Adam "AcmePhoto" N.'s Profile

Worst customer service ever. Very Rude!

The morning of 2008-02-15 was the date.  I know because I'm a photographer and looked up a photo I took that day. I was working on a photo project and sharing a car w/ my wife because the other car was in the shop.  After dropping her off at work & an errand I had nearly an hr to kill before meeting another photographer to carpool to the job. (leaving car at wife's work)

I was in the market for a new cell phone case & bluetooth so I figured now was a good time to browse the wireless toys after stopping at BofA across the street.

The store was very clean with a nice curb appeal from the street.  Is Sunnyslope moving up in the world, was rent expensive, oh well lets go shopping.

After walking into the virtually empty store the first thing I saw was Sprint / Nextel.  Being a blackberry & gadget freak I knew Sprint had the newest blackberry and I wanted to look.  (Think it was a curve @ the time)

I looked at the smartphone demo's, then an employee came over and asked if I was Sprint.  I said, "No Tmobile, but I have a blackberry."  She said that Tmobile was over there (back of store) and I said Thanks and headed over there.

I was in no hurry and was enjoying leisurely shopping in the TMO section.  The female associate asked if she could help me after a few minutes.  I told her I was looking for a case for my blackberry  that had a magnet so I could utilize the profiles for "when holstered" as I like it to vibrate when in holster before ringing.  She 1/2 heatedly helped me and showed me a few models then went back to making personal phone calls. (Which I have no problem w/ if nobody needs to be helped... it's a phone store after all!)

I no longer saw the male associate, however another person entered the store, who was a friend / mother of the female associate.  I had been in the store no longer than 10 minutes at this point. The female associate was NOT "hovering" giving me some space, and life was good.  She then came over and said, "Can I help you with anything else"... To which I replied, "Yes"... I said that I used to have a Jawbone bluetooth and loved it, but it broke.  Did they have a good bluetooth that they could recommend.  I said something like "I don't see any bluetooth in this section".  

Note.. I'll often shop deals online (newegg) but if somebody offers great customer service and "sells" me by being informative I'll gladly drop extra $ for the customer service / informative sales person.

The lady said, "We keep them in a different area for security" I said, "Great, can you show them to me?"  She replied with, "No, you're not going to buy anything anyway" and walked away.

WHAT? I have a specific request and indicate that I've previously owned a $100+ bluetooth unit and they don't want to help me?

I was disgusted and insulted.  I figured I'd just leave as I no longer wanted to spend any money after being treated so rudely. I slowly walked toward the door, but decided to check other carriers for new blackberries.  I picked up a brochure for some other cell plan, then less than a minute later the male employee asked me to leave.

I asked why and they said something lame like I wasn't going to buy anything and inferred that me being there made them nervous. (Like maybe I was casing the place or something)  BTW, I was not dressed like a bum or a street person.  I had on decent jeans, shirt and a leather jacket.  I told the employees that I was treated very poorly and felt they were very rude.  On my way out anther customer was entering.  I told the customer that they were rude to me and asked me to leave for no reason.

When I went outside there was another guy outside the store.  I told him the short story and said, "This is odd"... He said something like, "You seem jittery maybe they though you were tweaking"  I told the guy that I had coffee but don't do drugs.

I then went to my car and decided to snap a few photos of the store from the street.  Anybody can take photos from the street, so why not in case I want to flickr and tell my story.  I did this, then the guy outside (guy #2) came out from being in the store.  He said to me  "Do you know where I can get some drugs?"  I sighed and said, "No man, I told you I don't do drugs"...

I start to head to my car (parked in their lot) and then the cops show up.  My problem now was although I did leave the store and even the property to take photos I was still parked on their property.  Oops.  I talked to the cops, they basically heard both sides of the story.  Police said employees said they felt "threatened by me being in their store" I think I'm never supposed to set foot on the property again. Like I'd want to!

Talked to an Ex Cop friend of mine. His thoughts.
Nice fancy store in a crummy part of town.  Maybe they sell "Other stuff" out of the store to make the $$ rent.  Maybe I was too clean of a guy for the hood that made them nervous.  This w/ the dude outside asking me where to score drugs..