12 July 2009

letter to Bashas' customer service

Below is the text of an email that I just sent to Bashas' customer service. I expect stupidity from teenaged cashiers, but managers with 36 years in the business...
I just got home from a trip to your Camp Verde store. While there, I had an experience that I think you should be aware of.

While in the produce section, I chose to pick up some cucumber. I looked to see the price and was first pleased, then astounded. It was supposed to be listed for 79¢, but someone had erred and posted .79¢! If I were unscrupulous enough to point this out to a manager and force the issue, I could get 100 cucumbers for the price that one was supposed to cost!

As I headed out of the produce section, I noticed that the same error had been made on kiwi fruit and on honeydew melons. I can only assume that other items were mis-marked as well, but I could have easily obtained several hundred pounds of produce for five dollars or less, according to the posted prices.

I called this to the attention of my cashier, who insisted to me that the decimal was absolutely necessary in order to indicate "cents" (he's very, very wrong). Instead of arguing with a dumb high-schooler, I chose instead to point the issue out to the customer service manager. He made a small excuse or two and seemed similarly unaware of how significant an error in labelling that was. On my way out the door, I noticed that my cucumber (marked at ".79¢ ea.") had actually cost me 89¢! Rather than press the issue, I walked outside and related this story to my wife, who was as amused and disappointed as I.

I don't really know if there is some sort of restitution that I should be asking for here, but I WOULD really appreciate if you could make sure that your employees understand the difference between marking an item as "seventy-nine cents" and marking it as "seventy-nine hundredths of a cent" (or simply stop using the "¢" symbol in your produce section).

Hope this helps!

2 comments:

eric said...

Stephen: just got around to reading this and hate to say I am not surprised. you might be amazed at how often I run into this at the university, often from people (economists, engineers, and MBA candidates, among others). sometimes it is carelessness or sloppiness. unfortunately, it is all too often either ignorance or a lack of thinking. sometimes it is worse than that-either not knowing or apathy. I'm starting to claim it and own it. if they guarantee their pricing I'm holding them to it. I'll even bring my checkbook and let the bank sort it our. let's hope seren and porter do better

Unknown said...

I've always wanted to say to such an establishment: "Here's a penny. Keep the change!" :)