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Competitors, here I come...

Posted Thu October 29, 2009 8:51 pm, by Kerry T. written to Lowe's

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About three to four weeks ago I went to Lowe's in Danbury, CT to look at kitchen cabinets. I was told I needed to make an appointment in order for someone to help me because there was already an appointment scheduled for that evening. I proceeded to make an appointment for the following night. Nathan worked with me to design a kitchen. I called Lowe's on Monday October 26th to make an appointment to order my cabinets. Nathan had originally told me I could order the cabinets with anyone. Anyone could help me; I did not have to order them with him. When I made the appointment on Monday, Nathan told me I had to come in when he was available. He could not accommodate me until Thursday October 29th at 6pm.

I walked into Lowe's for my 6pm appointment this evening. Nathan was helping someone, so I waited. At 6:20pm, I asked how much longer he would be. He told me he was just finishing up and would be right with me. At 6:30pm, Nathan was still nowhere close to being finished helping someone else who had now run a half hour into MY scheduled appointment time. Nathan did not offer to have anyone else come to help or pay me any mind. Frustrated, I walked to the front of the store to speak with the store manager regarding the issue. Ron, I was told, was the store manager. I went over to speak with him regarding the poor treatment and customer service experience. Ron could not have been more rude or arrogant. He acted completely bothered that I even went over to speak to him. He interrupted me several times while I was speaking to tell me to listen to him. When I stopped speaking to listen to him, he still offered no advice. It was as if he was looking through me as he spoke. His lack of customer service was appalling. He stated that Nathan would be done momentarily. I explained that when I came in on previous occasions, I could not be helped because other appointments would be coming. Why did the man currently with Nathan have preference over me? Ron (without returning to the Kitchen department to see what was actually going on) stated that Nathan was done with the customer. This statement was untrue. I had left the store and walked back in to find Nathan still sitting with the other man. As a manager, Ron lied to a customer. He offered no sympathy or solutions to the problem.

The customer is always right. As a well educated individual with many years of customer service behind me, I am fully aware this is no way to treat your customers. Nathan showed poor time management skills and customer service. He did not even acknowledge me, with an appointment, waiting for over a half hour. Ron is a complete disgrace to your company. As a manager myself, I would never have an individual like him representing my company.

I want Lowe's to take responsibility for their actions. Many other options could have been formulated in order to change the outcome of this dreadful experience with Lowe's. Another employee could have come to help or Nathan could have set up another appointment for the customer he had been working with since he had gone over his allotted time. Both Ron and Nathan need a refresher course in customer service. I will never purchase another item at the Danbury, CT Lowe's. I want proof these employees would be reprimanded (at the very least). If no action takes place to reprimand Nathan and Ron, I can assure you I will never shop at Lowe's again. Neither will anyone else in my family. It is truly disgusting that your employees would treat their customers in this manner.

Lowe's: Let's Build Something Together. What a joke.


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by Lucky Dave Posted Thu February 25, 2010 @ 9:00 PM

I am a Kitchen Cabinet Sales specialist at a Lowes store in Ann Arbor
Michigan , and I need to tell you how I handle this situation. First I
need to say that having an appointment is an unfortunate necessity.
You don't alway need an appointment, but it does help. There are
usually 2 trained persons in an average Lowes store, that know
anything about kitchen design, the computer program we use and the
mechanics of cabinetry we offer. Saying that, given our days off as
full time associates, we very rarely have both of us on duty at the
same time. Now, for how I handle this situation. First off, if you
called me to make an appointment on a certain day and time and I am
not scheduled, I will make myself available to you at your
convenience, even if it means getting management approval to
re-arrange my schedule to accomodate you. Secondly, if you have an
appointment with me and another customer comes in before our
appointment, I will let the walk-in customer know right up front that
I have an appointment coming in and that I can work with them until
you arrive, or I can set an appointment time for another day. Most
customers will understand this. I hate making appointments, but when
a person is planning a big project like a kitchen, it is important to
give them the best undivided attention they deserve. After all, the
customer pays my paycheck, not Lowes and customer service is the most
important item we should be selling. There are signs posted in our
department letting customers know to schedule an appointment to make
the best use of your time, so its always best to plan ahead. You don't
spend thousands of dollars on a spur of the moment thing for sure. I
am sorry this situation happened to you and hope you will understand
that we do try hard to accomodate our customers. It is frustrating to
us as designers that when we are not scheduled, there are not trained
persons to do what we do.This happens in most businesses, but we are
working hard to train associates to do the basics, so our customers
can be taken care of at all times during our business day. Thank you
for listening.

Reply
by Di&Bill1002 Posted Wed January 6, 2010 @ 9:43 AM

Did you know that only a few people are usually trained to work the
cabinets department in pretty much any home improvment store. Lowes
and Home Depot usually have about 3 people working that department
that know the software they use. Customer service is on a first come
first serve basis and they recomend you make an appt so that they can
work their schedule around it.

I am sorry you are mad about nothing. The cabinet salesperson was
just doing his job. Do you know how long it takes to design a
kitchen? Well if the customer keeps changing his mind like most
people tend to it can take a couple of hours. So maybe that customer's
appt was running behind, but as the other person who replied to you
said what was he suppose to do kick him out. You don't go to the
doctor for a medical procedure and then if he runs behind he doesn't
kick you out and say oh I am sorry surgery will have to be finished
another day my next appt is here.

Yes the manager may not of treated you the greatest but he had his
hands tied offend you or go back and offend the other customer. I am
not sure why everyone now days thinks they are more important then
anyone else. I am sure that lowes was happy with the other customers
money just as they would of been with yours. I am sorry but I think
it is silly when people complain about things like having to wait to
be served when someone is working with another customer. So you see
the solution you suggested about having someone else come and assist
you was probably not possible since I am betting your sales associate
was the only one there at the time that could do cabinets.



Reply

by NathanG Posted Sat October 31, 2009 @ 11:28 AM

If that other customer had an appointment as well would it have been
right that you kick him to the curb to take his spot? What if you sat
down to talk to the associate and someone showed up with a 6:45
appontment and he kicked you out saying "sorry my next appontment is
here".

I have had this happen several times. You setup an appointment and
something happens and it may take a little bit.

Didnt sound like it was Nathan's fault for taking care of the customer
who was already there. Obviously it was something major if it took
over 30 minutes.

As for the manager he was kind of stuck in the same situation, if he
kicks out the other customer he would need to deal with him instead of
you. Was he rude? I dont know, but it didnt sound like you were very
patient.

Reply




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