Blaming the customer and loading her with responsibility!!

<p>On Sunday 30 October 2016 I purchased R4396 worth of clothes from Woolworths Cavendish. When I had to pay, I indicated that i wanted to pay with my Woolworths card and my bank credit card. The teller told me my credit card was invalid. I knew it wasn’t and told her I had made a purchase with it a few minutes ago in the restaurant. She refused to believe me and called the supervisor. Same story - they became quite condescending and patronizing. I tried to tell them over it wasn’t a fault on my side. I eventually was told to get cash or the transaction will be cancelled and so I went to the cash machine to get cash for part of the transaction. On my return the transaction would still not go through. It confirmed for me that it was their fault after all but they denied it upon me asking them, only to admit later that yes they made the mistake in the first instance. So they **** rather than make a really bad situation slightly better for me. Then it became worse. They told me to go to Customer Services to contact Financial Services to reverse the transaction and have it rung up again. No explanation. No apology. They could not care about me as customer at all or that I had to go through this effort and time to solve a problem they made and that I had just been humiliated by them in front of a queue of people. At Customer Services the consultant **** outright to me - she told me there wasn’t a private space to speak on the phone with Financial Services yet they wanted me to "confirm" my personal details with them in front of everyone. The financial consultant had the worst attitude and later even dismissed her manager - she did not even have the decency to answer her manager let alone answer her respectfully.</p> <p>The manager that eventually called me was not very helpful either. He asked me like he was trained to tell him about my experience but then instead of offering information, acknowledging the problem or a way forward, he asked ME what he can do to assist or make it better. Are they really trained to do that or is he just very poorly s****ed? I told him I didn’t want anything from Woolworths although an apology would help. I also asked that he gives me confirmation of what transactions actually took place on my Woolworths card as I received confusing information from not very helpful staff. He suggested that I go in to the store and find out!! What, now I have to go in to the store – time and effort on my part - trying to resolve a mistake made by Woolworths staff? I told him what I thought of his shortsighted idea – that I was not impressed. Well he refused to help me saying that he can’t take my personal information. He also refused to tell me the full name of the consultant that was particularly poorly behaved and who was also rude to her manager, even though I explained that I wanted her name so that I could submit a formal complaint about her. He sent me a weak email of apology.</p> <p>Woolworths Cavendish - this is not the first time I have had bad service here but this was particularly bad given that there were 4 out of the 5 staff, including a manager, with very poor s****s and very little to no care for the customer. Mistakes got blamed on the customer and then the customer had to go out of her way to correct it. Woolworths didn’t!! The staff could not care less!! Very telling of the ethos of the branch which was later proved by the manager who did not want to assist. When staff don’t care, they know nothing will happen. Beware customers – all good until you have a problem and ask for assistance!!!</p>