I swear to god or Hecate I’m gonna start a business called “The Complainer” because companies seem to develop their own rules, language and idiosyncrasies in regards to the value of a single customer.
Is the value of a customer nil? Yes, they subscribe to the “We want classes of people, i.e. seniors, millennials or boomers as a whole rather than on the individual level where their little preferences and perfectionistic expectations deviate from Big Corporate’s goal.
Here’s one complaint for a good company that has given me years of shopping pleasure, especially the W 36th Street Manhattan location, in the shadow the Empire State Building where my Mets Regalia’d out friends were repeatedly photoed and selfie’d by Japanese tourists. Nice memory. Didn’t have the heart to tell the tourists they were from Connecticut. Here’s to the individual customer. The one that used to get individualized treatment from all the George Bailey’s in the world. Now, they’re slapped by the drunken pharmacist and on the bad end of a corporate policy mistake, just as if George had NEVER been born. It’s a wonderful life 🙁
FROM AN ACTUAL ONLINE COMPLAINT:
I was very happy to receive an unsolicited coupon for a 20oz Pepsi Product.
When I went through the register it rang up with .16 cents due. Yes, I understand the bottle deposit is required and the coupon clearly states: up to a $1.89 value… But it seems a little gimmicky almost bait and switchy in nature. First, couldn’t you have lowered the price to match the coupon, requiring only bottle deposit? Second, as a satisfied long term Walgreen’s and Duane Reade customer who spends a light to moderate amount (about $675 per annum) there each year, I found that the customer service rep (check-out) and the very well dressed asst. manager took a little too much pleasure in being correct about the owed .16 cents. His tone body language and demeanor was akin to;
“Haha, you’re totally wrong and WE, of course are right!”
Couldn’t he have waived the .16 cents? Is it really worth leaving a bad taste in the mouth of a satisfied customer who gratefully chooses to spend a light to moderate amount there annually?
I know; “If we did that for you we’d have to do it for everybody”
But seriously, how many coupons did he have to deal with that day. It’s not like there’s a Black Friday line around the block. But my complaint isn’t with the money. It’s with:
The misleading nature of the FREE coupon.
The “attitudinal righteousness” of your Coupon enforcement team
And the poor judgement used on the “Almost Free” product pricing policy.
With regards and acknowledgement that I will most likely continue to patronized Walgreen’s, despite this non-customer-centic anomaly. I do hope you”ll find time to respond, but I also have my doubts as to that scenario also.
Guardedly Yours;
Tim Protzman