Why is it always cloudy when you want to stare at the moon?

Should a person ever be yelled at by a cashier?

"You are bothering me" "You are Stupid" "You are wasting my time"

interesting things to be coming out of a cashiers mouth. Luckily I was not the person being yelled at or the store manager and head office would have both gotten quite a piece of my mind. However, although I wasn't the person being yelled at, I was the next person in line, who was lucky enough to bear witness to the drama unfolding in front of me. After 5 minutes of fighting back and forth, a manager finally came over. Tried to calm down the customer, tried to remove the staff member from the area politely (not very successful at this, the staff member didn't want to leave) and after another 5 minutes of conversation, I was told I should move to another cash register. No apology to me (not expected, but would have been a nice touch) just getting pushed along to the next person who would then start grilling me, the innocent bystander as to what happened.

So I didn't think much of the situation... The store was Winners, you don't exactly go there for the customer service. I thought it might turn into a funny story, the day that the cashier threw her hands up and told the world that customers were a waste of her time and bothering her!

A week later I was at a different Winners, and was absolutely amazed. Not only was the store clean (and new) but I actually had someone come up to me while I was shopping and ask me if they could help me with anything. I was so impressed that I figured that this level of service was something winners was moving toward and that I should just keep going into new stores and could find service levels like this.

Proven wrong again.

Winners just opened a big new store at Dufferin and Steeles. I happened to be in the area opening a restaurant and decided to go for a walk over. I had an hour and a half to kill before going to see my trainer 5 minutes away and figured I would have plenty of time to check out my standard departments (shoes and handbags)

I was overjoyed when I finally found the perfect cosmetics bag! I have a lot of business travel coming up over the next month and need something to keep my life semi organized while living in a hotel. It was opening day at this new winners, so I had expected it to be a bit busier than normal... What I didn't expect was to walk into a new winners and turn around and never want to go back.

Walked to the cash and was happy to find a line with only one person in front of me. "No problem," I thought. I still had 30 minutes to get to my trainer 5 minutes away.

The person in front of me was slow. She was waiting for a price check on something, but within 2 minutes, the person came back, said "its $6.99" and the cashier typed in the number.

My turn. Damn, price is missing off the bag. Cashier calls a manager who goes and finds out the style number and price. No problem, I figure same as the person before me, she can just type in the information he has given her. For some reason though, the manager feels the need to make a ticket for the item, I ask why it is necessary and he says it will only take a minute...

5 minutes later, he has still not come back....

10 minutes pass....

I am now late for my appointment.

I really cant wait any longer cause my trainer is more important than a cosmetics case. So I go to find the manager and ask why it is taking so long. "It is just going to be another minute..." I have heard that line before... Luckily, my mom was there too.... I ask her to pay for the bag for me, and leave the store. As I am walking to my car, I have such a bad taste in my mouth about the service I have received... Never an apology that I call my mom and tell her to forget it. I don't want to have a bag with the association of bad service. I remember where I buy things and stories behind them. Why would I want to wake up in the morning out of town and look at a bag that put me into a really bad mood?

She thinks I am being silly, I have been on a hunt for this for a long time and have not been able to find anything I have liked as much, so she says it is me that is missing out, not the store. She is probably right, but having my own mini protest makes me feel better regardless.

BOYCOTT WINNERS!

Once in a while I am reminded why I pay more money at other stores for the same thing. Customer service really is worth it to me.