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| - [This is a letter I just sent to Fry's (name changed to protect privacy).]
This is a comment on good and bad customer service, and how to lose a customer.
Saturday, 6/14, we visited Fry's #680 in Surprise. There we found the perfect reclining loveseat (Nicholas loveseat/console). We're on a fixed income, and both of us have leg problems, so finding a loveseat that fit both of us and was within our price range thanks to a recent small windfall was truly a miracle.
We flagged down an employee, Ian, and he sat and talked with us for quite a while answering our questions. Eventually he went to check stock and found that there were none in the back. He said that a shipment would be coming in, possibly the next day, but certainly by the end of the week (shipments being on Tuesday & Thursday), and issued us a raincheck. He assured us that he was taping the store copy to the furniture computer screen, and that we would be hearing back. We left, having found a $500 piece of furniture and made a friend in Ian (a great employee - promote him when you can).
By last evening, Friday, 6/20, we still had heard nothing, so we stopped by the store. The first indication of trouble was that the loveseat was no longer on the floor. We asked an employee to check the raincheck for us, and she returned with Ian and another man. This man was unkempt (shirt hanging out and rumpled) and no name tag, and he never introduced himself. He told us that the store would not be getting any more in and that the floor model had been sold. We asked if any other stores had them, and he told us "nope, I sent an email out for someone else a few days ago, and no one else has one." Then he left to deal with another customer.
We were stunned. Ian, looking quite embarrassed, informed us that apparently it had happened on Sunday or Monday, his days off, and he didn't realize that we weren't the ones who had purchased it. He also informed us that the mystery man was his supervisor. The supervisor returned about then, and we asked why we weren't called and given the opportunity to purchase the loveseat given that we had prior claim with the raincheck. He gave a blank look, offered no explanation, and, in fact, didn't say anything - no apology, no "is there anything I can offer to make this right", nothing. After an awkward few moments where we all waited to see what was going to happen, my husband informed him that he was quite angry and we were leaving. He shrugged and walked off. Ian apologized again and asked us to please come to him in the future if there was anything he could help us with.
We had grocery shopping to do last night. Instead of spending our money at Fry's, we left the store and went to your competition. Over the years, quite a number of pieces of our furniture have come from Fry's. This will not be happening again. We may be back for groceries, in a pinch. But this complete lack of appropriate customer service left a bad taste, which we will be sharing with our friends.
We have no expectation at this point. The loveseat is not, apparently, something that can be ordered. I'm writing this because I work in Marketing at a small, local non-profit, and this is the type of information we use internally as a teachable moment. I would like to believe that you'll retrain this supervisor in customer service standards. I would like to believe that future customers with a raincheck will find themselves contacted before the floor model is sold. But it won't be to us.?
[Needless to say, no, we wouldn't recommend this Fry's.]
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