The Body Shop needs better customer service training

September 14th, 2008 • Marketing/ Advertising

I had a terrible and almost terrifying experience at The Body Shop store today. I love their products but after this incident, I am probably never stepping foot in their stores ever again.

Taking advantage of their annual sale, I shopped for a bunch of products. A few hours later, back in the car, I realized that I had paid for 5 products but received only 4. I assumed that the employee who rang me must have forgotten to give me my 5th item. I went back to the store and told the manager what had happened.
The manager rudely replied back saying he cannot give me a free product and that I would have to come back the next day to talk to the employee who rang my sale.

I politely explained I wasn’t asking for a free product but just the product that I had paid for and not received. I also told him how I don’t live in the vicinity and it is going to cost me more to return to the shop the next day than the price of the product.

At this point, the manager should have simply told me that he is sorry for my inconvenience but he would be glad to give me a call tomorrow when the employee gets in and have me come in and take my product. Instead of executing his customer service duties, he said to me, are you sure you didn’t just drop it or leave the product somewhere? This enraged me. I asked the manager directly if he was insinuating me of trying to cheat the store.
I have worked in retail before. Usually, when an employee forgets to give the customer all the products, they always account for it and let their managers know. This particular employee had not done that.

I further asked the manager, what if this employee quits tomorrow? Does that mean I am going to be stiffed of my money? And the manager said, yes. It is his word against yours.

I told the manager that I had worked in retail before and I know they keep employee phone numbers on file. I asked him if he’d mind calling the said employee and asking him about it. The manager again, in a very uncooperative manner said that he would do no such thing. And then, he asked me to leave his store. He threatened to call the security on me.

So I asked him to ahead and call the security. I said I needed to speak to someone higher than him anyways. He made the call. While I waited at the counter for the security to arrive, the manager disappeared in the Body Shop store room. He emerged two minutes later, came up to me, picked up a product and threw it in my bag. For a second I didn’t understand what just happened. And I asked him that. He said that he had called the said employee who was responsible for my sale and the employee confirmed that he had indeed forgotten to give me my product. And so the manager, THREW the product in my bag.

I just didn’t know how to respond. I was so taken aback by this manager’s behavior that I walked out of the store without glancing back at him. But then I remembered that the security was on their way. So I returned back to the store to meet the security. I lodged a complain with them and I intend to take this matter up with The Body Shop.

First, the manager accuses me of lying. Then, instead of calling the said employee when I requested him to, he absolutely refused to help me out. Lastly, when he realized that I was right and was indeed stiffed of a product I had paid for, he THREW the product in my bag and didn’t even apologize!

I’m not stupid. I understand retail. I understand he had to confirm with his employee but shouldn’t a retail chain like The Body Shop have a better system in place? What if the employee had forgotten or denied having forgotten to give me my product? It would be his word against mine and ultimately, I’d be stiffed of my money.

This entire ordeal cost me 45 minutes of my time and not to mention, the distress ever since. I keep playing the scene again and again in my head. How could he threaten to call security on me?! On a customer that his store had cheated by not giving all the products in first place?

I have always loved The Body Shop but this experience had left just such a bad taste in my mouth. It’s 3am and I am still so upset. I am writing it here because I don’t know how else The Body Shop will hear about this. Oh btw, when I returned to ask the store manager his name so that I could lodge my complain, he asked me to get out of his store and he refused to give me his name.

Companies that don’t understand customer service shouldn’t be in the business of retail at all. I used to work for Bath & Body Works and their products may not be of the same quality as The Body Shop, but atleast they understand how to treat customers.

FYI – The value of the product I had returned to collect was $5. And the only reason I had returned to collect the product was because they don’t make it anymore and I was lucky to have found it in a sale.

**Update:  The Body Shop got back to me immediately this morning. They tweeted me and asked for my phone number. An hour late, Director of Customer Service called me and spoke to me for 20 minutes. She listened to my ordeal patiently and was just as surprised and shocked by my experience. I told her that I love The Body Shop and I understand that this experience was probably an anamoly but nonetheless, I had to inform The Body Shop because I don’t want anyone else being treated this way. She was amazing about the whole thing – she took down the location, date and time of the incident and told me as next steps, she will be getting in touch with the District Manager and through him to the Manager who treated me this way. She said, this will absolutely be addressed.

I didn’t and will not reveal the store location here. My intention is not to get the Manager fired or have him lose his job. But my intention is for him to acknowledge and realize that he was very unprofessional and disturbingly unpleasant with me. This is a tough ecoonomy and we are all doing our best to hang on to our jobs. I work in the client-servicing business too and I know that now, more than ever is the time to notch up on customer service. I just don’t want any other customer to be treated this way by that Manager.

Anyways, I am glad that The Body Shop listened and took the time to call me and placate my distress. I love the company and will continue to support their products. So Body Shop  – thank you once again, for listening.

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