Shopping is supposed to be fun and stress-free, you can imagine the kind of feeling I had when I endured it recently and by the end of the day I was so exhausted like a person who had done so for the whole day.
For some time now I had been monitoring this latest tech-gadget with a roving eye and when it landed on my path I didn’t hesitate but decided to put my money where my heart was. It never crossed my mind though that purchasing a mere gadget would take over two hours at such a reputable chain-store.
On my entry to the store I went straight to the section or unit (as they call it) as I knew what I was looking for and where to find it, to my surprise it was not on display despite being advertised in their leaflet for the second week in succession. When I enquired from Nataniel Mtimkulu (one of the staff) he gave me a lame excuse, “see we were supposed to have received the stock two months ago and by far we are awaiting forty-two products as we already have more than ten customers who placed orders and soon as they’re available they would be notified, this could take a day or two”. This was too good to be true but enough to convince me to follow suit, I mean I could have opted for another model but my heart and soul was on this one and waiting for an extra day wouldn’t hurt I guess. We agreed that I would go run some errands then come back to conclude the deal.
On my return I approached Simon Tsoela (the salesperson) whom I was referred to, “hi, someone said you will assist me” I said “what, who is that?” He asked with aggression. Aren’t these people hired and getting paid to help customers? After relating my plea, he took a piece of blank paper and requested I jot down my details, geez where will that note end-up? In the trash I believe. I blatantly refused and demanded he take me serious, he then asked I be patient as he was helping one customer and left me wandering.
Prior to my journey to the store I had sent an email to their head office and enquired about the product availability. While I was left there to browse at the goods for the umpteenth time I decided to check my inbox and there was a response from Karin Henning (store manager) confirming the availability of the gadget in question. I approached one staff member to lead me to her office but instead diverted me to the “Information Centre” where the salesperson I had been patiently waiting for was at doing absolutely nothing and met Peter Malema who was reluctant to let me go see the manager but at-least that fuelled some action. Malema and Tsoela ran around with the product’s barcode and as they tagged along like newly-weds to the storeroom to physical check for the product, while another manager took over the paper work and when we were done he instructed me to go pay at any of the tills and the closed I got was with a cashier named Nomasonto who gladly accepted my hard-earned cash and smacked me with a bomb-shell of a lousy response “you can go, they will deliver it to your home” she said. Wow I didn’t know such gadgets are now delivered and yet another ignorant staff who couldn’t even care less to check the type of products I was paying for let alone his colleague’s number (for commission which he is wrongly entitled to by far). I politely told her the goods is in stock and that I was waiting for it, guess what, much as the salesperson went away in order to search for my product he was nowhere to be found and had to be called.
Bear in mind that by now I had overstayed my ‘welcome’ and was now resembling their goods, as I was ushered to the storeroom and waited further for the salesperson to get hold of the person with the keys, to my shock in a trolley packed with new stock there were more than ten products of the same kind still in their retail packaging, when I enquired why they are not on display since they’re available, was met with “It’s a lot of work unpacking and packing them again” response. Now you tell me what to make of that?
Just when I thought I’ve had enough and was now finally on my way home the incompetent salesperson delayed me once more as he ran around looking for what heaven knows with my already paid gadget in his possession. I therefore instructed Xolisa Majeke (the store security) to open the product for me to double-check IF indeed it’s the right product as I didn’t get the privilege to do so and there he went tearing the box I mean really, now, how hard can it get?
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