How to lose clients

On Wednesday, I went to Builders Express in Newton Park, Port Elizabeth. I needed an electronic timer and a digital multi-meter. For some reason, at this store, these items are locked in a cupboard behind two glass doors. I waited and looked around for someone to unlock the cupboard and after walking around the electrical section for five minutes, I walked to the manager’s office and asked if someone could help me. I got the items and proceeded to the checkout counter. What follows is a long story but the details are necessary to convey the frustration that I felt and why I will not be returning to Builders Express in Newton Park. I placed the 3 items on the counter and presented my pensioners card to the cashier. She scanned the first 2 items and told me that the digital timer did not have a code and that she will have to go and get the code. I told her where to find the item (including the fact that the cupboard was locked and she would need to get someone to unlock it). She proceeded to walk, very slowly, into the store. After a few minutes, she returned at the same speed and informed me that she could not get the price code because “this was the last one”. I told her that it was not the last one and went back with her to where I had found the timer. The cupboard was locked and she tried, several times without success, to slide her hand into the gap between the two glass doors to reach the timers. She then noticed that the code was visible and proceeded to write the code onto her hand. We went back to the till. She entered the code and it came up with the wrong price. She needed a supervisor to authorise the corrected price. There was no supervisor around so she walked to the office to call someone. A few minutes later she came back with the supervisor and completed the transaction. I looked at the total and asked her about the pensioner’s discount. She didn’t know I was a pensioner. By now I was ready to walk out. I pointed to the pensioner’s card on the counter. The same one that I had presented to her before she started scanning the items what now seemed a very long time ago. She voided the current transaction and had to start all over again. Yes, she had to call the supervisor once again to authorise the correction of the price for the digital timer. I gave her my credit card and it was declined! I told her that there is nothing wrong with the card as I have just used it at another store. She tried again, once again it was declined. No apology was forthcoming neither from the teller nor from the supervisor. I walked out, drove halfway around town to Builders Warehouse where I got the same items straight off the self, went to the till and paid with the very same card that had been declined at Builders Express, Newton Park. The shocking service that I experienced on Wednesday is very different from what I am used when shopping at either Builders Warehouse or Builders Express in Walmer. Visiting either of these stores is a pleasure. Thankfully, I mostly shop in the Walmer area and therefore never need to set foot in Builders Express, Newton Park again.