Friday, November 24, 2006

Foraging for new shoes at Foot Locker

One would THINK that an American chain (like Foot Locker) would have somewhat decent customer service. Not so here in Brisbane! I had a 30% off coupon for anything in the store. I went looking for tennis shoes, which I desperately needed. What I got was a surly teenager that could not seem to understand that when I pointed to a shoe and asked if he had that in my size, what I wanted was an answer of Yes, No, or I'll go check....plus If they had it, I wanted to try it on.

Considering they also had a special on certain shoes that combined 2 for $120, and I could also use the coupon, that made it doubly important to find something. Hey money is tight right now with Christmas coming up. I wear only 2 brands, Nike or Reebok. PERIOD! I do not want to be shown New Balance or Pumas or Addidas. I explained this to the young man. I wear only Nike and Reebok, I told him...nicely even. What did he bring me? New Balance. Why? Because they were out of my size, guess what he THEN brought me? The pair I'd picked out, but in a size 11! WTF? I wear a USA Size 10. Nope, I do not have little feet, but I wear a 10, not an 11. Why oh why did he even BOTHER bringing me a size 11?

It gets better. C~ picked out 6 pairs to see if they had them in his size. 2 were shown to him, one of which was NOT the pair he'd picked out because the salesgirl didn't like the colour, and thought perhaps they might be a little narrow! Excuse me, but shouldn't the customer decide if a damn shoe fits or not? That pair of shoes (the ones that the salesgirl liked) were $200 pair of tennis shoes. Sorry, but not on my current budget, dear. It was SO frustrating, just to pick out 2 friggin pairs of shoes. Ok, I admit it, I got a good deal. A $119.00 pair of Nike leather tennis shoes (white with Pink swoosh logo *grin*), AND a pair of white little flats that look like a pair of Nike mary janes *grin*, they are too cute and were priced at $69, but I got both for $84.

Yep, a very good deal. BUT what I had to put up with! I can't believe that they didn't bother to offer calling another of their local stores to see if they had the shoes we really wanted in stock. Back home they would have done that. They would have offered, I would NOT have had to ask. I didn't ask, btw. C~ was way too pissed off by that time, he just wanted to get the hell out of there. I really do miss American style customer service where they bend over backwards for you because they KNOW you can shop elsewhere and will tell people. Here they just don't give a damn. Why should they? They are getting paid $15 per hour to do nothing but look good in their store uniforms, they probably don't get commission, and certainly do NOT give a rat's ass about the customers. But all customer service here sucks like that, why am I so surprised?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

WAS THIS CARINDALE? Defonately worth the rant, but take it easy on the company.....please?

kitten said...

Yep This was Carindale. And no I'm not bagging the company, just the way employees behave. It seems to me that employees here (at any business) are able to do act and say whatever and however they want to customers with no repercussions.

Anonymous said...

Fair enough...but yep, suffice to say, it's just that way, here in Oz....
At any rate, glad you got your shoes?

m said...

Are you sure they were not Swedes down there for a year on a working holiday visa?

Otherwise, this is an exact copy of what happens here.

I feel for you, sister!