Argos - email address please for complaints

Ex-customer

Here is a copy of the email I have just written to Argos CEO, John Walden.
Subject: To bed or not to bed.
Dear Mr Walden
In your Castlepoint store, we found the staff had excellent customer awareness and a definite interest in effecting a suitable sale. However, I am writing to you to report that this is not always sustained by your delivery supervisors. There is a disconcerting intransigence and a lack of consideration for the customer, by some of your back-room personnel who fail to appreciate that a little thought and some forward thinking is always better than anodyne cliche and a ‘take it or leave it’ attitude.
Here is series of events regarding order HD ..........
21 August 2015: Ordered furniture at Homebase and paid £1011.67 with a delivery date of Saturday 19 September 2015
Friday 18 September, the day before delivery was due. I received a phone call at 2.37 p.m. from ‘M...’ of the White Goods Department. He told me there had been a ‘systems failure’ and the furniture would not be delivered the next day. On being questioned, he was unable to tell me what a ‘systems failure’ meant - other than more recent orders had been given my delivery day.
He wanted to rearrange a delivery for Tuesday 22 September and saw no problem in subsequent orders taking precedence over mine. He would not phone these more recent customers to say that there had been ‘a systems failure’, that they should not have been given their delivery date and that he could reschedule their delivery to Tuesday. Doing this would have been fair (in the first come the first served sense) and should have been done as soon as the problem first became apparent. When pressed, he said that the vehicle at Moore Slades Warehouse Bedford would have already been loaded – I wonder whether this was true and whether it was done before the problem came to light.
'M...' offered a free airbed which, judging from the MSE Forum, seems to be an ironically inappropriate, standard offer for Argos’ failure to honour delivery dates for beds. When I cancelled the order, 'M...' offered a refund of £999.96 when I had paid £1106; he would not budge until I insisted he spoke to his manager ‘T....’. I was then offered a refund of £1116 until I pointed out that was too much.
'M..' expressed no sense of regret throughout the conversation – his attitude was ‘take it or leave it’ so I chose to leave it. He showed no empathy for the inconvenience, the imminent guests from America, etc. Instead, he seems to have been so well versed in reasons to justify his position that it was as if I were talking to an automation with scripted phrases.
There were two final straws: (1) the laughably ironic question of ‘Anything else I can help you with?’ and (2) the insincere ‘Have a nice day!’ which clearly meant ‘Go forth and multiply.’
I say all this without expecting anything to change but I feel you, as the CEO, you should know that one of your ex-customers prefers to sleep on the floor rather than put up with shoddy treatment.

AJXX

Ex-customer wrote: »

Here is a copy of the email I have just written to Argos CEO, John Walden.
Subject: To bed or not to bed.
Dear Mr Walden
In your Castlepoint store, we found the staff had excellent customer awareness and a definite interest in effecting a suitable sale. However, I am writing to you to report that this is not always sustained by your delivery supervisors. There is a disconcerting intransigence and a lack of consideration for the customer, by some of your back-room personnel who fail to appreciate that a little thought and some forward thinking is always better than anodyne cliche and a ‘take it or leave it’ attitude.
Here is series of events regarding order HD ..........
21 August 2015: Ordered furniture at Homebase and paid £1011.67 with a delivery date of Saturday 19 September 2015
Friday 18 September, the day before delivery was due. I received a phone call at 2.37 p.m. from ‘M...’ of the White Goods Department. He told me there had been a ‘systems failure’ and the furniture would not be delivered the next day. On being questioned, he was unable to tell me what a ‘systems failure’ meant - other than more recent orders had been given my delivery day.
He wanted to rearrange a delivery for Tuesday 22 September and saw no problem in subsequent orders taking precedence over mine. He would not phone these more recent customers to say that there had been ‘a systems failure’, that they should not have been given their delivery date and that he could reschedule their delivery to Tuesday. Doing this would have been fair (in the first come the first served sense) and should have been done as soon as the problem first became apparent. When pressed, he said that the vehicle at Moore Slades Warehouse Bedford would have already been loaded – I wonder whether this was true and whether it was done before the problem came to light.
'M...' offered a free airbed which, judging from the MSE Forum, seems to be an ironically inappropriate, standard offer for Argos’ failure to honour delivery dates for beds. When I cancelled the order, 'M...' offered a refund of £999.96 when I had paid £1106; he would not budge until I insisted he spoke to his manager ‘T....’. I was then offered a refund of £1116 until I pointed out that was too much.
'M..' expressed no sense of regret throughout the conversation – his attitude was ‘take it or leave it’ so I chose to leave it. He showed no empathy for the inconvenience, the imminent guests from America, etc. Instead, he seems to have been so well versed in reasons to justify his position that it was as if I were talking to an automation with scripted phrases.
There were two final straws: (1) the laughably ironic question of ‘Anything else I can help you with?’ and (2) the insincere ‘Have a nice day!’ which clearly meant ‘Go forth and multiply.’
I say all this without expecting anything to change but I feel you, as the CEO, you should know that one of your ex-customers prefers to sleep on the floor rather than put up with shoddy treatment.

