Disgusting and Pathetic Service

<p>Dear Edcon,</p> <p>It is with great disgust, anger and a sheer and profound level of disappointment that I write this email to your head office. It seems to me that the level of customer service at Edgars stores have severely declined. I am not sure whether it is due to lack of proper staff training or just the general lack of interest in customers shown by the majority of your sales staff members.</p> <p> </p> <p>Yet again, I have experienced some of the worst service or rather lack of service thereof, at your Edgars store in Westwood Mall, Durban.</p> <p> </p> <p>This is now the second time that the level of service at this store has now surpassed my already low expectations of having to attain any joy of shopping at that rather small, meager and mundane branch which has little to offer in product range coupled with its boring and unhelpful personality.</p> <p> </p> <p>I walked into the store with my brother on the 27th June 2017, around midday, and whilst browsing my brother came across a tablet that was on Promotion for the price of R395. Interested in the specs of the tablet and wanting to purchase it, I asked my brother to have a look at the box to determine its suitability. He approached an Indian / Coloured lady who sat at the cellphone counter with a file placed on the desk attending to her work. Naturally as she was seated at the cellphone counter, one would assume that she worked for that department. My brother approached her and asked if she could assist him with the tablet as it was behind a locked glass cabinet. She said that she would call someone to assist. He (and myself) waited in the store for at 15 minutes and no one had come to assist. There is no excuse for this as the store was not busy and inundated with customers, nor could she not have gotten off of her lazy behind to actually physically go and call someone who could assist. Instead she sat there, continuing her work, all the while knowing that my brother was pacing through the cellphone department waiting for assistance. I was so irate that I ended up walking out of your store without purchasing a single item, let alone the tablet that we would have liked to have purchased.</p> <p> </p> <p>I was so interested in purchasing that tablet that I went to the Pavillion to see if it was available at that Edgars branch, or perhaps being sold at CNA or Jet as those are also stores under the Edcon Umbrella. After searching around the Pavillion, I telephoned the Westwood Edgars branch, only to call twice as no one answered the first time. I then asked to speak to the store Manager, and was transferred to Mondli / Mondri, who after explaining to him what had happened with his staff, had told me that he still has stock and that he will keep one aside. I told him that I was still busy at the Pavilion and would come through later on in the day, but as I did not want to waste my time driving from the Pavilion to Westwood for an item for which there might be no stock, I asked him to double check that he still had one available. I then passed the phone on to my brother as I had to dash into another store urgently and told my brother to continue the conversation with the store manager when he resumed the call. He told my brother that there were 4 left in stock that morning (on the 28th June 2017) and that according to what he was told by the staff at the cellphone counter, a gentleman came through in the morning and purchased all 4 that were in stock. My brother, now also irate, kept his calm and repeated what I had said about the incident the day before. He then had the nerve to ask my brother what clothes we were wearing the day before so that he could check it on cctv. By then this manager had not only irritated myself but now also my brother. He then told my brother that he had my number and would let me know if any other tablets were going on promotion.</p> <p> </p> <p>This is not the only incident where we have experienced either slow or no service at all at this branch. Not too long ago, I had called to find out if they had a particular size of a certain show. I had the product code as taken from another branch. When I called through, I was placed on hold for 15 minutes, only for the person who resumed the call to apologize to me saying that they had forgotten that they placed my call on hold and had proceeded to go into an urgent meeting. The person did not even have the courtesy to take my telephone number down and call me back to tell me if they had the size or not, but instead kept me on hold again for them to resume the call and tell me that they didn’t.</p> <p> </p> <p>Now with regard to the telephone incident, I would like to know if you indeed train your staff on telephone etiquette when dealing with customers. With regard to the tablet incident, I am simply disgusted. I mean to wait around looking completely aimless and foolish and having to walk out of the store with no assistance and without what I would have liked to purchase is just pathetic service. Secondly if there was no one there to assist me on the day I wanted to purchase the tablet, it really makes me think that the gentleman who purchased all 4 yesterday must have received some sort of service from someone. How would you have liked me to have a look at the box for the tablet to see its specs and to purchase it? Would you have preferred that I punch a hole through the cabinet and then take the box to the cashier. My brother experienced the same kind of service at the Pavilion branch today. There were 3 staff members huddled around the cash desk at the cellphone department, all engaged in some sort of conversation with each other. He walked around aimlessly looking at the phones and tablets until eventually he approached one of the sales staff at the till and asked for their assistance. Am I confused or mistaken in saying that as sales staff it is their duty to assist customers and try to persuade them to purchase something in order to add to the daily revenue of the store. In our current economic climate, one would think that a retail store that does not sell items of bare necessity such as groceries, would take every opportunity they could to make a sale, whether it be for R20 or R20 000? Not to sound like a typical consumer, but it is true that a constant influx of customers who actually purchase are the reasons for companies making money and managing to stay afloat. Without customers businesses cannot succeed.</p> <p> </p> <p>I am an account holder with a current credit limit of around R11 000, and was recently offered an increase in my credit limit at that very store when paying my account, which I declined.</p> <p> </p> <p>This is seriously terrible service and instead of increasing my credit it makes me wonder if I should not perhaps consider never shopping at an Edcon store ever again.</p> <p> </p> <p>As for the tablet, I quite frankly do not care if it is now out of stock or not, its not a matter of me being a difficult customer, but really speaking what has Edgars customer service come to?</p> <p>I look forward to your positive and swift response as I am highly irritated and was quite frankly annoyed and disappointed with the nonchalant attitude of the staff at your store as well as the manager who did nothing but offer to let me know when the next promotion is, as a minuscule way to make amends for this pathetic lack of customer service received. He did not even offer to source it from another branch.</p> <p>Also, due to the nature of my work, should you not be able to contact me during the day, you may call my brother on ********** .</p> <p><br /> </p> <p>Thanks and Best Regards,</p> <p> </p> <p><br />- Mrs. Adele Caren Clive</p> <p>Tel: ********** </p> <p>Email: ********** ********** <p> </p>