is notorious for rude and dry 'behind the counter staff'. They won't even respond if you greet them at the counter with a hello, or how's it going, they just stare at you and wait for you to begin your order. Customer service has been replaced by little cue cards that tell them what to say... easiest way to screw with them is to ask a question that requires them to think for themselves! I stopped going to Dairy Queen for that reason...And if by chance the person actually helps you out and get's the job done don't expect him/her to be there next time, because they'll have surely quit and found something much better!!!

[Tubaryan12]

[rant]I will not use self checkouts. Too many jobs are being eliminated with the goal of funneling more money up the ladder by these things. If I go to a store and either 1) there are no humans to check me out or 2) the lines are too long with too few cashiers, I will leave my cart in it's place and walk out. If you care that little about taking my money, then I won't give it to you. This includes ATM's. I try to only use ATM's only when the bank is closed. [/rant

[djkeev]

Be patient. Brain surgeons are not usually manning these fast food places. They follow a procedure and their order taking machine is most likely programed to prompt them for a drink selection after they plug in that you want a #1 combo. The poor guy / gal at the window didn't make the system and probably hate it as much as you hate being bothered by their interruptions. If anything, contact the franchise and complain to them, they set the system up, they deserve the irritated customer feedback.Chill dude, life it way too short to get that mad at a person taking a food order.Dave

[kostby]

When a store abuses me, they lose the right to my business.I stopped going to Kroger (Cincinnati-based grocery chain) a number of years ago because they'd have ONE cashier and ZERO self-scanners (out of 4) open. I now only go to Kroger in the direst of emergencies (like there is no whipped cream for the pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving morning), or if it's cheaper to buy something than drive 30 miles round trip to the *nearest big-box-superstore (Target).Waiting 30 minutes to check out with three or four items, even with a delightful cashier (which virtually never happened at 10 p.m.) is the ultimate 'customer abuse'. So now I plan better and make a grocery run elsewhere before 10 p.m.*Actually, I have a WallyWorld big box store in my community, but I stopped going there 12/31/2010 when they refused to honor a valid $50 Walmart Gift Card, and refused to refund the money paid for the gift card WITH A RECEIPT.

[csxt8058]

Explain to me what kind of person doesn't have the common sense to override a 'machine' when a customer is speaking to them, not a computerized whatever telling them to do it a certain way. As I said, this particular franchise has ongoing issues with its staff, and I'm not the only one to notice. It was a popular place of lots of my co workers and plenty of times they experienced the same poor service, and complaints were filed with the home company, with no clear improvement.Bottom line, I was still speaking when I was interrupted..twice. I grew up old school...yes maam, no maam/yes sir, no sir, and you didn't interrupt someone when they were speaking to you. The lack of respect and common sense among society keeps my fuse short in regards to stuff I just described, thus my reason for getting a little hot under the collar. Could I have handled it differently..sure if it was the first time, but it wasn't. JR

[tribalman]

Quote, originally posted by Tubaryan12 »[rant]I will not use self checkouts. Too many jobs are being eliminated with the goal of funneling more money up the ladder by these things. If I go to a store and either 1) there are no humans to check me out or 2) the lines are too long with too few cashiers, I will leave my cart in it's place and walk out. If you care that little about taking my money, then I won't give it to you. This includes ATM's. I try to only use ATM's only when the bank is closed. [/rantnot really. i worked at a grocery store. they actually ADDED a job. and in order to add them it wasn't just the company who had to approve them, it was also our union. i prefer self checkouts because they are faster and i don't have to deal with the cashier trying to sell me on the "sale of the day" or the preferred member's club.as for the after 10pm only self checkouts are open: that might not be a store policy. when i was the one who had to count down the tills and machines at the end of the night i would usually leave 1 register open(only had 1 cashier) after 11pm with 2 of the self checkouts. other people who would close would close that register because they are harder to audit. you have the cash, all the credit/debit slips, checks, gift certs to account for. the self checkouts? just sort out the bills and coins, count. they would do that so once the store is closed they just have those to close out and a few other items to complete and leave sooner.leave feedback with the store manager or go higher. companies will almost always respond in a manner when they get feedback.

