This is a guest post by  Samantha Milner who regularly provides content from her own personal experiences.

I went to Toys R Us with my friend and our two kids back in 2007 at one of their many stories in England that was part of a really big retail store in Northern England.

We went around the store and picked out lots of things to buy. I had taken my friend with me because I am registered partially sighted and wanted a little assistance and whilst we were in the store my husband kindly waited in the car ready to drive us all back home.

We had a wonderful time but as soon as we hit the till we had major problems with Toys R Us lack of customer service skills. It is so bad that the majority of the staff need to be taken out and completely re-trained.

As I went to pay I used my debit card as usual which is a chip and signature.

These are special cards that are created especially for people that have eye sight problems and mean that instead of putting the pin code in you will sign for it just like we all used to many years ago before they introduced the pin system.

The best part of the chip and signature though is that the shops are totally covered against fraud because the bank takes the losses if fraud is used on the chip and signature card.

This means that the shops don’t have any risks in handling these cards.

However when I went to pay for my goods they refused my card and said that they would only accept it for fraud prevention purposes if I provided a driving licence.

Well how on earth can someone that is partially sighted own a driving license as I am totally lost on this one!!!

However after what felt like a lifetime of discussions my husband came in from the car to pay and we left after some nasty remarks from the staff. This included commenting on the fact that partially people shouldn’t be allowed into shops which left me really shaken especially considering a large queue that was forming behind us.

I can appreciate that not every store is perfect and this is why I walked away without a fight because I was relying on their customer services head quarters to sort the sorry mess out.

But this is when my problems got ten times worse….

I was sent a letter telling me I had lied after complaining in writing with a simple £10 good will gesture voucher (like I would shop in their store again) and no apology. If they had apologised and given me a £50 good will cheque I would have left it there but they didn’t.
Therefore I took the matter to the small claims court and was constantly sent messages from their solicitors which I hated because they had a really nasty tone and treated me like I was the rubbish of the bottom of their shoe. As I am sure you are aware what solicitors of these big companies can be like!!!

In the end I accepted an out of court settlement a week before it was due to go to court and I never received an apology from them for the way they treated me and if they had they would have saved themselves thousands of pounds in legal costs that they also had to pay.

If you experience bad customer service don’t put up with it as then all these big companies will walk all over you. I may have had months of letters but I also got the satisfaction of knowing that they paid the price for how they treated me which is more important than anything.

Plus I have never stepped foot in a Toys R Us establishment since and I used to spend £5,000 a year in there and I am sure I am not the only one to ditch them!

To read more about me and to find out how I  make money online as an  internet marketing expert please visit my Blog:

http://www.myeasyonlinepay.com

Thanks for reading

Samantha
X

Sponsors