No Wonder Offline Businesses Are Struggling

Thumbs Down to bad business!
Thumbs Down to bad business!

You know, I am no longer amazed at the number of off line businesses going under these days, IMO, I think some probably deserve to be going under and here’s my rant why. They would like to blame it on the bad economy, but in some cases I think they need to take a look internally at their bad business practices involving customer service!

My neighbor went to a Batteries Plus store to get a replacement battery for his PALM iQue 3600 and was told by one clerk (on a Monday) they had it and he could come back on Friday to get it. Me neighbor went in that Friday to pick it up (as told) and ended up chatting with another person that had no clue of what was going on, and only kept asking him if he called in to make sure it had arrived. He told them no because no one told him to etc. He ends up talking to a few more people and then gets told it would be ordered and to call on Monday. He does, and again talks to someone who does not have a clue – but supposedly gets it ordered … again (for the 3rd time). There was so much more to the story then this (annoying stuff) but I think you get the point.

My neighbor is now telling me this story (on Wednesday last week) and he still had not got a battery. I told him, “let me use the “power” of the Internet and some places I know of that sell batteries online. ” My neighbor is not one to do things online (one of those who is still nervous about doing stuff online). The Batteries Plus store was going to charge him over 30 bucks for a replacement battery. I ended up finding him one on Amazon for 1/2 that – $15 total including ship, and get this – he got it on SATURDAY (3 days later – after two weeks of putting up with that store), put it in and it works great.

The funny thing is he called the Batteries Plus store to cancel the other order, and they were like – “What order?” WTF?!??! What an amazing group of idiots running that store! Maybe I will share the store location later, as they could use a lesson in not putting the “cus” in customer service!

Far too often, I see bad business like this happening – businesses not giving a crap about customer service. This battery store lost their business to an online business, and one of the perks for buying off line is supposed to be the chance to interact with people face to face supposedly to receive real customer service.  If the offline businesses are going to stay in business, they must do a better job at customer service or people will just go and find what they are looking for online when they have finally had enough!

Responses on Twitter or Facebook:

Kat – 1000% agree with the premise on this one, Mat – EXACTLY what I was talking about the other day with MS….

3 thoughts on “No Wonder Offline Businesses Are Struggling

  1. Gently says:

    Hi there. As a Batteries Plus employee I would like to apologize for this stores misfits. If they had done there job correctly this would be a non issue.
    I can assure you most/if not all of the locations are ran with a higher
    degree of quality and customer service. I hope this doesn’t turn you away from giving Batteries Plus a second chance.
    I would like to note two things though. #1 All of the Li-ion batteries in our stores are made to a high degree of quality and often we see folks who have nothing but bad fortune on-line. Not to say they are all bad but #2 our batteries come with a 1 year warranty which far outweighs most of the on-line merchants’ warranties for these batteries.

    But, again to the main point, I would suggest that the manager of that
    location at least be notified so he/she may be able to correct the
    problem with the customer and the employees. Thanks for posting!!

  2. Mat Siltala says:

    @Gently
    I appreciate you coming forward and offering an apology, but I hate to say my neighbor has told me he’s never going back. I showed him this response and he mentioned they had their chance already. If you are a Batteries Plus employee and are reading this – take note that the customer needs to be taken care of BEFORE this kind of a situation happens! Its a good rule of thumb! I do appreciate your comments though!

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