We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum... Read More »
Evans Cycles - York, appalling service, need to vent!
matthewking26
Posts: 143 Forumite
Here's a copy of the letter I just sent their store manager. No, I don't want compensation from them. Just better service! Or am I over reacting? Is it too much to ask for sales assistants to not swear? :mad: Do you think it will make any difference. The way I see it, maybe they'll train them a bit better? Maybe?
Dear Sir/Madam,
I wish to bring to your attention the unfortunate shopping experience I had in the York branch of Evans Cycles yesterday.
Having been cycling and buying bikes for 10 years I intended to spend a sum of money in your store in the region of £300 on a bike and accessories. Instead I walked away having spent nothing, and in good mind to recommend to my fellow cyclists, both friends and work colleagues that they buy bikes and bike accessories from somewhere else.
I entered the store at approximately 6.30pm on 25/07/07. Having looked at a number of bikes I was approached by a sales assistant. He asked if he could help and I indicated which bike I liked the look of, one which retailed at £199.99. Whilst removing the bike from the stand he seemed more preoccupied in the footage of the Tour de France on the TV monitor behind him than in the job at hand.
Once I decided to buy the bike I had to walk over to the till and attract his attention as he had his back to the counter, chatting to a colleague. He pointed out that I was helping him as he “hadn’t had a bike sale in two days”. He wheeled the bike away saying it needed “checking”. He took it into the back but didn’t return to me. He instead went to begin talking to a different colleague at the till. After a while it became clear he wasn’t coming back. I did want advice on buying accessories as I wanted a new lock, helmet, gloves and trousers but as no help was forthcoming I decided I would just buy a lock and went to the till.
At first he didn’t know how to use the till at all and asked for help from a colleague. When trying to input the sale into the till he made a mistake and said quite clearly “Oh for f**ks sake”, unacceptable language in front of a customer in my opinion. My pregnant partner was beside me at this time and was also uncomfortable with his language. He then waited until a colleague appeared to help him with no explanation to me.
In the mean time another customer came to another till, bought items from someone else and left. I was still waiting.
The assistant serving me took my address and inputted it into the computer, he said my address didn’t exist. He also didn’t notice I wanted to buy the lock as well. I pointed this out to him and he again swore under his breath. He couldn’t manage to add this item to the sale, so he called someone over to help. The person who came to help showed him what to do and the sale continued.
The assistant then couldn’t produce a till receipt for me. His colleague took my address a few more times whilst he said to himself “I need to stop f**king swearing”.
His colleague disappeared into the back without explanation. Whilst I waited further another customer came to the other till, was dealt with, and left.
By this time I had been trying to pay for about 20 minutes and it was now 7.15pm. I had had enough watching other customers come and go. When the colleague reappeared from the back I told him once they had the sale sorted I wanted a refund. He again disappeared into the back. When he came out again the assistant who originally served me wandered off.
I explained to his colleague that I thought 20 minutes to try and pay for two items when there was no queue and having to hand over my address a significant number of times was unacceptable. I added that having sales assistants swearing whilst serving me was unacceptable.
I explained that I was not confident that I would be treated professionally in the future if there were a problem with the bike and I wished to bring it back to the store or if I wished to purchase other items.
His mitigating reason was that the sales assistant who served me was new and inexperienced. Can I suggest to you that if members of staff are inexperienced they either be not allowed near the tills or be supervised until they are competent and can resist swearing in front of customers. Perhaps also they could be trained to take payment inside a reasonable timeframe.
I pointed out that I worked in retail for nine years and would never swear in front of customers no matter how inexperienced I was. I asked the assistant not to take it personally as it was his colleague I was unhappy with, not him, to which his response was “It’s hard not to take it personally”.
To save the sale I was offered a free service with the purchase, hardly adequate as a free service is given with each sale anyway. I was then told if I chose to return to the store I could see how professional the assistants could be and I would be offered a “small discount”. Hardly an incentive to spend money in the store after the experience I had just gone through.
I was refunded the money through the credit card machine and told the assistant would fill in the refund book in his own time at a later date.
Can I suggest in future that new staff are supervised until competent and that customers are attended to, rather than ignored in preference to chatting to friends.
