Complain about a product or service

Kmart

Customer Service

Christina of Southaven MS (12/21/01):
I have spent right at two thousand dollars in your store in the last two weeks. Yesterday, I went in to buy an advertised product and, as usual, there were none in stock. A man I asked for help, Mr. Earl W, offered to go to another store and have the product there the next night and asked me to come there for 7pm tonight to pick it up. I was there only he wasn't, he was off tonight.

I asked another manager, before finding out Mr. Wilson was off, for assistance. This manager told me I could go walk around the store and see if I see him or ask someone else if they had seen him. I asked for him to be paged and he said he wouldn't do it ... find him myself. A cashier paged Mr. Wilson and asked around and found out he was off. The cashier was very friendly.

This is not the first horrific experience I have had with Kmart. I said that the last time was so bad that I would never shop there again. I want you to know that everyone I have talked to about Kmart says the same thing as me. The stores are so poorly run that Kmart will not survive unless new management is put in soon. None of your managers know how to work in public. I'm done with Kmart and the rest of my Christmas gifts will come from Wal-Mart.The employees know how to treat their customers at Wal-Mart.

Cynthia of Tampa (12/7/01):
I went to Kmart last spring. I was 38 weeks pregnant and needed a few final things before the blessed arrival. I carried my then-14-month-old daughter into the Kmart store, where I walked slowly past 3 associates talking (loudly, and not about work). I tried to get a cart with a safety belt. The first 2 had none. The third had one, but it was stuck inside another cart. I tried 4 or 5 times to pull it loose, to no avail.

I looked over and saw the customer service (HA!) desk. There was a tall male manager there, watching me. When I began to ask for help, he suddenly turned and walked away. The 3 associates were still chatting away. I turned around, and another customer had left during this time (apparently) so there was a cart parked next to this nest of 2 hens and a rooster cackling away. It had a safety belt - yeah! I made the comment to them as I walked away that I guess they were on break.

I needed picture frames - got them. I needed laundry baskets - got them. I needed a rocking chair. Couldn't find them. I searched for an associate near the RTA furniture. It's right next to Layway (and apparently the employee lounge) so there were 2 employees there. As I walked toward the associate with a rolling work cart, she looked at me, and then noticed another employee. As I said "excuse me" for help, she quickly turned to her right and began telling the other woman how glad she was that it's time for her to leave.

I loudly said again "excuse me". Nothing. "I can chase you I guess, but I'd rather not" was my next line. The older woman finally turned to me. "Yes" was her response. She then pointed me to another aisle - "I think they might be over there, if we still carry them. I'm not sure." I wasn't sure where she was pointing as she turned and walked back to her buddy.

I wrote a letter to the store and to the coporate office. I have heard NOTHING. And Kmart wonders why they are sinking!

David of Santa Rosa, CA, writes: At about 5PM on Saturday, Ocober 28,2000, my girlfriend and I went to the local K-MART to get a rain poncho, some socks and some toiletries. The man in the sporting goods department (I forget his name) was helpful enough. He answered our questions about a poncho (that I needed for an outdoor football game that I was going to attend the very next day) and even let us open the package to see if the poncho fit properly. It did, so we thanked him for his help and we proceeded to do the rest of our shopping in the store and after picking up several items, we went and got into line.

The front was full of long lines, but I'm in retail, so I know that it sometimes gets so busy that a store can't always keep up with the "traffic." So I don't get very impatient while waiting in line in places of business. But here is what happened.

After standing in line for at least 5 minutes (which can seem more like 10 minutes sometimes), the cashier turned off her light and told the rest of the line (there were 3 other customers in front of us and 2 or 3 more behind us)that her line was now closed and that we would need to find another line to stand in.

My girlfriend was furious but not nearly as vocal and profane in language as the man who was directly in front of us. He shouted to the cashier that he was told by ANOTHER cashier in ANOTHER line to come to this particular line. The cashier again said that this line was closed and left the checkstand. The man in front of us shouted that this was a bunch of "baloney" (that wasn't his precise wording, but his exact words are too profane for this website) and he stormed off. He only had one item (a magazine) but he did get into another line.

I told my girlfriend that we should go to the sporting goods department and see if we could purchase the poncho there. She said that that was fine with her, so we put the rest of the merchandise (some socks for her, a VHS blank tape for me and some toiletries for the both of us) on a nearby shelf. I know, that wasn't nice, but we weren't in the nicest of moods at this point. We went back and paid for our poncho in the sporting goods department with no hassle.

My girlfriend was still mad when we left the store. She reminded me that that is why she wanted to go to WAL-MART in the first place, because they had better prices AND better service. I guess that I should have listened to my girlfriend. My question to you all is this: Is this a common procedure at K-MART? If it is, I never experienced before October 29th of 2000.

This was not an earth-shattering or devastatingly bad day in my life and I wouldn't pretend like it was. But it was definitely an inconvenience, not only to my girlfriend and I, but also to several other customers in front and back of us in line. And, having worked in retail for more than 16 years, I realize that this is embarrassingly bad customer service. My girlfriend was frustrated and angry. She hasn't been back to K-MART since and says that she'll never go back there again.

From what we read, Kmart is steadily losing market share to Wal-Mart, Kohls, Target and others. They seem to have lost track of some of the basics of retailing.

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