The Drunken Blog

Over the course of my four year career at Circuit City I had a good friend there who would call the store simply “Circuit”. Not “the city” or “Circuit City”, just “Circuit”. I prefer to call it “Circuit Shitty”, and I always just did that because I worked there, and I thought it sucked. But I went in as a customer the other day (only my second time or so since quitting in October), and I found out what the true meaning of bad customer service is.

It kind of makes me wonder if I was a really good lead CSA with a good team, or if this example that I had at the Gaithersburg store was just a series of unfortunate events. Either way, it sucked. I’m not going to tell you what happened, because I filled in one of those online comment things, and I typed everything that happened there, so I’ll just post that and let you read it.

In my complaint I never explicitally state that I was customer service lead at a Circuit City for four years only 2 months ago. I want to see how it plays out with them contacting me, and I think if I said that I had worked there they would not take me seriously. If any updates come of this, I will be sure to post them.

This is the note I sent verbatim, except I had my phone number in the one that I sent them:
This is going to be a long read, so get your popcorn ready.

As Charles Dickens said, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. My two experiences at Circuit City could not have been any different than they were, and I’m glad that I waited until I did to fill out the comment section on my receipt.

I’ll start off with the good. Greg, the only associate wearing a name tag (who also apparently does not even work as a CSA, I think he’s video games - he was wearing a PS3 shirt) was extremely helpful. I went in to do a simple exchange. Some products I ordered online for in store pick up did not work the way I thought they would. So I was going to get an iPod shuffle instead.

I walked around the store before going to customer service because I knew that I wanted the iPod. I managed to make it all the way back to the mp3 section without being acknowledged by a single soul. I didn’t see any iPod shuffles at all, and I had to hunt around for a tag for one. I contemplated trying to ask an associate, but it’s the holidays, so I understand that people are busy, even if they are just busy socializing.

So I took the tag up to the front counter, because I know a lot of times they keep the products in the warehouse. There was a line forming so Greg came up to the front counter to help out. I had my pick-up receipt with me, but communications were down to the web store, Greg explained to me. And instead of making me come back once communications were up - which would have been perfectly reasonable, albeit inconvenient, he did a no history exchange for me. Something that he probably shouldn’t have done, but I was grateful that he did.

He had to get a manager involved with that. The manager was wearing a green firedog shirt, and couldn’t want anything less to do with anything going on at the front counter. Greg asked him to start the no history, and the manager did - as if I wasn’t there at all. That’s fine, I mean, I know that a lot of these sales managers aren’t trained in the finer points of customer service, in fact, I wot most of them aren’t trained in customer service at all.

The iPod that I wanted was not in stock, but there were some in transit, so I asked Greg to special order one for me, which he happily obliged. Greg gave me a cash refund, which he also probably shouldn’t have done, but something for which I was once again grateful. That was Saturday. The truck came in the same day, but I never received a call letting me know that my product was in.

I guess that’s the fault of the sales manager since he started the ticket.

Today is Tuesday and I went to pick up my iPod. First, I think it should be noted that I had to call the Fairfax store to check and see if my product was in. When I called the Gaithersburg store the phone just kept ringing and ringing. No automated voice menu, no person picking up, nothing.

I knew that couldn’t be a good sign. Not surprisingly, however, my iPod was in. So I went to the store after work and lucky me, there’s no line - well, there is a line, but it’s just one guy, and it looks like he’s just checking out, so I won’t have long to wait.

Except that it doesn’t really matter how short the line is when there isn’t anybody at the front counter to help you. The gentleman in front of me and I waited 5 minutes before somebody even came up to the front counter. I think the only reason that he came was because he heard the phone ringing. So he picked up the phone and spent about 15 minutes working on some sort of customer issue. From what I gathered somebody was trying to look up a purchase, and the young CSA was not having much luck locating said purchase.

