Pathetic Service from Woolworths

On the morning of 11 February around 11:25 i went Woolworths Tygervalley branch, Western Cape to return a swim shorts gift that my sister bought me for my birthday which was on 7 February.The reason for the exchange was that she purchased a size 36 men’s shorts and I am a medium or size 32 waist. The shorts were never used and still had all the tags in place. The item to be exchanged was R399 and the replacement item was R349. I decided to take a pair of socks of around R65 and pay in any difference. I was assisted by a client facing service point operator (Weilasha Maurice) who seemingly struggled to process the return. She was professional and very client orientated. After some attempts and engaging her line manager, she indicated that she would not be able to return the item because the item is no longer on the system; that it apparently formed part of mark downs around 9 February 2021 and accordingly they cannot assist me to return it. I repeated my challenge to her line manager, who followed my reasoning and called the store manager a certain Ms. Cherylene Pereira. I explained to her that as a client, from my end it sounds that their processes does not provide for the eventuality which we now face; that this short fall in process fails to service the rights of the consumer and brand user in my case, by extension down the consumer value chain and now the client must be prejudiced. As much as I could appreciate that as front end staff they now faced a situation, in which one of the employees took the time to use this example to a trainee, as an instance for which they do not have training or a solution to it. I have all their names if needed. Notwithstanding the aforementioned, as a senior individual in a global corporation I can fully appreciate the value and importance to your business because it retains customers and extracts more value from them. It is accordingly imperative that managers understand the importance of treating customers fairly, in line with consumer protections laws and conduct standards act while advancing the vision of the corporation, its strategy and culture without compromising the client experience and or creating reputational risk in highly competitive markets. Sadly when I repeated the request while observing the challenge the staff faced by the failing process, my ask to Ms. Cherylene Pereira was what solution does she have for me? It is at this instance that I was shocked at her response to me and I quote " Here's the item sir, you can take it and leave," I shockingly asked " excuse me ma'am did I hear correct? Did you just say I can take it and leave?" She said "...yes, you've asked me for a solution and you welcome to gift the shorts to someone". It was at this point where I knew I am not having an argument with someone with this level of EQ never mind IQ. I don’t know whether it is the fact that she just had a similar tone with another client just minutes before which I witnessed and cut that client's experience short by saying that she needs to speak to another customer which was me. She clearly needed to showcase her level of leadership to her subordinates - (clearly demonstrating her 1980s leadership style and not seeing the bigger picture). All this because I pointed out a flaw in the processes which in my view should have been thought of upstream to prevent downstream impact. I am not one to engage in debate in stores needing to feed off public challenge however this blatant disregard for the tenants on which of client service is built and the reputational risk that it holds for your organisation by way of the client experience and a clearly *********** leader lacking client centricity traits simply had to be reported. As a leader myself it is sad to see this managers lack of consumer awareness, client service conduct standards failures displayed, the arrogance in her tone when she spoke to me while she seemingly was unable to divorce the fact that my comments is not directed at her or her staff but at a process failure and in her behaviour and actions towards me seemingly tried to defend any embarrassment in front of junior staff. I place on record that at no stage was I rude to her or her staff and this can even be reviewed by CCTV or the employees names who were present. Considering the culture and tone I observed I have opted not to include their names at this stage of the complaint for fear of victimisation of staff, however am happy to share the same if needed provided that it is protected in a fair process.I simply came in, in good spirits to do a clean simple swap from a 36W to 32W. They didn’t have my size. I opted for something less in value and was going to take a pair of socks and pay the difference cash. I was essentially told, take your short and leave and feel free to donate it I wish to. That is how a birthday gift from Woolworths can turn out.This experience was totally disgusting. Initially I felt could demonstrate her level of approach to challenge and simply share this experience from the get go on social media but that at the time would have suggested that I am fine to stoop to her level, which I am not. However in the interest of consumer awareness, protection and advancement of consumer rights in an increasingly competitive environment it is necessary to share as by our voice we can compel organizations to recognize the voice of the consumer and treat us with fairness as their greatest stakeholder in the business regime. On 16 February via a certain Abigail McCarthy Woolworths response was as I paraphrase they'd have processes they rigidly stick to and offered me a R250 voucher which I had to indicate whether I’d accept the good will gesture. What a joke! They failed to see the root of the problem and address the heart of the matter. They cover up and in legal strategic jargon & offer a goodwill voucher. This is tantamount to questionable culture lacking any awareness of client centricity and accountability in acknowledging that processes could be further developed. Clearly they see this imperfect process as prefect through their lens. A simple solution on the day could’ve been to simply offer a voucher to the value replacement main item which was less than the value of the item which was bought as a gift for me. The human element knock on effect was that my sister felt bad that her gift intended on my birthday, a special day of celebration by way of Woolworths ended up as a bitter experience with the brand and her feeling disappointed as I effectively got nothing from her as a result. I consequently instructed Woolworths to close my account with immediate effect as in principle I do not do business with any organization who has questionable culture, business practices and worst fail to remedy or acknowledge it by willfulblindness. Gone are the days when brand draws a customer. Today it’s service that draws but more importantly retains and by the looks of the reports trending on social media and hellopeter that is soon likely to become the standard by which you will be known.