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A Preview of Hell

Ignored and insulted in the Charlotte Airport

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I still can't believe this. I've been collecting customer service horror stories (and dreams-come-true stories) ever since I've been a conscious customer. This one belongs in the Pantheon of all-time greats. See if you agree.

Spending an hour changing planes in the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, I decided to sample the modern retail that all airports are installing to distract and drain exhausted travelers. Instead of walking through anonymous terminal corridors, you now walk through anonymous retail corridors — like mediocre malls.

When I spotted Wilsons, I knew they would be able to replace my ragged Daytimer. I had seen the stores before in other airports, but had been too rushed, or pushed, or snarled at to venture in.

This cheery, convenient Wilsons was staffed by three good-looking people with energy. I asked this simple question: “Can you help me replace this Daytimer?”

The manager instantly said, “There is a bigger Wilsons at the other end of this escalator. They have exactly what you want.”

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I turned into the bigger Wilsons and headed for the huge rack of Daytimers, plainly organized ($29.95) ($39.95) ($49.95) in dozens of colors and far too many sizes. Now I had a question.

Another manager was bent over paperwork, as managers are. But a young man in huge pants and the obligatory baseball-cap-on-backwards was standing there, staring straight ahead and drumming to imaginary music. He was wearing a W badge. I went over to him and said, “I need help. Can you tell me about the Daytimers?” “They're over there,” he said.

I asked, “Can you come over and show me? I need to find the right size.”

He moved slowly ahead, toward the shelf.

I said (and I am very clear about this): “You ought to learn your merchandise so you can help me.”

And he said, “You ought to quit being an asshole.”

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I'll repeat that. He said to me, “You ought to quit being an asshole.”

I went to the bent-over manager, who said, “He's new.”

I said, “He called me an asshole.”

The young man then said, “You need to be called an asshole more often.”

At this point, the manager said, “Go into the back room.”

And the young man replied, slowly, inevitably, horribly: “WHAT-EVER.”

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THE MANAGER TURNED TO ME AND SAID, “I DIDN'T HIRE HIM!”

I bought the Daytimer (I needed it, though I felt guilty for buying it there), then called the district manager and left an elaborate, and no doubt stunned, voice message. I then went back to the first Wilsons and told the efficient manager the story. She picked up the telephone and terminated the employee on the spot.

What amazed me then was HOW BAD I FELT HAVING DONE THIS. I had just caused an employee to be fired. I know that the biggest problem in retail today is finding help, of any kind, anywhere. I know that training in retail stores has diminished as the staff turnover has risen, and nobody seems willing to act or spend or fix this, retail's biggest problem.

So we are left with “What-evers” who are new, untrained, undisciplined, sloppy, rude, obscene, apathetic lost souls who kill the entire company every time they open their mouths. But do I feel good about this? No! I have a knot in my stomach just writing about it.

Should I have ignored it?

Should I have stopped after complaining to the first manager?

Should I have spent any money in this store?

The pity of it is that the reputation of the entire company rises and falls on every customer encounter.

I have no doubt that Wilsons'ceo would be just as horrified by this incident (or ought to be), but the average customer never bothers to call the ceo, or a district manager, or anybody. He just walks away. And makes up his mind about the whole 1000-store chain based on that one, single encounter. For me, this will always be the store that called me an asshole, and it might as well have been spoken by the ceo.

And I'm left with these questions:

  • How did that person ever get a job in the store?
  • How was he recruited?
  • How was he hired?
  • How was he trained?
  • How was he supervised?
  • How was he disciplined?
  • Every step of the way, this was a guy who was bound to call a customer an asshole, but none of these checkpoints caught him.

    Contrast the “What-ever” kid with a woman I met recently at Macy's Walnut Creek store. This woman, now over 80 years old, has worked for I. Magnin and then Macy's West for more than 50 years! She is a cosmetics expert, looks the part, and has the kind of fanatical devotion to her work that my “What-ever” kid never dreamed of. This woman, now a legend, once drove 10 miles on a flat tire so she wouldn't be late for work.

    I have received a detailed apology and a gift certificate from the district sales manager. But I still have the word “asshole” ringing in my ears.

    So I guess I did the right thing, although I found myself shaking as I boarded the next plane. As I sat in my (late) flight, I read this in a letter to the editor of USA Today:

    “… my issue was the cavalier, flippant and outright rude service we received from the employees of United Airlines.”

    I went from the frying pan (Wilsons) into the fire (any airline, any day). Service at the airlines is the biggest disgrace in business, but they don't seem to get the message, either. And here, in the airport, you get both airlines and retail, a double-whammy worst of all possible worlds in one convenient location. The airport is a preview of Hell.


    A videotape of Peter's inspiring keynote address to R.A.C. 2000, entitled “It's About Time!,” can be ordered from the Retail Advertising & Marketing Association (RAMA). Phone 312-251-7262; fax 312-251-7269; Internet: www.ramarac.org. Comments? Peter can be reached by e-mail at jasminehill@thegrid.net.

    The biggest problem in retail today is finding help, of any kind, anywhere.

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