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Monday, December 17, 2007

Service level in sydney.. in torns and tatters

I keep forgetting, how UNSERVICE oriented people in sydney can be. Enough of the "How are you" greetings when I enter a store or paying my stuff at the counter, can i expect real good service please?

Sales staff who promise to call never calls. From car aftersales, house movers, to David Jones salesmen, to sales from any retail store from major mall. The only people who will ever call you back are the housing agents, and that is only because THEY get to benefit from you if they make a sale by calling back. Otherwise, there is absolutely NO INCENTIVE for anyone one to do followup calls to their customers or potential customers.

I have been here for months now, and repeatedly, I am constantly being "promised" to be called back in several occasions such as : "when the new running short stock comes in.." (sport retail store sales rep) , " to confirm if there is another Tshirt in stock in other brances" (DJ store rep), "confirm if there is the white colour of the new car you bought" (VW sales rep), "when the new stock for the toothbrush holder arrives this week" (Household retail store sales rep) etc etc. The list goes on but the above examples are suffice to make my point. They NEVER ever call back. No matter where or who I made the purchase.

I heard they are paid average $28/per hour (i have yet to verify the fact but i am not surprised) for a shop girl. Yet their sales attitude is appalling. They don't care. I mean it. The people who work here have no pride, no ownership, calculative and only care about their "rights". For a person like me who has long "grown accustomed to decent customer service oriented business strategies" employed by most retails worth their salt, am left shocked, in disbelief in the lack of care in Sydney's service industry.

Take for today for example when I was in Coles to pick up a chicken and some eggs. It is 4pm, a non peak hour and hence I got into an empty counter lane with my basket place on the counter top. I have in hand 3 other grocery shopping bags and I was struggling to get my purse out of my bag singlehandedly. The woman behind the counter just stood there and did nothing. She just stood there. It didnt register to me what the issue was as I had a lot in my plate that instant. As i moved closer to her, she stared at me and snapped "Take it out of the basket". So THAT was the problem for her. I didnt "obediently" take the wrapped chicken and a carton of 6 eggs and placed it on the conveyor and hence she REFUSED to proactively served me. Instead, she rather watch me struggle, while she just stood there empty-handedly and FREE. It would be TOO MUCH to expect her to just help me take the groceries out of the basket and scan it for my payment. Agreeable that its a common habit here to unload your own groceries unlike in Singapore and HK where the cashier wouldnt mind if they pick it up from the basket, would it be unreasonable for the cashiers in sydney to cut some slack here? They simply would NOT do anything that they think isnt their job.

And mind you, I have to be careful if I should complain officially (hence my venting of frustration unofficially), the last thing I need is someone accusing me of picking on the indian lady at the counter...for "doing" her job - which is doing NOTHING to help me.

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