Not too long ago, the CBC conducted a study to find the worst customer service in Canada.With hidden cameras and a nation-wide vote, they awarded Wal-Mart, Canadian Tire, and Zellers with the low honour. These stores had sales people who were neglectful, slow, or just plain impossible to flag down.
Like anyone else, I shop at specific stores for specific things. But there will always be stores I avoid because of one glaring absent: good customer service. Usually, bad customer service can be chalked up to simple things: the salesperson having a bad day, your own bad attitude being reflected back to you, or a shortage of sales reps. I used to work in retail (I still have nightmares about it) and I know that it can be the worst job… any job where you’re constantly face-to-face with people sucks.
However, there are a few stores where nothing is ever good enough to warrant a smile or attitude-free experience. After doing some reseach (i.e. hours of shopping), I began to notice three stores in particular that consistently lack decent sales people and customer service.
These stores are:
Zara. Unfortunately, one of my favourite stores to shop in is Zara. Their collections are always lovely and their sizes are usually spot-on (I’m lookin’ at you, H&M!). But I hate going to Zara because their sales people are just plain rude. That is, if they even approach you. It’s usually a 50-50 chance that the salespeople at Zara will leave me to my own confused devices. That’s always a treat because the alternative has me being yelled at for not hanging the clothes I tried on back on the racks. Yes, yelled at. Called back to the change room with a “HEY” to be told I could have hung the clothes back up nicely. My apologies, I ridiculously thought that was what you got paid for. In terms of store policies, the “Nope, we don’t do discounts even if that skirt has four holes in it” rule is garbage. I’m supposed to pay full price for a garment, leave it with you to *hopefully* be fixed and then pick it up two weeks later? I don’t think so.
Aldo. On the flip side, Aldo always has nice people ready to help the moment you walk in. Unless of course, you’re there to return something. You might as well have hobo stench radiating off you because that’s how they’ll look at you. I don’t need to be lectured about store policies and orders from ‘the top’. I know how it all works. What I’m saying is that Aldo refuses to take responsibility for the horrible quality shoes they sell (Ed note: Hear, hear! Last summer I bought flats at Aldo… they practically disintegrated after three weeks of minimal wear). Their sales people make promises about durability and stretch, but the moment I come back with bleeding feet and crumpled toes, I’m shit out of luck. And it’s not just the in-store people; the one time I was allowed to return a product, it wasn’t until after multiple calls and e-mails to head office, plus a manager’s lecture about how “We don’t usually allow this.”
Holt Renfrew. Lastly is Holt Renfrew. I’ve never actually had a horrible experience with Holt Renfrew sales people….mostly because I’ve never spoken to one. Maybe I have an obvious ‘can’t afford anything’ look to me, but for all the times I’ve been in Holt’s, I’ve never been asked if I need help. But apparently I’m lucky; ask around on Twitter and you’ll find dozens of people who’ve been turned off by snooty sales reps, especially around the beauty counters. Look, I get that most of the products here have price tags that mean no groceries for a week, but sometimes I’m willing to go hungry. If I promise not to pull a Carrie Bradshaw (try on multiple pairs when I know I can’t buy any), will you promise to remove your blinders and ask if I need any help?
Worst of all, I’ll probably continue to visit these stores because they have great products (not you, Aldo. Blister my foot once, shame on you; blister it twice, you’ll never see me again). I’ll continue to smile and say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ in hopes that my attitude will, one day, reward me with something that resembles a pleasant sales person.
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Bianca Teixeira writes about style for Toronto Standard. Follow her on Twitter at @BeeLauraTee.
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