Havaianas Gateway locking doors before 19.00 and poor service

I was under the impression that the retail shops in Gateway close at 19.00. This evening my husband and I went to Havaianas (Gateway) and arrived at the shop at approximately 18.50. The shop was already locked and the two female staff members were busy walking away from the shop door with a trolley. My husband then asked how come the shop is already closed if the shops in Gateway close at 7. He was told that they normally close the shop at 18.45 as they cash up. They carried on walking away. My husband then followed them and asked them if there is no way they can open the shop as we wanted to buy a pair of Havaianas as it is still before 19.00. They asked my husband whether he would mind a manual transaction and pay cash and my husband said he does not have a problem and they agreed to open up. We walked back to the shop expecting the two staff members to come back to the shop. After waiting for a short while we realised that they were not returning. My husband then went back to see where they were and saw them continue walking in the opposite direction. My husband then asked them why they were walking away if they agreed to open as it was still before 19.00 and they said they thought we were walking straight. Yes we were walking straight - straight to the shop door. They agreed to open again but did not make any effort to walk back to the shop so I then asked my husband that we rather leave it as I felt that we were only going in circles.

I did tell them that I am going to report this.

In December I also had a bad experience with Havaianas Gateway when my daughter and I were looking for a specific size of Havaianas as a gift. There was a shortage of the size we were looking for and so we were asked by the two female staff to come back a hour later to give them an opportunity to unpack a few boxes of stock. We then decided to have lunch while we waited and when we returned an hour and a half later, they still did not unpack the boxes yet the shop was not busy and one of the staff were standing by the door. No effort was made to assist us.

I then went a few days later in December to Havaianas at Ballito Lifestyle Centre and dealt with the most amazing, helpful staff member who went out of her way to help us. Havaianas Gateway can learn a lot from Havaianas Ballito in respect of customer service.