We are just waiting there patiently. I can’t speak for the gentleman in front of me, but I’m wondering where this single CSA’s help is a week before Christmas. I can’t imagine that he would be up there by himself. And even if he was, shouldn’t somebody (e.g., management) be helping out to cover whoever was supposed to be there?

I also think it’s important to know that while we are just standing there, being completely ignored, we see associates walking around. One stops at the front counter to get a drink, but doesn’t offer to help a single person, not even the guy in front of me, not the line that is starting to gather behind me.

Now there is a rather large line. The gentleman in front of me is getting agitated, as am I. He interrupts the kid on the phone and asks him if he is going to help him. The kid then proceeds to tell a manager who happens to be passing by (who also did not offer to help, until prompted to) that this one specific guy needs help, even though there is a line of about 10 people by now.

It turns out the guy in front of me was actually just picking something up, so the manager takes his receipt and walks behind the counter to what I would guess is a general office (not where the warehouse is) and waits back there for about 5 minutes, and then comes back out and hands the customer something. The customer made a comment, I’m sure about the lack of staffing, and walks off. I am not offered any help at this point, and the kid is still on the phone with that customer issue.

It should also be noted that while we were waiting alone at the front counter without any CSAs in view, we could here jolly chatter coming from the warehouse. It was at this point that another CSA appears. I’m not sure if she was on lunch (why you would take lunch in the warehouse is beyond me) and just getting back or what, but she finally comes out to help. And of course, I’m the next person in line, so I should be helped. Well, some other guy that she was apparently already helping (so maybe she wasn’t at lunch and just being lazy in the warehouse) went up to her to do an exchange. It looked like he was returning 3 DVDs and getting 3 different ones. A process that shouldn’t take too long, I would think. But it did take a while.

So, after I had been in the store for about 20 minutes, I finally get waited on. The kid gets off the phone and it’s finally my turn. He takes my receipt, I explain I am picking up, and he asks me to walk to the pickup area. He walks over, punches some keys, and informs me that my product will be out in a few minutes. Great, more waiting, I thought to myself. This was not as bad, however, and my product came out pretty quickly.

Ok, so that was just me telling you what happened, now I’m going to get on my soapbox and tell you what you (i.e., store management) what you apparently don’t know.

Customer service is an important part of your business. I know it’s not something that brings in a lot of money, and I know that the CSAs are generally paid less than selling associates. I also know that they generally get a lot less praise than sales associates. I know this because I worked in retail for four years as customer service. It was a pretty thankless job.

I know that a lot of people think that all that customer service does is returns, so why not limit the hours as much as possible to prevent those returns, right? Well, unfortunately for you guys, you put a lot of pressure on those CSAs. They talk to almost every customer in the store. Majority of purchases are done at the front counter, people that buy things on the floor pick most of them up at the front counter, online orders come to the front counter, special orders. I don’t need to list off what these guys do.

That being said I also know that unforeseen circumstances happen and sometimes there is just one person at the front counter. And I know that there is only so much a person can do at once. But I also know that there is always more than one person in the store that can help out, and a CSA has to be smart enough to know that when there is a line, and you are the only person at the front counter and you are tied up, you should call for some help.

It’s ridiculous to wait 20 minutes before being waited on when there is nobody in front of you in line. That’s absolutely insane! I can understand waiting in line if it is extremely busy, and the store is running on all cylinders, but come on.

I’ve been a loyal Circuit City shopper for years now, but this put a real bad taste in my mouth. It’s not just the failure of one associate, but of the entire store.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure associates are paid to help customers, so when I see associates walking by a line, not offering to help at all, I don’t think those associates are earning their pay. That’s not even going above and beyond, it’s just doing your job.

What Greg did was above and beyond, what every other associate in the store that was in my vicinity did would make me think that none of them want jobs, and they want your company to go out of business.

If you want me to clarify any of this, please call me, I’d be more than happy to discuss this somebody who has the power to fix something.

Justin

Other posts by Justin

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 20th, 2006 at 8:34 am and is filed under rant, bad times, work . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.