Reading Susan Gunelius great marketing blog tipped me off to a situation, which she titled Bad Customer Service Negates the Best Marketing Plans. It's a tale of pathetic customer service, originally from a blog post by Antonio Cangiano titled, The Ugly Truth about Best Buy Refunds.
In short, Cangiano bought a defective computer from Best Buy and got the run-around when he tried to make the situation right. Like my own experience at Home Depot, Corporate Campaigns - Sunk by Morons, Cangiano's story prompted me to think about the pathetic state of customer service in retail today.
Are we simply bad consumers, unwilling to hold retailers accountable? Is it bad corporate policies, bad training at the store level? Perhaps a little of all three.
I was shocked when, after my experience at Home Depot, I heard from two store employees that three other customers had come in earlier and - like me - been told the store would not honor the rain checks. But I was the only one who had stood my ground, and the only one whose rain check had been honored.
Cangiano is right to beat the drum loudly in his complaint. And while I respect that sometimes consumers do try to get something for nothing, Best Buy handled this badly and that should be a cause for us to remember the old slogan, "Buyers Beware."
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