I have been ranting a bit this afternoon on my twitter feed (@shumpty77) about some poor customer service I have received today.

For those who missed it: I tried to buy a camera in JB Hi-Fi at Mt Ommaney and was ignored by sales staff despite me standing just 3 metres away from a staff member who felt his time was better spent talking to an older gentleman who said on at least three occasions that he was just waiting for his wife to buy something. I then went to the Nike Outlet store at the DFO in Jindalee and, having tried on shoes that I had found myself and been satisfied that I would buy them could not get any staff member to serve me and tell me about a deal they had running. Ironically, the sign spruiking said deal asked shoppers to “ask our sales staff for more details”.

In both situations I describe I was not in a busy store and I knew what I wanted and was ready to buy (indeed in the case of the camera I have undertaken at least 6 weeks of online research). In the Nike store the same staff member walked past me holding my shoes on four occasions and despite me waving at him twice he ignored me. At JB Hi-Fi there were at least nine staff working but none would deign to help me.

Now at this point some of you will be saying: why didn’t you go up to one of them and ask for help. I immediately concede that that is something I could have done and if the products I was buying were essential rather than discretionary I would have. However, last time I checked I was, in both situations, the customer and the service staff in both establishments were employed to serve me as a customer.

With all of this going on this afternoon I kept thinking to myself: how can retailers in this country continue to run the “woe is us” line they trot out seemingly on a monthly basis that the internet is killing their businesses when they do not employ people who are capable of or inclined to actually serve customers? I was ready to spend $250 on a camera (a cheapie but a supplement to my good camera) and $200 on the Nike deal I had seen advertised and neither store ended up getting the benefit of my trade and nor will they in the future. I wonder how many other sales they lost out on today or lose out in a week because of bad customer service?

I also had reverberating through my mind a question that I have posed in an earlier blog: would I have received the same service if the staff at both establishments were on commission only rather than an hourly rate? I am more than a bit certain that I would have been served virtually immediately as I must have been fairly obviously a motivated buyer (I had the shoes in a the box in my hand for 10 minutes before I put them down and left the store). Maybe that is the answer for Gerry Harvey and his cohorts who bemoan the online trade: make your service staff earn their wage!

I have, in the hour that I have been home, purchased the camera online at an alternate store to JB Hi-Fi for a cheaper price and have reconsidered my purchase of another pair of training shoes. I can’t say that I will never go into a JB Hi-Fi store again (I have a $50 voucher from Christmas to use up) nor that I will not buy another pair of Nike shoes again however I concede that after today I think I will be much more likely to shop online than hit the shops.