[jake75]

I got feedback from my on-line complaint. Giant Eagle says that their policy is to have a manned checkout open at all times. Their excuse was that they were short of help at the time at that store . Well, there were plenty of employees there - maybe only certain ones are "cashiers". For my trouble they are give me a $10 gift card. By the way, at least for now the local Kroger stores are making short waits in line a priority and it seems to be working.

[tribalman]

Quote, originally posted by jake75 »I got feedback from my on-line complaint. Giant Eagle says that their policy is to have a manned checkout open at all times. Their excuse was that they were short of help at the time at that store . Well, there were plenty of employees there - maybe only certain ones are "cashiers". For my trouble they are give me a $10 gift card. By the way, at least for now the local Kroger stores are making short waits in line a priority and it seems to be working.where i worked it was very tricky about the job roles. you did need to be trained as a cashier in order to operate the register, or do cigarette or liquor sales. persons who did the bagging of the products were allowed to put products back on the shelf in correct places but they can't do price checks, stock shelves, or even "face" the shelves(arranging the products so the product label is facing forward and brought forward to the edge of the shelf)

[Tubaryan12]

Quote, originally posted by tribalman »not really. i worked at a grocery store. they actually ADDED a job. and in order to add them it wasn't just the company who had to approve them, it was also our union. i prefer self checkouts because they are faster and i don't have to deal with the cashier trying to sell me on the "sale of the day" or the preferred member's club.Sure, that's the way it always starts....and then slowly but surely, there are less cashiers. That's what happened in banks after the ATM's were installed. This is what I've noticed in the stores that have added the self check outs. Some companies are actually reversing the trend. In one of my local Walmarts, they actually removed all of the self check outs. Home Depot, on the other hand, has less cashiers on hand since they added the self check outs

[star_deceiver]

I find waiting in the self checkout line takes twice as long as waiting in a manned checkout! It's painful watching people stare at the machine, sloooooly scan an item, stare at the machine some more....It's usually just easier to wait behind the family with the cart packed full then flirt with the cute girl behind the till, then you're done and out of the store while the same person is at the self scanner, still staring at the machine as the operator resists beating him to a pulp with the can or soup while yelling 'YOU HAVE TO PUT THE CAN IN THE BAG YOU DUMB%$^&!!!' while the people behind cheer on the self scan 'chashier' complaining painfully to the moron who can't figure out how to work the machine telling him to go back to his cubicle and let them have a chance to scan their groceries only to realize that they're just as dumb as the guy before him and can't grasp the concept of 'scan - bag - scan - bag'..... O_o Rant over

[jake75]

Quote, originally posted by star_deceiver »I find waiting in the self checkout line takes twice as long as waiting in a manned checkout! It's painful watching people stare at the machine, sloooooly scan an item, stare at the machine some more....It's usually just easier to wait behind the family with the cart packed full then flirt with the cute girl behind the till, then you're done and out of the store while the same person is at the self scanner, still staring at the machine as the operator resists beating him to a pulp with the can or soup while yelling 'YOU HAVE TO PUT THE CAN IN THE BAG YOU DUMB%$^&!!!' while the people behind cheer on the self scan 'chashier' complaining painfully to the moron who can't figure out how to work the machine telling him to go back to his cubicle and let them have a chance to scan their groceries only to realize that they're just as dumb as the guy before him and can't grasp the concept of 'scan - bag - scan - bag'..... O_o Rant overProduce lookup is an issue with self scan.You scan a 30 pack of beer - the machine says "place the item in the bag". No way to do that.And on and on and on.Kroger is testing a new device in the Cincinnati area that looks like an MRI machine. You put the items on the belt, it runs through the tunnel, and somehow it automatically reads all the prices. Don't know what it does with a bunch of bananas.

