marisa M

Responding to customer complaint

I will respond as I am the staff member that served the customer CARL . The customer came into the store today and enquired from another staff member about a replacement grass mat for the grass matt holder. The staff member showed him what we had which was smaller than what he wanted. I was busy finishing with another customer and attended to him as soon as I was done. He had told me that he had spoken to the owner this morning and she said we did have replacement grass mats in stock. I asked the staff member if we had any other in the store room which she said no. The customer said to me he needs a replacement as his grass mat BLEW away. The holder he had was a large holder from a different company. I told him I would take his details down and the staff member on duty tomorrow would phone this company to check if they have any spare grass mats. He said he could also phone and order from them direct which I said they do not sell to the public they are a distributor. He said fine and then said to me, I am going to take another one anyway, which he then placed one on the desk to be rung up and continued shopping. He told me he is going to his holiday house this week and 1 dog comes with him and the other dog stays with a pet sitter, so he need one for the holiday house anyway. He said he needs the replacement for the dog that is staying here before he leaves. At no time did I tell him that I guaranteed I could get the mat and convince him to take another mat and holder. He made his purchase happily and left. As he left the owner called to say she had had a message from the customer and replied to him but it was a business line and the message was not answered. I told the owner he had just left. The owner said she had left the message saying that this pacific company does not do replacement mats ( so he had already lied by saying he had spoken to her and we do have). We were still going to phone the company on the Monday to see if they had any from stock that the holding trays had been damaged or he could have a bought a piece cut at a hardware store or garden centre. I was then busy with another customer on a call to see if we had stock of a certain biscuit when he returned to the store. The other staff member spoke to him and came over to me to tell me he wants to return it. I was just finishing my call and was a few minutes with the other customer. ( At no point was I whispering with the owner as he claims talking about him when he walked in). When I went over to the him at the till point he said to me he wants to return the product as he received the message now from the owner saying their are no replacement mats. With that he whipped out his bank card to give it to me for a refund. I said to him we don't do card refunds we do store credits ..but before I could finish my sentence, we do not have the facility set up on our card machines, let me phone the owner. He threw his hands up and down in a mini tantrum saying FFS...what the F..K did you say to me. I began to repeat my self and he said who the F..K.. do you think you are. I then said to him do not speak to me like that. Who do you think you are. There is no need to be so rude and speak to someone like that. He told me I was just a staff member and he will phone the owner and I will see what will happen. So I said what do you want to get me fired. He said to me a customer is always right and stormed out the store to phone the owner. He then did frogmarches up and down the shopping centre shouting at the owner on the phone, and we had customers now in the shop and small children, with him using his lovely language. He then stormed back in the shop when the owner phoned me and he decided to film me while I was on the phone to the owner which is illegal as I did not give my permission to be filmed. So I hope he deletes the video before I need to take that further as he was filming their where other people and children around me. So he has filmed them too. I just waved to him and the customers were laughing at his behaviour like a spoilt child in the shop. He then decided to frogmarch out the store with his wee matt and holder. He had no respect that the owner is having an operation tomorrow to phone and harass her on a Sunday Moring. The owner is my sister (which made the customer more aggravated). Considering the customer also owns a business he should know how to speak to staff and what is not acceptable. Spending money in a store does not allow you to abuse a staff member and speak to them so disgustingly or use bully tactics. Every store has their own policy which is on display.