Maybe I'm lacking empathy like the manager from Argos, but I read that as a big load of utter winge.

So the order was to be delayed by a whopping 4 days? Is that really a reason to cause such a fuss and by that I refer to your own admission "on being questioned" - it sounds like you where awkward with the guy, who at least had the courtesy to give you a ring and let you know about the delay.

This is what tends to happen when your awkward with people over the phone, and I assume you demanded the guys manager, who was likely disinterested from the outset as the 1st guy you spoke to would have already filled him in on the situation.

Maybe I'm missing the point, but as I said, 4 days delay, unsure how you can prove other orders took precedent over yours, they gave you a courtesy call to let you know rather then nobody showing up and you waiting in all day.

In all likely hood you got their backs up questioning them (which you have no real right to do/know about) over their "systems failure".

wealdroam

Ex-customer wrote: »

Here is a copy of the email I have just written to Argos CEO, John Walden.
Subject: To bed or not to bed.
Dear Mr Walden

<snip the rest>

Why have you posted this?

The-Truth

Ex-customer wrote: »

He would not phone these more recent customers to say that there had been ‘a systems failure’, that they should not have been given their delivery date and that he could reschedule their delivery to Tuesday.

Probably because it's not his fault. You're treating him as if it's own system. Have you never had a job? Have you no idea that perhaps it's not his fault? It makes me wonder what on earth people like you have done in your life to become so ignorant and clueless on how to deal with things. As another poster has said no wonder you got the response you got.

I can imagine Argos even at the executive level are glad you're now an ex customer!

Bodi101178

I have just emailed enquiries@argos.co.uk to complain about a potential scam email I have received and got the following reply This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

Delivery to the following recipients failed.

enquiries@argos.co.uk

doug149

I too have suffered from the customer services dept at Argos. I ordered a leather recliner. On the online advert the chair was clearly described as 100% leather and had the leather logo at the side of the chair. However, as soon as I received the chair it was apparent that rather than it being 100% leather, it looked like some form of reconstituted leather on a cotton backing. I brought this advertising error to the attention of their complaints and customer services depts. I also requested that they refund myself and wife for one and a half days lost earnings whilst we had been at home for the delivery and collection of the chair.

All I got from the numerous staff that replied to me was a run around and no clear answers. At first I was told that I could not communicate via email and yet a week or so later I was contacted by email and have communicated with their staff in this way since.

At no stage have they accepted that the item was mis described, but informed me that there would be an internal investigation. I could not however be informed because of the data protection act of the investigations results!!. Interestingly though the advert has now been updated and the logo and wording been removed.

The unhelpful staff have not been cooperative in any way and seem to put obstacles in the way of any genuine complains.


Surely it is fair to be compensated for my loss of time when the advert was clearly misleading?

Gina_D

I think the current email address is: order.enquiries@argos.co.uk (December 2017).

Gra_H

Do Argos really care about their customers. I had an horrendous experience with them this morning which is still resolved. Cannot find a contact mail for the life in me. This is 2018 and may have to resort to pen and paper. I tried the to contact the CEO and Sara Welling's via email as advised at the beginning of this thread and both bounced back at me. Great strategy. Make it impossible for our customers to contact us this way we see no complaints or issues.

BorisThomson

Gra_H wrote: »

Do Argos really care about their customers. I had an horrendous experience with them this morning which is still resolved. Cannot find a contact mail for the life in me. This is 2018 and may have to resort to pen and paper. I tried the to contact the CEO and Sara Welling's via email as advised at the beginning of this thread and both bounced back at me. Great strategy. Make it impossible for our customers to contact us this way we see no complaints or issues.

Given that your horrendous experience was only today, why not contact customer service and log a complaint in the normal way.

stuartJo1989

Gra_H wrote: »

Do Argos really care about their customers. I had an horrendous experience with them this morning which is still resolved. Cannot find a contact mail for the life in me. This is 2018 and may have to resort to pen and paper. I tried the to contact the CEO and Sara Welling's via email as advised at the beginning of this thread and both bounced back at me. Great strategy. Make it impossible for our customers to contact us this way we see no complaints or issues.

RING RING...CALL US.
Home delivery queries: 0345 640 2020
Store queries: 0345 640 3030
We're on the phone every day from 7am-10pm

SCRIBBLE SCRIBBLE...WRITE TO US.
Argos Direct
Acton Gate
Stafford
ST18 9AR

Also options for Facebook and Twitter.

With regards to Sara Weller, she left Argos in 2011/12 and joined Lloyds bank (Terry Duddy also left shortly after, hence the bouncing email). So maybe there is a lesson to be learnt here; DON'T POST ON THREADS WHICH ARE 7+ YEARS OLD!!!!