you get what you pay for…

99p Stores, Walthamstow

…or don’t pay very much for, I guess.  That is how it appears with the customer service I received not even an hour ago from my local 99p Stores.

I have happily frequented 99p Stores in Walthamstow and Camden for a few years (even though I did prefer the Walthamstow one when it was Hammicks Bookshop!).  As far as I’m concerned, if stuff is branded, why not take the opportunity to get a bargain!?

Anyway, I noticed last week that they were doing the conditioner I use in the Walthamstow one, so decided to pop in on the way home to get a bulk load, and to get another few bits and pieces while I was at it (cat food, chocolate if you’re interested ).

So, there was a HUGE queue, but I REALLY need the conditioner, so I stood in line for ages.  After he’d rung all my stuff through, he pointed at the card machine, I stuck my card in and then he said:

Him:  Oh.  Erm…I’ve pressed cash
Me: OK
Him:  Have you got the cash?
Me:  No, I’ve got my card
Him:  I don’t know what to do
Me: OK
Him:  Can you go and get the cash?
Me:  Erm, no, I’ve got my card
Him:   I’ll call someone

So, he uses his ‘Kill them’ mic and then carries on serving other people.  Another guy comes along and he tells him what’s happened.

Guy 2:  Have you got the cash?
Me:  No, I’ve got my card
Guy 2:  Can you go and get the cash?
Me:  No, I’ve got my card – I just want to pay and go home
Guy 2:  It will be good if you go and bring the cash
Me:  No, it will be good if you can just let me pay with my card as I always intended to
Guy 2:  But he’s pressed cash
Me:  I know

So they use the ‘Kill them’ mic yet again, and Guy 2 goes off to another till to serve more of the hundreds of people now stuck in a long queue behind me.

A guy in a proper shirt that says ‘manager’ without actually having a ‘Manager’ tag on it comes over.  The first guy tells Manager bloke what’s happened and he mumbles something to him, and then points at him and says “Maybe YOU can pay for it”, then barks something at him and stands back while the guy is serving yet another customer.  But then he seems to get bored, and wanders off.

Guy 1 finishes serving the customer and turns around and sayd to me “What happened?  where did he go?” and then spots him, and then turns to me and says again “Can you just go and get the cash – that will be nice for us!”  So I shouted, “No I wont go and get the bloody cash, just forget it!!!” and stormed out like a stroppy little teenager.

So, tomorrow my hair will be badly frizzy and it is ALL the fault of the stupid people in 99p Stores in Walthamstow!!

reasons to be cheerful – part 10

Essensuals in Camden

OK – so this is the last one (for now!).

Good customer service.

I mentioned before about the fantastic customer service I think I got from Amazon, when replacing my slightly damaged Kindle.

Well, last night, I went to get my hair cut.  This may not seem like a big deal to most people, but it really is a big deal to me.

I last got my hair cut about 16 months ago.  yes, really.  and it was about the same length of time before that.  There are many things I hate about going to the hairdressers.  (a) People touching me  (b) Not knowing where to look  (c)  Hairdressers that don’t talk to you, that makes you feel uncomfortable  (d)  Hairdressers that talk to you a lot, and ask you loads of questions.

I also have extremely wild hair that refuses to do what it is told.  This has been aggravated over recent years, because I have hypothyroidism, and a trait of that (because, yes, I do still forget to take my pills half the time) is the fact that my hair is thinning on top.  I always have to explain this to them, because it does make a lot of difference as to how they view my hair.

So, I popped along to Essensuals in Camden (they’re a Toni & Guy run branch now) and was dreading it as I usually do.  However, even from the moment I walked in, the girls seemed very friendly and relaxed.  The stylist I had (Aaron) is VERY good with curly hair (and yes, he really was), and he was also just the right blend of smiley and friendly without talking loads – and he really listened to what I told him!

Even better, the girl that washed my hair said to me “So, you’ve not been working today then?” and I told her I had, but I only work in the next road along, and she said “Oh great – so you’ve got your discount then?” which I knew nothing about.  Apparently people who work locally get 15% off! bargain!  And once I’d finished, she had already gone and taken it off of my bill – and let me know that she had!

Now SHE gets my non-existent Customer Service award for February

reasons to be cheerful – part 4

'Spot' the difference?

My super-speedy-no-quibble replacement Kindle.

As I have said many times on this blog, I am surprisingly in love with my Kindle.  I never thought we’d really get on, I thought we’d only be part-time lovers (I am now singing Stevie Wonder to myself) – but the strength of my devotion has been more powerful than I would ever have believed.

So, imagine my horror and dismay when I picked up my love (after a break of a couple of days while I’d been reading my paperback of The Invisible Man) and there was an ink smudge on it.  An ink smudge!!

So, on Monday, I looked on the Amazon website to get some idea of what I could do about it.  I went through the ‘Contact Us’ section, and with a Kindle query, it says “It’s best to talk to us, enter you’re phone number here and we’ll call you” and you have a choice of RIGHT NOW or IN 5 MINS.  I chose the former, and my mobile rang immediately and I spoke to a lovely guy.

I told him I’d turned it right off (unheard of with a Kindle) and back on again, the screen wasn’t damaged, I have a case for it and don’t believe anything had been dropped on it and that I’d even tried shaking it like an Etch-a-Sketch to see if it cleared the screen. Ahem.

He said “Well, it sounds like a fault and nothing you’ll be able to do” tap tap tap “right, I have a new one being desptached to you ASAP – you’ll also get an email which will take you to a link to print off a label and call DHL to pick your old one up.  Keep the power lead and use the packaging from the new one to send the old one back.”

“Oh. Thanks. Can I keep the old one til I get the new one.”

“You have 30 days to send the old one back, otherwise we will have to take the charge from your account.”

“Oh. OK. Thank you.”

Simples.

That was Monday – it arrived on Tuesday but I wasn’t in, so I picked it up from the Post Office this morning.  That is what *I* call Customer Service!

This has made me VERY happy   Love you Amazon.  Love you Kindle. Mwah.