We took off the morning to sort out some personal things again. It sometimes feels we need to do this in order just to get everything done!
Never have I experienced so much bad service from so many different companies than I did yesterday.
The Bad
Postnet – Greenacres
We were greeted with the most uninterested person after having stood around a bit. To have a few A3 prints done, he told us to get into the queue to use the computers to do it ourselves. There are 2 computers that were already busy with 2 people standing in the queue already. I looked at the counter and saw 2 staff members standing around doing nothing. How stupid is this I thought, as I’m sure they could do the printing for us instead of having us wait in a queue for people busy using the Internet! Not wanting to spoil our mood we just decided to leave and go make use of another shop.
Fennel’s Appliance and Leisure – Newton Park
I wanted to find out more information on running a complete household, or at least as many appliances as possible, from gas sources. We went into Fennel’s in Newton Park to check what they’ve got and get some advice. They’ve got a nice show room and we saw that everything we would need would be available here. After waiting about 10 minutes we got a lady to help us and explain various things to us. All the while the phone kept on ringing and ringing. I initially thought she must be the only person in the building but I did see other people there. No one answered the phone though. Getting annoyed I told her just to answer it. This kept on happening the whole time we were in the shop talking to her. Up to a point where I couldn’t handle it any more and decided to rather leave and find someone else to help. I just don’t understand why you could have a sales person on the floor that needs to walk around and answer phone calls every 2 minutes. I don’t blame her obviously, because it’s not her fault.
Traumerei Restaurant and Coffee Bar – Moffet on Main
While waiting for some printing we went to a coffee shop in Moffet on Main. I was amazed to be met by a grumpy looking lady. We felt very unwelcome and decided that after our cup of coffee, even though we were hungry as well, we’d rather leave. This is the second time we’ve been at Traumerei and left with a bad experience behind us. The first time we were there the waitress and the chef weren’t getting along. The result was we waited about 20 minutes to get our breakfast and were told countless times how stupid the chef is being. All the time with, what seemed like, the manager sitting there not doing anything about it.
Voltex – Albany Road
7 customers standing at the counter, 1 sales rep busy helping while other employees are just walking around not offering any help. The counter has place for 5-6 people to sit there, so where are all the people that are supposed to help us? The one person actually helping someone was sitting there talking about personal matters to the client. They were obviously friends, and this carried on all the time while we were all standing waiting to be help. The employees seemed more interested in their year end party arrangement and to vote for people within their company that “kiss the best”, “dressed the worse during the year” and things like that. Yes, these were all discussed quite loudly and excitedly by several staff members standing and walking around ignoring the customers. I finally got helped, and when I went to wait at the collections counter, which also had about 5 people waiting there the clients were clearly not happy having waited there for so long as well. At least my stuff came quickly. Next time I’ll pay 40% more to rather buy the stuff from a place like Builders Warehouse.
Nelson Mandela Metropole Traffic Department Security Services
After visiting a friend last night to greet her before leaving for Cape Town, we stopped off at our beach’s parking lot. It was just getting dark and I noticed that there was a vehicle stuck on the beach. Driving on the beach is illegal of course, and I didn’t even offer to help the person. Even though we were there with our 4×4, tow ropes and everything that was needed. Instead I opted to phone the police who instructed me to phone the traffic department security services. I did this because I feel that people like that are going to prevent us from getting beach driving legalised again. This was around 19:30. The traffic department assured me they were going to dispatch a vehicle to the scene. At 21:30 I got a call from a friend who told me they had just helped someone on the beach that was stuck. I asked about where it was and it turned out to be the same person we saw earlier. So 2 hours later the traffic department had not showed up. What’s the use in telling the public to report any wrong doings if nothing gets done about this? What makes it worse is that I know there are at least 2 traffic officers that live in Bluewater Bay, no more than 1km away from the beach parking lot.
The Good
The whole day was not bad though! We did also receive excellent value for money service from a few other companies.
4×4 Megaworld Port Elizabeth
I’ve been going to Kurt from 4×4 Megaworld in Port Elizabeth since I got my vehicle about 3 years ago. At that point he was the only 4×4 store that I really knew about, so that’s why I initially used him to fit all our equipment. Since then I haven’t purchased any major stuff again, but every time we go Kurt he is more than willing to help us out with things, as small as they might be. I needed to fit a new bash plate, have my winch repaired and my canopy sealed so I took my vehicle in during the morning and got it back, as promised, a bit later in the day. Everything done and checked. He even checked my spot lights while I was standing there because I forgot to ask him about it. I know the other 4×4 shop owners on a personal level, but have never really done business with them, so I cannot say anything about how they are in business terms. Kurt on a business level is a pleasure to deal with though.
Postnet – Moffet on Main
I’m not biased because we know the owners of the store, but whenever we go in there the staff are so friendly and we get helped with what we need. Even when we don’t know exactly what we need they help us by providing us with choices. After our bad experience with the Greenacres branch, we went there and within minutes we were helped and our stuff sorted out.
Pet Christmas Shop – Kings Court
This is a cute little store in Kings Court that provides Christmas presents for your pets. I don’t recall the exact name now though! It’s a nice little store, and the toys for the dogs are at least 30-40% of what you’d pay in other stores. We actually checked this later in the day and were amazed how much cheaper they are. The lady helping us was very friendly and more than helpful. Giving advice about what people have said about the various toys, leashes, etc. She also went up to each person that came into the store and greeted them. It was a bit odd at first, but I realised that we’re just not used to getting such good service perhaps.
What is service about then?
It’s easy to give someone bad service, I know we’ve slipped up in the past. Probably more than we should’ve. We however pro actively try and guard against it now to ensure that if something does happen we try and rectify it. My thinking on it is if you do provide bad service, at least apologise and try and make up for it. We’re all human, we make misakes, no one is perfect. The three most important words are, “I am sorry”.
I also don’t always expect wonderful service, but when you have a day like yesterday and it just keeps on slapping you in the face the whole time you wonder what is going wrong?
I have a theory though. Perhaps because it’s so close to the end of the year, people can already taste holiday, but yet they’ve got to work for another month. It’s stressful with not a lot of people having had a chance to take off this year, and perhaps it’s overwhelming that another year has passed.
