I was just at Staples tonight shopping for a few things to add to my office. I found a small filing cabinet/drawer combo that would work really well next to my desk. But they were out of stock, and of course the person working went into some spiel about how I could have it ordered, that it might only take two business days, but it could also take more. I interrupted him and asked if I could just buy the floor model. He said not if it wasn’t on clearance. I said fine, I’ll buy it on Amazon.
He started to walk away, and then turned around to tell me they could price match Amazon. I don’t think he understood that I didn’t care about the price. I just wanted the filing cabinet. And honestly I preferred it be pre-assembled, so I asked if I paid an extra $20 if they would sell it to me. No, he said, we wouldn’t have one to show off. I said, well it will only take two days to get a new one after all, right?
He didn’t budge so I walked off, ran across a manager, asked her the same thing. Same reply. Clearly they hire zombies to staff the stores. What sales person in their right mind passes up selling to a customer that wants to buy, and one who is offering to pay more than they’re asking.
When I went to check out at the front of the store, I was told I would have to go downstairs to check out. I had an overflowing cart. What moron puts a customer through that. I was tempted to walk out of the store.
To top the night off, when I got outside it was raining. I must’ve slapped karma in the face today. As I was setting my bags down to go hail a cab, an employee came out to the doorway to start locking doors. He had to look right at me struggling to cover up the bags and I guess he didn’t care at all to come out and ask if I needed help, would’ve been nice to have someone flag a cab down, or at least offer to help.
At the bottom of the receipt is a link to staplescares.com to fill out a survey. Well Staples, here’s my survey.
Let this be a lesson in how simple things can really ruin your customer’s experience. If your customer wants to buy, find a way to sell them what they want. If they want to check out upstairs, check them out upstairs, why else do you have a cash register there? And if you really want to do well in business, help a customer out on a rainy day.