Which is worse: no sales associate behind the register, or an associate who stands there, doing nothing, even when the customer asks for help? Not once, but twice in the past week I have directly asked about sizes I couldn’t find on the rack, only to receive a shrug from the staff. The first time, it happened at J.Crew. I was filing through stacks of shirts, unable to turn up a large. I told the employee who was folding at the table next to me and she said "Yeah, those are popular." Not "I’m sorry, we’re all out of that size" or "Here, let me check for you." Eventually, I found one on my own. And when they asked at the register if anyone had been helping me, I promptly replied "No."
It happened again in the men’s department at Macy’s where I was initially delighted to find an employee behind the register, only to discover he had no interest in coming out to help me find a jacket for my dad. They "probably" didn’t have it, he told me. I moved on.
I realize it’s not terribly original to complain about bad service at this time of year, but honestly, retailers should know what’s happening on the front lines.
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I tried to call in Saturday to share my Macy’s good and bad service story of last Thursday. I walked into Rosedale Macy’s jewelry store to get sized for a new ring. There was a nice couple ahead of me, clearly intending to purchase jewelry. A tiny older lady sales clerk was helping them. She completely ignored me for about 4 minutes, after which I said “excuse me, could I use your ring sizer” (figuring I could help myself without BURDENING her). She turned to me–first time she’d acknowledged I was there at all–and said “you’re going to have to wait a few minutes.” I told her never mind, and went off swearing never to shop at Macy’s again. But I had to get something at the cosmetics department where two delightful women fawned over me, cooing about my dry skin, etc. They didn’t quite make up for the jewelry counter experience, but I appreciated their effort.
So, the moral of the story is…Ali should continue to bash Macy’s. They are generally terrible, with a rotten selection of pedestrian clothes and spotty service (at best).
By the way, i was pretty well-dressed when I was there–nice trench coat, 2 david yurman rings, a coach bag and coach flats. I didn’t look like riff-raff off the street!
I will be writing Macy’s Rosedale management a letter.
Thanks, Ali.
There are plenty of these types of situations that drive me crazy. I’m not a firm believer in “the customer is always right,” but I do believe in sales people being friendly, considerate and helpful.
One example: It bugs me when I’m at Target (or somewhere similar) and they put my items in the plastic bag, but leave the bag on the rack and move on to the next person. OK, so I’ll just struggle with the bag, try to pull it off the rack, and bring two more plastic bags with me in the process – while the cashier and the person behind me stand and watch. This has happened to me so many times!
I have had the same good and bad issues with Rosedale Macy’s. I absolutely LOVE BCBG, but the girls who work in that department are a mixture of super sweet helpful & stuck up, too good for you girls. Just last night I had a girl who was SO helpful with my Macy’s card and sizes. I’ve had others look me up and down and not even say hello!! I don’t really care about what I wear shopping and I guess that turns into being treating like dirt by most! The girls at Bobbi Brown in the Rosedale Macy’s are also Awesome. Love, love, love them. A girl down in the dining ware department ALMOST got snotty with me, before she realized I was extremely understanding about prices & sales, and using my card and that I was super sympathetic to her having to work until Midnight all this week!
Moral of the story, Write to Macy’s about all of the good people – because they get rewarded and maybe eventually they will only keep the ‘good ones’.
I miss Marshall Fields and really miss Daytons-and especially their pretty and sturdy holiday shopping bags.I can never find a sales associate at Macy’s to help me-even at this time of year. They are so understaffed. When I finally did find one to ring up my purchase of two heavy boxes of Christmas drinking glasses, the woman tried to shove them in those horrible plastic bags, which were ripping from the weight. We finally found a paper bag but it was too small. This is in the household dept! Macy’s is on par with Kohl’s now-its nothing special like Daytons was.