I again wish to point out I was planning to spend quite a sum of money and return in future if treated well. The treatment I received from one member of staff was enough to make me think seriously about ever returning to your store.
I look forward to a prompt written response with an explanation as to why this happened and how you intend to prevent it from happening to other unfortunate customers.
Yours faithfully
Dear Sir/Madam,
I wish to bring to your attention the unfortunate shopping experience I had in the York branch of Evans Cycles yesterday.
Having been cycling and buying bikes for 10 years I intended to spend a sum of money in your store in the region of £300 on a bike and accessories. Instead I walked away having spent nothing, and in good mind to recommend to my fellow cyclists, both friends and work colleagues that they buy bikes and bike accessories from somewhere else.
I entered the store at approximately 6.30pm on 25/07/07. Having looked at a number of bikes I was approached by a sales assistant. He asked if he could help and I indicated which bike I liked the look of, one which retailed at £199.99. Whilst removing the bike from the stand he seemed more preoccupied in the footage of the Tour de France on the TV monitor behind him than in the job at hand.
Once I decided to buy the bike I had to walk over to the till and attract his attention as he had his back to the counter, chatting to a colleague. He pointed out that I was helping him as he “hadn’t had a bike sale in two days”. He wheeled the bike away saying it needed “checking”. He took it into the back but didn’t return to me. He instead went to begin talking to a different colleague at the till. After a while it became clear he wasn’t coming back. I did want advice on buying accessories as I wanted a new lock, helmet, gloves and trousers but as no help was forthcoming I decided I would just buy a lock and went to the till.
At first he didn’t know how to use the till at all and asked for help from a colleague. When trying to input the sale into the till he made a mistake and said quite clearly “Oh for f**ks sake”, unacceptable language in front of a customer in my opinion. My pregnant partner was beside me at this time and was also uncomfortable with his language. He then waited until a colleague appeared to help him with no explanation to me.
In the mean time another customer came to another till, bought items from someone else and left. I was still waiting.
The assistant serving me took my address and inputted it into the computer, he said my address didn’t exist. He also didn’t notice I wanted to buy the lock as well. I pointed this out to him and he again swore under his breath. He couldn’t manage to add this item to the sale, so he called someone over to help. The person who came to help showed him what to do and the sale continued.
The assistant then couldn’t produce a till receipt for me. His colleague took my address a few more times whilst he said to himself “I need to stop f**king swearing”.
His colleague disappeared into the back without explanation. Whilst I waited further another customer came to the other till, was dealt with, and left.
By this time I had been trying to pay for about 20 minutes and it was now 7.15pm. I had had enough watching other customers come and go. When the colleague reappeared from the back I told him once they had the sale sorted I wanted a refund. He again disappeared into the back. When he came out again the assistant who originally served me wandered off.
I explained to his colleague that I thought 20 minutes to try and pay for two items when there was no queue and having to hand over my address a significant number of times was unacceptable. I added that having sales assistants swearing whilst serving me was unacceptable.
I explained that I was not confident that I would be treated professionally in the future if there were a problem with the bike and I wished to bring it back to the store or if I wished to purchase other items.
His mitigating reason was that the sales assistant who served me was new and inexperienced. Can I suggest to you that if members of staff are inexperienced they either be not allowed near the tills or be supervised until they are competent and can resist swearing in front of customers. Perhaps also they could be trained to take payment inside a reasonable timeframe.
I pointed out that I worked in retail for nine years and would never swear in front of customers no matter how inexperienced I was. I asked the assistant not to take it personally as it was his colleague I was unhappy with, not him, to which his response was “It’s hard not to take it personally”.
To save the sale I was offered a free service with the purchase, hardly adequate as a free service is given with each sale anyway. I was then told if I chose to return to the store I could see how professional the assistants could be and I would be offered a “small discount”. Hardly an incentive to spend money in the store after the experience I had just gone through.
I was refunded the money through the credit card machine and told the assistant would fill in the refund book in his own time at a later date.
Can I suggest in future that new staff are supervised until competent and that customers are attended to, rather than ignored in preference to chatting to friends.
