These days, I find I’m increasingly intolerant of minor irritants. Specifically, those minor irritants who don’t want to do their jobs properly. If you accept a salary for being, say, a manager at my local Asda, then in exchange for that salary you should jolly well behave like a manager.
Step forward Graham (who refused to divulge his surname). Graham’s annoying catchphrases, used in varying degrees during an increasingly heated half hour phone call (which was made after two visits to the store regarding the same matter) included:
1.‘We sometimes have problems with phone cards…’. Very interesting, Graham, but I’m not really interested in talking about phone cards. Especially as I've explained countless times that my problem is with an i-tunes voucher.
2.‘You may have bought your i-tunes voucher from our store, but we’re only agents. Your contract is with Apple so if there’s something wrong with your voucher you need to contact them.’ No, Graham – I bought my i-tunes voucher from Asda. And Asda was very happy to take my £25 in payment. So if I can’t register my card, I expect someone at Asda to help me.
3.‘We can’t tell if there’s something wrong with the card.’ I think you'll find that you can. (Head office later confirmed that the store can ascertain whether the card is working by simply swiping it at the till (and I’d already taken the card back to the store twice by this point)).
4.‘All our staff are trained in how to activate i-tunes vouchers.’ This is an outright lie. At least two members of your staff plus yourself clearly have no idea.
5.‘Every card is activated as soon as it goes through the till point.’ Mine wasn’t. And insisting it was doesn’t make it so.
6.‘I don’t have a telephone number for head office.’ Why not? If a customer asks for a means to contact head office to complain about the fact you’re becoming increasingly awkward and refusing to help, then you should be able to provide them with a number.
7.‘I might be able to give you a number for insurance.’ Eh? What’s insurance go to do with it?
8.‘Stop shouting.’ As I patiently explained, I wasn’t shouting. Had I been shouting, you would have known all about it. I have a loud voice at the best of times. I would probably have deafened you.
9.‘I’m here to help you.’ That might be true, but sadly, Graham, you didn’t manage it.
10.‘It’s nothing to do with Asda.’ Aaaargh.
I’ve worked in retail myself. I know how infuriating and unreasonable some customers can be. But all I wanted was the working i-tunes voucher I’d paid for. And when a store is very happy to accept payment, they should be equally happy to accept responsibility when things go wrong. Or is that a horribly old-fashioned concept?
By Googling ‘Asda head office customer services’ I managed to get a number in seconds (take note, Graham). And it’s only because I spoke to a lovely, lovely young man named Sam – who, even from his remote location, managed to offer a solution – that I haven’t defected to Tesco for the foreseeable future.
Sam was great – and, bearing in mind how much Graham had wound me up before I phoned head office, this is no exaggeration. He offered just the right tone of sympathy backed with action. Okay, this was just offering a complaint number and an assurance that I was in the right and my problem would be sorted, but that’s all I was looking for. And he was sympathetic when I suggested Asda might do well to offer Graham further training in customer relations.
Shockingly, it seems Asda do take responsibility for i-tunes vouchers that don’t work. And it seems Asda are willing activate cards they’ve sold that they didn’t manage to activate at the point of sale.
So, we can blame ignorance rather than store policy for this unpleasantness. Graham waffled and blustered because he didn’t know what to do. But, in his role as manager, wasn’t it his duty to find out? Most customers would be patient and sympathetic to a manager who was doing his best.
In the scheme of things, this might seem quite trivial. But it was very, very annoying. And I could feel my already raised blood pressure go through the roof. In fact, I’ve still got a headache.
Next time, I’ll be talking about something this blog was supposed to be about when I set it up – a book. Actually, a book I wasn’t so keen on. Tune in soon to find out why.
Yes, I think that middle-age grumpiness really is kicking in.
