Kroger’s Crappy Customer Service
Kroger’s Crappy Customer Service
It’s been a long time since I was upset enough to take the time to write a company about their customer service. Here is the letter I have sent them and I will be tweeting about it later. I hope to have something positive to tweet back.
Start of Letter
I am a long time customer and quite disappointed at my bakery experience from this past weekend.
I normally buy your pre-made cakes when I have special occasions. However, this was a very special birthday for my nephew and I was in charge of the cake this year.
This past Friday, September 17, 2010, I spoke to a very nice lady at the bakery named GeGe, and she took my order. Since we ONLY buy whipped frosting cake, I asked her specifically if I could special order your SpongeBob 2 tiered cake. She assured me whipped frosting was workable.
The next day, I picked up the cake at about 345pm. It wasn’t until after we had dinner and were ready to open presents that I was able to taste the cake – so we’re talking a span of approximately 5 hours – before I realized I was given a SUGAR frosting cake.
We threw out about half the cake (though we normally save our cakes and devour them over the course of a week) but I did cut off a slice so that I could give you guys more than just my word that it was made improperly.
At my first available moment off, the following Tuesday at approximately 345pm, I went to the bakery and one of your bakers was working. I spoke to her about my situation and she told me that she could tell just by looking at the cake that it was sugar. She also advised me that the manager wouldn’t be back until the next day.
So today, Wednesday, September 22, I went back up to the bakery and asked for GeGe the manager.
The same baker from yesterday said that GeGe wasn’t in. She also said when she spoke to the manager, he said that I should have brought it in right away and you guys could’ve fixed it in about 5 minutes.
I proceeded to ask for the manager. To my surprise, GeGe came out to speak to me. I was just told she wasn’t there when I asked for her, but when I asked for a manager, she comes in his place?
She was pretty guarded at first, but I explained the situation above. She then politely asked what she could do to make it right. I asked for credit for half the cake since I threw about half of it away and since the whole cake was wrong.
GeGe said she would speak to the store manager.
When GeGe came back, she said the manager offered me $15. I told her even though I would accept that since it was better than nothing, that she needed to go back and tell that manager that it was not right, and it was not fair.
GeGe proceeded to tell me that he doesn’t give any more than $10 usually if at all because they have so many people trying to scam the system.
Though I am quite sympathetic to this, as a business owner myself, I believe that the situation was handled quite poorly.
- I’ve never made a complaint about anything to anyone at your company.
- I go to your store almost every day and yesterday was in there twice. If I miss a day, then my husband or my cousins who live with me are spending money there.
- This was an EXPENSIVE cake = $50! Twice as much as I normally shell out for a cake larger than this one.
- My younger son has a birthday on October 11 and has requested the exact same cake.
- The mistake was yours not mine.
- The fact that I was told I should’ve brought it back right away was absurd because it was a response not well thought out. I was 45 minutes away in Keller, TX by then…and it was HOURS before we even brought the cake out.
When the manager sent GeGe out to speak to me in his place, that was already poor in taste. However, had GeGe came back with good news, it would have been acceptable. When he decided that he would not give me what I requested, a GOOD manager would have come out himself to speak to me.
He proved himself to be a coward, put his employee in the line of fire – which I can tell has happened to her more than once just by the way she handled me, and did your company a disservice by disregarding my value as your customer.
I am now on the lookout for another place that can make that type of cake (even if I have to pay the same or a higher price) since I am now quite upset about the way your store manager has handled my situation. So for the difference of $10, you will have potentially lost my bakery business for good. I am quite certain that you are aware that most people are quite fast to spread news about terrible customer service. I am no exception to that rule.
The purpose of this letter: to make you aware that one of your loyal customers is now no longer quite so loyal due to a lack of good judgement by one of your managers – someone you hire to balance the good of the store with good customer service.
Sincerely,
Lee DeGrande
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