I again wish to point out I was planning to spend quite a sum of money and return in future if treated well. The treatment I received from one member of staff was enough to make me think seriously about ever returning to your store.
I look forward to a prompt written response with an explanation as to why this happened and how you intend to prevent it from happening to other unfortunate customers.
Yours faithfully
0
Comments
-
Im going to be honnest with you, although you say your not looking for compensation, I think behind the scenes you really are. What difference does it make to you:
how you intend to prevent it from happening to other unfortunate customers
At the end of the day they have lost your sale, and lost out on your business, It doesnt make any difference to you what they are going to do about it if you say your not looking for compensation.0 -
It's a fair point, I suppose it shouldn't matter to me. I wanted to vent more than anything but am still in an angry mindset so maybe didn't word the letter in the best way. Its just I've ordered loads of stuff from the Evans website over the years with no problems and was so disappointed as this was the first time I'd been into one of their stores. Maybe that's the retail management part of my brain that wanted an answer rather than the rational part. Or
am I just bitter and twisted?
0 -
Butlers1982 wrote: »Im going to be honnest with you, although you say your not looking for compensation, I think behind the scenes you really are. What difference does it make to you:
At the end of the day they have lost your sale, and lost out on your business, It doesnt make any difference to you what they are going to do about it if you say your not looking for compensation.
Butlers, why do you assume EVERYONE is after compensation? Sometimes people just want an apology and to know that the poor service is being dealt with.
As for your last comment - I totally disagree. Yes, they lost his sale, totally down to a rude and untrained assistant. Don't you think the owners have a right to know why they are losing sales? Don't you think the general public have a right to better service? If everyone ignores this kind of behaviour, then eventually we will be left with nowhere congenial to shop!0 -
EVERYONE
I dont assume that at all, im just saying thats how it looks when i read it.As for your last comment - I totally disagree
So why agree with the start of it if you totally disagree ! !0 -
Butlers1982 wrote: »Im going to be honnest with you, although you say your not looking for compensation, I think behind the scenes you really are. What difference does it make to you:
At the end of the day they have lost your sale, and lost out on your business, It doesnt make any difference to you what they are going to do about it if you say your not looking for compensation.
oh right so you know the OP better than they know themselves? Bit arrogant of you to assume that. Are you sure you're not projecting yourself on to everyone elses experiences by assuming that they are all after compensation. He has already stated that he isn't. Has not asked for anything and seems to care enough about other people to want to make sure that this doesn't happen again! Your comments say more about you than the OP!nothing to see here, move along...0 -
matthewking26 wrote: »prompt written response with an explanation as to why this happened and how you intend to prevent it from happening to other unfortunate customers.
Do they answer to you? Are you the owner of this business? Seems a bit over the top to me.0 -
Butlers - your quote on another thread - 'yet another MSE looking for compensation when they have not lost out on anything.
Yet another person jumping on the band wagon!:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:'
The op said he wasn't looking for compensation, but you still assume that he is!
Re your last comment - it implies strongly that the op should not be interested in pursuing this. I disagree with this as I believe (as my comment states) that- if the op doesn't pursue his complaint the management will remain unaware of the loss of sale and the reason
- ignoring shoddy and rude service benefits no-one in the long run.
0 -
Your comments say more about you than the OP!
SO why is the OP asking the company to explain what they are going to do about the service (3rd to last line) and why they feel it necessary to point out that they were going to spend a lot of money (7th to bottom line)oh right so you know the OP better than they know themselves?
Why did i say that or did you struggle to understand what "in my opinion" means0 -
Oh yes and Andyrules, when you have finished with your little fetish about read my previous posts, should i be worried your stalking me . . .0
-
lol, Butlers, I Know What You Did Last Summer...
be afraid....:D
Seriously, I've no idea if Evans is a one man outfit or a megastore - whatever, I believe that 'Mr Evans' has a right to know if his staff are scaring off his customers, after all he's paying them.0
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply
Categories
- All Categories
- 350.3K Banking & Borrowing
- 252.9K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 453.2K Spending & Discounts
- 243.3K Work, Benefits & Business
- 597.8K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 176.6K Life & Family
- 256.3K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.6K Read-Only Boards