Christmas Customer Service Comes Early

When it comes to online shopping, even this self-confessed technophobe is a Paypal-armed sure-shot. But even in these days of armchair consumerism we’re still forced from time to time to remind ourselves what an actual shopping centre looks like and what it means to be served face to face by something more human than a search engine.

In the last week I’ve pounded high streets, suffocated in department store elevators, driven to obscure retail parks, and been offered hard cash to relinquish my Bluewater parking space, in a bid to tick off everything on a gift list which seems to grow and mutate with every passing conversation.



Good customer service still exists
 Sore heels and battered debit card aside, I can happily report that my long-bruised faith in customer service has been given a long deserved enema over this festive period.

At the top end of the scale I’ve been looking for a sofa from English supplier Wesley Barrell to grace the drawing room of the house my family and I are moving into over Christmas. Reputed as it is for its horse-hair padded, coil-sprung construction techniques, Wesley Barrell sofas don’t come cheap. Fortunately for my meagre funds the supplier has an outlet store which receives new weekly deliveries. The bad news for this south-east Londoner is that the outlet store is situated a motorway-away in Oxford. Enter, Wesley Barrell’s Richelle, who from her Oxford outlet store has been snapping digital photograph’s of chairs which fit the description I’ve given her, which Richelle then emails me with alarming regularity. Being a fussy SOB I have yet to find my perfect match, although my barrage of turn-downs have yet to deter Richelle, much to her credit. Now, you may cynically argue that such service comes with Wesley Barrell’s territory, but I disagree. Being last season’s merchandise, these sofas are priced to sell and come the weekend they generally do. What Richelle has been kind enough to do over the last fortnight has been to arm me with merchandise information as soon as new stock arrives in store, giving me the opportunity to steal a march on Wesley Barrell’s Saturday shoppers.



Halfords too almost scores top marks
At the other end of the scale, I’ve received equally admirable service from car supplies chain Halfords. Poppy, my soon-to-turn-three-year-old daughter, is almost as obsessed by cutesy Japanese cartoon character Hello Kitty as she is by the colour pink, and has been asking for a bicycle for months. No points for guessing what’s topping her Chrimbo list this year, but plenty of points and financial reward for anyone who can lay their hands on a pink Hello Kitty bike.

After some research I discovered that Halfords stocks such as item. So I called a local branch in Catford, only to be told ‘Computer says no’, albeit in fewer words. After a few similar conversations with other nearby Halfords branches I rang the Old Kent Road store where I spoke to Vaidas, a bicycle enthusiast who promised he would find me a Hello Kitty bike. An hour later he called back, having spoken to colleagues around the country, with news that he had found one in the north-east, and that it would arrive at his store by Tuesday.





The White Company could do better
Of course, not all my tales are as congratulatory. Yesterday, at a mobbed Bluewater store belonging to The White Company I enquired about the availability of a cushion in a larger size than that on the shopfloor. The till team called to an anonymous shopfloor colleague who, armed with the query, disappeared into the back room in a blur of blonde without so much as a nod in my direction. After five uncomfortable minutes of being jostled by a swarm of perfumed punters I asked the till staff for an update. They promptly called out to the mystery blonde who had apparently returned to the shopfloor four minutes and 30 seconds ago with the larger sized cushion which she had hidden behind the counter without telling anyone let alone the ruddy customer waiting for the item.



Thankyou God for the Richelles and Vaidons of the world, and please if it’s not too much trouble perhaps we could have a few more. Ot at least until online shopping extends to Wesley Barrell’s outlet store and is able to scour all of Halfords’ country-wide branches.  Source URL: http://icip2idayusof.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-customer-service-comes-early.html
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