Argos - ineptitude causing the near loss of a bargain

KevInChester

Yesterday my Mum spotted that Argos as part of a re-launch sale for one of their stores were selling a small television normally priced at £99.99 for £59.99. My sister said she'd buy it for her, and I just had to get up early in the morning to go pick one up. It was a 'while stocks last' offer, and was expected to be quickly done. There was no option to reserve items, was a first come first served basis.

I got to Argos just as it opened and there was a large queue, we were all waiting, when we saw 2 people just walk into the store, everyone noted it but didn't say anything thinking that there would be someone there to check, also the store wasn't out of bounds as such. Tickets for the offer were being given out and were limited - customers could go in a browse the catalogues, but for the offer they needed to be in the queue.

Just as I get in, the manager comes out with about 5 tickets, 1 of which goes to one of the people who had pushed in, the very last one going to an elderly lady in front of me. I explained to the manager that one of the people up ahead had pushed into line and were not part of the queue. This fact was confirmed by several people behind me. To which the manager said "I didn't see them do it, nothing I can do" and then walked off. Thanks Jim, what a credit you are to the world of complete and utter idiots. So I walked up to the person who had pushed in and politely said "Hi, you seemed to have missed the fact there was a queue'... the woman said she had queued, the husband said, yeah we know we did it, fair enough and gave me the voucher for the last one.

If I hadn't of done that I would have been down, 1 TV, a £5 voucher and some free toy that they were giving out for the first 100 customers. Complaint winging its way to Argos.

How difficult is it to have a member of staff standing at the door handing out the vouchers, they have say 50 TVs, so have 50 vouchers. It also doubles up as a nice greeting for the waiting customers and also ensures no queue jumping.

I am left once again cursing managerial ineptitude, on the plus side I reckon Jim would fit right in with some of the ibeciles on the Apprentice.

gordikin

Oh dear...!

shellsuit

Why is the fault of Argos?!

He was right, he didn't see what happened, so was staying out of it.

Azari

KevInChester wrote: »

Yesterday my Mum spotted that Argos as part of a re-launch sale for one of their stores were selling a small television normally priced at £99.99 for £59.99. My sister said she'd buy it for her, and I just had to get up early in the morning to go pick one up. It was a 'while stocks last' offer, and was expected to be quickly done. There was no option to reserve items, was a first come first served basis.

I got to Argos just as it opened and there was a large queue, we were all waiting, when we saw 2 people just walk into the store, everyone noted it but didn't say anything thinking that there would be someone there to check, also the store wasn't out of bounds as such. Tickets for the offer were being given out and were limited - customers could go in a browse the catalogues, but for the offer they needed to be in the queue.

Just as I get in, the manager comes out with about 5 tickets, 1 of which goes to one of the people who had pushed in, the very last one going to an elderly lady in front of me. I explained to the manager that one of the people up ahead had pushed into line and were not part of the queue. This fact was confirmed by several people behind me. To which the manager said "I didn't see them do it, nothing I can do" and then walked off. Thanks Jim, what a credit you are to the world of complete and utter idiots. So I walked up to the person who had pushed in and politely said "Hi, you seemed to have missed the fact there was a queue'... the woman said she had queued, the husband said, yeah we know we did it, fair enough and gave me the voucher for the last one.

If I hadn't of done that I would have been down, 1 TV, a £5 voucher and some free toy that they were giving out for the first 100 customers. Complaint winging its way to Argos.

How difficult is it to have a member of staff standing at the door handing out the vouchers, they have say 50 TVs, so have 50 vouchers. It also doubles up as a nice greeting for the waiting customers and also ensures no queue jumping.

I am left once again cursing managerial ineptitude, on the plus side I reckon Jim would fit right in with some of the ibeciles on the Apprentice.

Argos are, generally, managed by muppets.

I'm not in the least surprised that the manager you encountered was a complete waste of space.

The problem is they seem to have cornered a certain market and they can be the most convenient way to buy some things.

If they trained their managers a little better they could be pretty good but whilst they have effectively no competition in the area in which they operate they probably won't.

KevInChester

A) The system of staying at the door, 1 member of staff handing out tickets would avoid this.
A massive queue of which 2 people decide to jump in, many others verified they did and he does nothing? No apology, no well we could back order it and give it to you for that price, no mentioning to the people what happened.

This isn't Argos PLCs fault, it is bad planning - I was not the only one who was bothered by this, the others behind me were !!!!ed off too.

Azari

shellsuit wrote: »

Why is the fault of Argos?!

You really can't see?

Do you really need it explained to you?

Go on, have a try and see if you can work it out for yourself.

shellsuit

Azari wrote: »

You really can't see?

Do you really need it explained to you?

Go on, have a try and see if you can work it out for yourself.

It's not the fault of Argos if there are rude, impatient and ignorant people who push into a queue.

juno

KevInChester wrote: »

A massive queue of which 2 people decide to jump in, many others verified they did and he does nothing? No apology, no well we could back order it and give it to you for that price, no mentioning to the people what happened.

It's sheep mentality though (and also probably has a better name). One person says something, another backs them up, and then suddenly everyone is agreeing just because it seems like the right thing to do. Really, the only thing the Argos manager could have done is to ask the people if they did it, but they'd probably deny that.

And they can't back order it - you said that in your first post!

Azari

shellsuit wrote: »

It's not the fault of Argos if there are rude, impatient and ignorant people who push into a queue.

It's what's called a systemic failure.

If you are inducing people to turn up and queue for some restricted event (i.e. the issuing of the tickets) then you had better be sure that you have a system in place that will prevent certain customers gaining an unfair advantage.

Otherwise you will be, quite rightly, held to account.

Sadly there are always people who have so little clue about competent behaviour that they will dismiss any failing as 'not their fault.

KevInChester

No I said there was no option to reserve (due to the promotion), the back order could be done at the managers discretion.

juno

KevInChester wrote: »

No I said there was no option to reserve (due to the promotion), the back order could be done at the managers discretion.

You said "while stocks last".