Customer Disservice

F– for Park Meadows Best Buy May 19, 2007

Today I had the pleasure of shopping one of the busiest (by customer volume) retail stores in the city of Lone Tree — the Park Meadows Best Buy. This is my second time shopping at this store in the past 12 months.

Objective: Customer Service and General Knowledge
Target Items: 19″ LCD computer monitor, iPod cable (to connect to a car radio aux jack)
Date/Time of visit: 18 May 2007, 7:20PM
How busy: not very busy

I was actually welcomed by the greeter at the door, which is rare at this store, and I think it is only because I made eye contact with him as I walked in. He seemed more interested in his swig of coke from a gigantic cup than addressing me. I strolled leisurely around the store, walking through nearly every department of it before I made my way to browse the computer monitors. At this BB, they are up against an end wall of the store near the employee breakroom. As I paced back and forth down the row of monitors for about 4 minutes, I glanced around and saw 9 employees within earshot of me. Six of them were paired up behind a service counter having personal conversations, and three walked by me to get to the breakroom. None of them addressed me at all. Fair enough.

Abandoning my need to give BB $250 today, I started roaming the store once more because I truly did not know where the iPod cases are. And, let me just say, when I shop at a store like this where employees have sales targets per shift, I am always looking at something on the shelf and never really looking around for help — I shouldn’t have to ask for help in any store I shop if they are interested in taking my money. But, as I’m shuffling through the xbox 360 area, an employee lady (name withheld) blew by me at top speed and just said “excuse us” while a train ride of other customers and other employees zipped past me without acknowledging my existence. Fair enough.

Finally I find the iPod cases. I’m one row away from a service desk where 2 guys are having a chat about what they’re doing this weekend and how much they wish their shift would end earlier today. I stand there looking at iPod cases for 5 minutes — and there aren’t very many, so I didn’t have to move much. As I surveyed them, three employees walked behind me without saying anything and they did not appear to be helping anyone else. I watched the second one speed off to a service counter apparently to continue a conversation with one of her friends. Ok, in all fairness, iPod cases are simply a matter of personal preference, but I really did want to ask about durability if someone bothered to stop. So, after those 5 minutes I abandoned ship on giving BB about $25 of my money, bringing the lost sale amount to $275 if you’re keeping score.

I decided I’d had enough, so I made one final lap through the store, this time I made a point to walk directly by each service counter in the store where there were employees having a conversation, but not make eye contact with them. After passing four of them without a glimmer of hope, I reached the front of the store again, where the security guy/greeter told me to “have a nice day” as I left.

Store cleanliness: C-. The outside of the store was very dirty and the carpet needed vacuuming in many areas.
Ambient noise: D. There were some very noisy TVs in the back that nobody was watching and you could hear them up front.
Today’s Overall Grade: F–. yes, that is F-double-minus. It is the second lowest grade I give.