Showing posts with label bad experience. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bad experience. Show all posts

Sunday, November 5, 2017

Whole Foods- Easton

We have been  long time shoppers at Whole Foods, way before it was trendy to shop there. We actually used to spend a small fortune each month shopping there about a decade ago, when the prices were crazy high and everyone in there was vegan. We only visit rarely now. But my hubby has swore them off pretty much since we had a stupid run in with a guy behind the meat counter.

Back in the day, the Whole Foods in Dublin used to have a lot of comp services. They would allow you to taste things throughout the store (like really, you could literally open up a  bag of chips and taste them to see if you liked them). They would even take your purchased meat and season it or grill it up for you! We thought that these services still existed and would be available at Easton. We actually had just asked someone to season our chicken cutlets at Easton a few months prior, and it was gladly done.

Well, on this particular day the meat guy looked at us like the request was crazy and a waist of his time. He had a horrible attitude before he even addressed us. I believe he left us standing at the counter while he finished his conversation with a co-worker.

So after an irritated greeting, my husband asks him to season something for us. He reluctantly takes the food from my husband and then says, it's going to be an extra $3 to season this. By this time, my husband has had it with his bad attitude, and explains how this service has always been free in the past. The meat guy argues with him, but before it escalates, we just walk away (real business snobs never argue: we call managers, owners, and head quarters).

We immediately leave the store and drive down the street to Fresh Thyme in Gahanna, which we like better anyway. While standing in front of Fresh Thyme, I decide to call Whole Foods to speak with management and tell her where we are and why we aren't spending money in her store. She apologized profusely and said knew exactly who we were talking about in the meat department, as if he had a reputation for being rude. She asked if there was anything she could do to get us to come back, but we told her no.

 My husband has avoided Whole Foods ever since.

It didn't help that a few months prior, we purchased a very pricey crab cake that smelled like ammonia when we opened it (within 15 minutes of purchasing it from their fresh sea food department). It was obviously rotten when we bought it. My husband took it right back to the store. We were offered new cakes, but we just wanted our $9 back. We haven't purchased sea food from Whole Foods since.

Amazon, you have your work cut out for you. Good luck.




Done with Redbox

My hubby has never been a fan of Redbox, and we swore them off for a while due to the fact that rentals aren't necessarily 24 hrs (they're due back by 9pm the next night no matter what time you rent it the day before).  But somehow our kids always get us to rent from them again. So last week I had a coupon for .75 off my first night's rental and decided to rent something for my son. We returned the dvd on time and everything seemed as it should.

When I looked at my debit card statement, they charged me two separate fees. One was correct and I had no idea what the other one was. I called them and the agent told me that I failed to return a dvd on time, 3 months prior, and they decided to go ahead and charge my card for the late fee.

I had never received a notice that any dvd wasn't returned on time. I am a stickler for making sure those things get turned in on time (because I'm SO thrifty), or at least preparing myself for the ridiculous late fee. But this had been 3 months ago and there was no reason for me to think that we owed Redbox anything. I don't know many businesses that will allow you to owe a late fee for 3 months, without a word. They even continued to send promo coupons and bait me to rent from them. Now, I see why.

They apparently waited for me to rent another dvd and then used my card to pay off some late fee that I was totally unaware of, from 3 months ago. I didn't even bother to take the time to see what dvd they were referring to. I explained what a dirty business practice they had and told them they would never get another penny of my money.  

Sunday, August 13, 2017

Walgreens--FSA Fiasco

I promise I don't go into stores looking for problems.

I was in Walgreens the other day, shopping for sunscreen. This was my second trip to this particular Walgreens for personables. The last trip ended in frustration as I tried to use my Flexible Spending Account to pay for my purchase (which I knew was totally fine). I chalked it up to poor employee training and hoped I would have a different cashier this time.

At check-out, I put my items on the counter and  politely told the cashier that I was going to use my FSA. I explained to her that the last time I used my account in their store, we ended up having to ring up each item separately or the transaction would decline.  She cut me off in mid sentence and stated rudely, "We don't have control over transactions declining."

What?

I explained again: "Well, if you ring every item up separately, it won't decline".

She repeated that they don't have control over FSA accounts. She tried to tell me that Walgreens has no way of knowing what items qualify and which ones don't. I explained that the Walgreens website has a list of FSA qualifying items. I also pointed out that if she looked at the transaction screen, the qualifying items had "FSA" listed next to it.

She shrugged off my statements and began ringing up my items as one transaction. Of course, my payment declined.

I was growing warm with impatience, as she tried to tell me there was nothing they could do to help.

I asked her was she the manager because her attitude was horrible and I couldn't believe someone so unprofessional was in charge.

She was.

I once again explained to her that I had already been in her store a few weeks prior and had the same issue. I told her once again how to resolve it.  She looked past me at the other customers waiting in line and addressed them with deep sorrow, "I'm so sorry. I will call someone else to help you".

Now I was angry.

If she had just done what I asked from the beginning, we could've been done.

She had to go to a different cash register for some reason, to restart the transaction. As she rang up my items one by one with a frustrated unapologetic attitude, I stated how badly they needed to be trained on FSA accounts and that it was not the customer's burden to know how they work.

Each of my transactions went through this time.

A 2 minute transaction took 15 minutes because I knew more than the manager. Story of my life.

Walgreens: train your staff on FSA transactions. There are too many other stores I can spend my pre-taxed dollars in.