[star_deceiver]

And even when they finnaly work the bugs (and there's quite a few from what I see) out of a system like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xNhL39uD7I I'm still not paying with a credit card! Ca$h only is what you're getting and yes, I do have exact change for you!!!Ever have fun feuding with the machine over a "less than perfect" twenty dollar bill?

[joatmon]

sometimes I prefer the self checkout lanes. Better to have just those than to have the store closed early, or have ten people waiting in line for the one open human checkout lane.Some self check out machines just say "please move your item to the belt" but when you have to do a produce lookup, they often mention the produce name. Cracked me up once, I bought some loose mixed nuts, and the machine told me "please move your nuts to the belt"

[tribalman]

Quote, originally posted by jake75 »Produce lookup is an issue with self scan.You scan a 30 pack of beer - the machine says "place the item in the bag". No way to do that.it doesn't have to be in the bag, just in the area. that whole thing is a scale. or there is the "i'm not going to bag this" button.produce isn't that bad. where i worked pretty much ever piece of produce had the brand sticker on it, also had a 4 digit number for the cashier to enter, also works at the selfs.

[jake75]

Quote, originally posted by star_deceiver »And even when they finnaly work the bugs (and there's quite a few from what I see) out of a system like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xNhL39uD7I I'm still not paying with a credit card! Ca$h only is what you're getting and yes, I do have exact change for you!!!Ever have fun feuding with the machine over a "less than perfect" twenty dollar bill? I am sure it will be voluntary.

[ClunkClunk]

I stopped going to our local Home Depot because they only have one human checkout lane, for "contractors" and the rest are automated.I work in technology, so I use it all day long, but for some tasks, having a human that can interface with the machine makes the process so much faster.

[TONY TAT2]

I like target,the wife works there & we get !0% off !

[jake75]

Quote, originally posted by TONY TAT2 »I like target,the wife works there & we get !0% off ! I hope they also let you also get the 5% Red Card discount.

[Sputnik]

Quote, originally posted by Feelin’ The Vibe »I've been lucky with customer service in Ottawa for the most part.The only place I refuse to go now is the Zellers at the St. Laurent Shopping Centre in Ottawa. A summary of the last 3 times I was there:#1 - Stopped in on a Friday after work (around 5PM). Only two cashiers on in a big-box department store - Waited in line for almost 15 minutes.#2 - Just like #1 (Whyyy meeee?)#3 - Went in because a vacuum I wanted was cheapest there, with my g/f. Cashier interrupted the basic transaction process three times to ask us to sign up for their crap credit card, even after we clearly expressed NO twice. My g/f is pretty easy going, but even she thought the cashier was a creep.Yeah, I get that they are being taken over by Target soon.. but come on!Well that's my rant. I feel better now lol. Do you mean the one at Gloucester Centre or the one on St Laurent blvd near Donald? There's none at the mall. But for your points 1 and 2 those have definitely happened to me at Zellers at Gloucester and I won't go there unless I'm really desperate now. Zellers just sucks.

[03VibeOttawa]

Quote, originally posted by Sputnik » Do you mean the one at Gloucester Centre or the one on St Laurent blvd near Donald? There's none at the mall. But for your points 1 and 2 those have definitely happened to me at Zellers at Gloucester and I won't go there unless I'm really desperate now. Oops! I meant Gloucester Centre. Fail on my part. Quote, originally posted by Sputnik » Zellers just sucks. It does, but for some reason I still refuse to shop at Walmart (despite their best effort). I just can't stand how they've contributed to the cheapening suburbanization of so many small towns. I've also had a bad run of getting shoddy or defective products at Canadian Tire, so I'm running out of stores I can feel confident in for small household items. I only go to Zellers now if it has a better price on something I'd actually comparison shop for.