I should have known this. I mean, after all it WAS Dustin Hoffman who said it. Had it been Tom Cruise, I'd never agree. Ever. However, it was the Hoff. And yes, it's taken me almost 20 years for that to ring true in my head. I've always known that indeed, KMart sucks. However, it's right in front of our subdivision. Did I just say that? I just realized that we're devalueing our house with KMart there. I better call the neighborhood association. I wonder if we have one....
Anyhoo, I got home from what can only be described as 2 hours of hot and difficult labor. Max was sick, Lucy fell and scraped both knees. All we needed to do was to just make it home. For Googly's sake, the kids were ASKING me to go to bed as soon as we got home. So, we walk in the door, and kabblammo. I smell pooh.
I don't know if Farley the WonderDog's intestinal system is shutting down or if he's just eating bad, (and by bad, I mean, grass, cereal, tootsie pops, and the crotches out of heavily soiled pull-ups) but he butt-puked all over. Yeah, I said it. I'll say it again: Butt-Puke. So, I have one limping kid, one belly-aching kid, and I have to haul them SOMEWHERE to get carpet cleaner. So, I opt for the closest place, KMart. And by the way, I've been in the backwoods of Texas, in some pretty shady KMarts, not as bad as this one. I don't know why I keep going. But this time, I'd justified to myself, and to my pathetically tired and aching kids that it was the closest place.
So, we go in, get the kids settled in a rider basket gig, and get our stuff. It didn't take long, and there was actually a guy who pro-actively asked if he could help me find my paper towels. So that was nice. It's the check out that was bad, (and by bad I mean, made eating the crotch out of heavily soiled pull-ups look like a cake walk). Three of the 12 lanes were open. One had a lady fighting with her last breath of air for a discount on top of a discount with an extra discount. You know the type:
"I think you should take 10% off of this because the box is torn"
"Ma'am, that's why it's 30% off today."
"Well, I want to talk to a manager."
"Ma'am, I am the manager."
"But you're twelve years old."
"Yes Ma'am."
The other one was the line I got into. There was only one lady in the line, and I had two very tired and meek children. So, we went in line. Next thing I know, she needs a price check. When the manager leaves to price check the towel with suspiciously no price tag on it, the checker chick starts in,
"She's taking her sweet ass time because she's pissed at me."
And the effn lady customer with her golf visor actually eggs her on:"Oh, really, why is she mad?"
"Well, I pissed her off earlier and she told me to leave, but I told her no. My dad's the manager."
Really, does your daddy know you're laying your KMart laundry out to some lady and getting a bit liberal with the ol potty mouth while my four-year-old twins are hanging on every word? Where's your daddy now? Do you think he could help us at the check out line? I'm all for cussing, but I have my kid-dar on usually, and I know when to hold em, and when to fold em. That's for sure. Besides, she didn't even use one ioda of creativity with her minor explicatives. It pissed me off.
So, I went to the other guy. And he, my friends, was a moron. The line never moved. The guy was checking out, there was an issue. Eventually there was something that was resolved, the couple pays with cash. The guy takes the cash, looks at it, like "What the hell do I do with this?" and walks away. Yep, walks away. Very slowly. Just walked away with the cash in his hand. I could not believe it. I explained to my kids we were leaving. I did what I rarely have ever done, if ever. I left the full cart there, and walked out.
Max was so sick and tired and I'd promised him a Sprite. So, I just explained in my very proud mommy voice as loud as I could, "Sweety, we'll get that at Super Saver!" And we left.
Kudos to the kid at SuperSaver who was atleast 15 years-old, but very kind, and listened to my very entertaining story. So, now, I forbid myself to go into a KMart. Atleast the one here. I told Max and Lucy when we got in the car, "Kids, the next time mommy says we're going to KMart, remind me that I promised myself I would never do that....ever."
"Okay Mommy. Can I have my Sprite now?"
That's how I roll.
KMart sucks but you rock!
Here's an e-mail I just sent K-Mart. It'll be ignored....but I needed to vent!
2 phone calls and travel to 2 different K-mart locations........2 hours
Gasoline.......$15
FRUSTRATION!...Priceless!
Maybe customer service is not something you train your "customer service" staff on......from where I am sitting, you need to do better. I called the Nimitz store in Honolulu to ask them if they had any ginger bread haunted house kits...after waiting for 15 minutes, they said no and told me to go to the Waikele K-mart. I drove to that store, and they had none either. I asked the customer service member to contact another store to locate the item. She called the Salt-Lake K-mart. She said she spoke to their customer service and they would have one waiting for me at the customer service desk. So I drove over to that store. Not only was it not at the customer service desk, but the store didn't even have any at all. I spoke to the manager at the Nimitz store to get an explanation......No apology, No, "Let me see if I can help you", nothing! He said to drop a comment card in the box! I said that I could do one better, I could e-mail everyone I know and tell them to e-mail everyone they know.
Sadly......many of us customers have come to expect that with cheap prices come cheap service. This is not the first time that I and others I know, have had bad customer service at your stores....you should try getting a clerk to help you find something!
You have a lot of competition in Hawaii......Walmart, Walgreens, Costco, Sam's Club, Long's Drugs..to name a few. Do you have so many customers that you don't care about the service you provide?