What would you do in this situation?

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Hi all - I’m not a parent, but my family had an unusual experience today while we were out doing our final round of Christmas shopping, and they aren’t quite sure if they handled the situation properly. My parents aren’t that great in handling certain social/professional situations since they aren’t originally from the US…although they have really good English and minimal accents, they still have trouble communicatining. Also, sorry if this isnt in the right forum.</p>

<p>Anyway, we were at a shoe store, and I was trying on a pair of shoes my Dad suggested to me, so my parents were focused on me. My boyfriend (college aged, but can be pretty immature) and younger sister (16) were sitting next to us talking. My parents and I were focused on the shoes, and my sister saw a spray bottle, paper towels, and shoe cleaner, and decided to try them out on my boyfriend’s dirty shoes.</p>

<p>That’s where the problem begins. We were on the other side of a half wall that splits the store into clothes and shoes, and the three items were on the back side of a sign. This particular sign said the shoe cleaner was for sale, but we didn’t see it since we were on the other side. My parents noticed that my sister was using it, and my mom told her to stop, while my dad laughed at the fact she was trying to clean shoes. I’m pretty sure one of the sales people saw this happen but didn’t do anything about it. At this point, she stopped, but is on the floor trying to see if the shoe cleaner and water worked, holding the cleaning supplies in her hand. Another salesman sees this and comes over yelling “UH UH UH UH WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! Are you gonna buy that?!” As this is happening, my mom, sister, boyfriend, and I are all confused by his reaction.</p>

<p>Salesman freaks out some more at my sister, comes over and snatches the things out of her hands. My sister and boyfriend are both confused, since they didn’t know that they weren’t using a demo product. Since we were christmas shopping, there were plenty of demo lotions, sprays, foods, etc. out to be used…and my sister says that’s what she thought. That, plus the fact there was a spray bottle and paper towels next to the shoe cleaner. My sister says “I’m sorry, I didn’t know it was something on sale” The salesman doesn’t reply to her…instead he just storms off in anger saying that we’re crazy people and he doesn’t know what’s wrong with us, and he tells this to other customers in the store.</p>

<p>Confused, we walk out the store, and the guy follows us part way in disbelief that we’re leaving. Eventually, after my Mom gets my Dad, they walk back into the store with my sister. The salesman says that we were stealing from the store, so my parents offer to buy the product. Additionally, the man kept yelling at my sister for what she did, even though she apologized, which causes her to start crying. Not a pity cry either…she’s past that point and had already agreed to buy it. She’s always been sensitive so that wasn’t a surprise to me. Anyway, my parents expressed that they felt the salesman was REALLY rude and unprofessional by handling the situation this way…and he just continued defending his actions saying he was “in the right.” My parents asked for corporate’s number, his name, and to see the manager, to which he replied that he’s the manager. (Really?)</p>

<p>So that being said…my parents are still discussing the event since it definitely put a dent in our mood during Christmas shopping. Clearly, the man handled everything unprofessionally, and we feel that an apology should be in order, at least for the fact that he continued to yell at my sister after we were buying the product. Should they leave the situation alone, or try speaking to the manager or corporate office? Were they in the right or was the salesman in the right?</p>

<p>Thanks for your help!</p>

2

<p>If it would make your parents and sister feel better, I would send a letter to corporate letting them know that you feel you were treated rudely and embarrassed in front of other customers. The manager should have handled the situation more discreetly and it will give corporate a “heads up” that they may have an issue with this employee. Some products that are in fact testers will say “tester” on them and I’m not sure why they had paper towels nearby-- it is almost an invitation for someone to demo the product-- and demo “you” did.</p>

3

<p>

That says it all right there. There are some salespeople who are fantastic and go out of their way to help people and handle situatons appropriately and there are some who shouldn’t be in any position where they need to interact with the public. It sounds as if you had one of the latter.</p>

<p>You can pursue this if you want or you can contact whoever his manager is if you’re bothered enough by it but keep in mind he’s a shoe salesman and probably won’t be working there anyway a year from now. I’d probably just drop it and never frequent the store again but OTOH if I was bugged enough by it I might pursue it. </p>

<p>Regardless, your parents and sister were in the right.</p>

4

<p>I would pursue it, or nothing else will change. You should even be able to return this product that you didn’t really need to buy to placate this crazy salesman. If you just choose never to return to the store, corporate will never know what happend. A letter to the corporate office, as well as one to the local store management would do the trick. If the boyfriend can write a letter to the local manager as an observer of this behavior, that would be even more effective.
I know that it is a stressful time for salespeople, but there is no excuse for this service at any time of the year.</p>

5

<p>Do some on line research and make sure you know who the corporate name and address is–then write this information in a letter–try to keep it less than one page–and send it certified signiture mail to that person (still the office person will sign). Do follow through as an example to your family. But do not just send a token letter–write it, file it, make the person acknowledge that they received it. If nothing happens at least you will know that you did try.</p>

6

<p>Did you get the guy’s name?</p>

<p>If you don’t want to go through with writing a letter to corporate, perhaps a phone call to the shop (after Christmas, of course) and asking to speak with the manager would work. You could tell the manager the story and see what happens from there, assuming you were right that the jerk wasn’t actually the manager (seems unlikely to me too). Looks like what you really want is for the company to acknowledge this salesman’s rude behavior and to apologize to you. I bet that would happen if you talked to the right people!</p>

<p>Plus, by waiting a few days, you might find that this one incident really infuriated you at the time but wasn’t that big of a deal in the big scheme of things–so you might not even call at all. Like an above poster mentioned though, if it’s still bugging you then, might as well try to do something about it.</p>

7

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<p>Yeah, this definitely wouldn’t have happened if there weren’t paper towels RIGHT next to the shoe cleaner and spray water bottle in the first place. My sister initially was using the spray bottle while I was trying on shoes with a sales person right next to me, and nobody stopped her then. I guess that contributed to her continuing onto the shoe cleaner.</p>

<p>Thanks everyone for your input! I’ll probably be going to the store to return the thing tomorrow ($15 bucks for shoe cleaner could be better used for somebody’s Christmas present). And my sister will probably get over it soon, since it’s Christmas, but I think it’ll still be good to take action. A guy calling anyone who is obviously a minor names and continuing to insult them after an apology needs to be dealt with. I think that was the biggest problem for me and my parents. We did get his name, but I’m still not convinced he’s the manager.</p>

<p>Do you guys think a phone call to the store/district manager be more effective, or writing a letter to corporate? I honestly was thinking of doing both, but if it’s too over the top, I’ll stick to just one.</p>

8

<p>If you want to do both, what if you called to tell them you were sending a letter then described the situation? Then, if they’re really apologetic and nice, you might reconsider actually sticking it in the mail. And if they’re jerks, you’ve already written it, so might as well add that stamp!</p>

9

<p>Just send a letter or email to the corporate office…it’s not likely to be ignored. I have the utmost sympathy for those in the retail business during holiday times - the long hours, low pay, rude customers, theft, and general lack of appreciation for their efforts would drive me to the brink, but that’s why I’m thankful not to be a shopkeeper! This guy clearly has lost his marbles and does not belong in a retail setting. You should do him the favor of helping to release him so he can go forth and find his true calling.</p>