Good and bad customer service in SE1

Tesco seems to be a recurring theme here. I agree that the staff in Asda on OKR are generally much more helpful and courteous than those in Tesco (though there are exceptions in both directions), and in Elephant & Castle the staff in Iceland are a world apart from the ones in Tesco (who even shrug and walk away when told that the fish is warm!). I'd also say the other shops in the shopping centre on the whole have decent staff.

What happened to good old customer service and courtesy?

I want to go to a shop and be smiled at and asked how I am as I hand over my hard earned cash. Is that to much to ask??

The amount of posts in this thread proves that a smile and hello from shop staff goes a long, long way to ensuring customer satisfaction and return business. How come it is so difficult to come by???

Thank you for reading and I wish you all well.

Really? I'm stunned! I thought they were legal!

EnC Tesco has got a tiny bit better recently, at least the queues havn't been quite as bad the last few times I've been. A few of the staff there are very nice and yu have to hand it to them, managing a smile in that place!

Not been so much recently but it always seemed like they were short staffed, but their board said no vacancies - which rather made me wonder if Tesco just allowed it to be rubbish because they knew it wasn't a wealthy area and thought people would put up with it. I hope I'm wrong on that 'cause it's be very sad.

Borough High Street Sainsburys, for all its shortcomings, always seems to have lovely chatty staff on the tills in the mornings when I pop in before work, especially the lady who is normally on checkout 7. The shop-floor staff leave plenty to be desired, however; managers standing around chatting and blocking the aisles, and the officious security guard who approached me the other week and told me off for having my pull-along trolley with me while browsing.

Oh, I must add an example of really amazingly good service - without my having spent any money! A couple of weeks ago I took my glasses into Quinlan's on Bedale Street for a repair as one of the lenses was on the point of falling out. While I sat there unable to see anything, the chap not only sorted out my loose screw (no jokes please...) but replaced the grubby nose-pads, without my even asking, and all free of charge. I will certainly be paying him a visit when I come to buy my next pair of glasses!

(No connection, etc)

Ruth Elleson,

I'll happily second your observations about the checkout people at Sainsbury's Borough High Street. Always a pleasure to leave (!)

Also glad to see the "good guys" getting some airtime for a change !

Yes, the checkout people in there are lovely. You can go in there in a bad mood and they cheer you up! They even manage to ask how your day has been and sound like they might be interested in the answer.

But its such a shame that almost everything else about the shop is so disappointing.

Post Office BHS - always a pleasure to go in.

Elsey & Bent, Borough Market - lovely people on the Tills.

HSBC BHS - Unbelievably bad - banks are generally poor but HSBC BHS are by far the worst I've come across ever. On the rare occasions I have gone in, the service is beyond apalling ... the customers are handing over money which then pays the wages of the staff - this seems to be a concept that escapes the staff.

Caffe Nero , More London Bridge. Rubbish service - guys you're using a machine to make coffee and you sell snacks - it's not that complicated or stressful. I would be interested to know how many repeat/regular customers they get. When other similar venues open on site, customers will vote with their purses.

Sainsbury's BHS - I blacklisted it a long time ago.

Tesco OKR - Checkout staff (as someone mentioned earlier) spend vast amounts of time chatting to each other and giving customers secondary consideration. Top billing for the lovely mixed-race lady on the Customer Help Desk - always calm, charming and elegant as a bonus.

Tesco Express Long Lane - now close early apparently, last night customers were banging on door at 22:45 and being given entrance only when they demanded and pointed to the 7-11 signage beside the door. If the store was closed then why was the security guy letting people in? Meanwhile all checkouts were closed aside from the self-service checkouts - this last part contravenes the Sale of Goods Act while the former possibly contravenes Trading Standards.

And for those of you who want to make personal attacks against Posters (it happens), please note that I've worked in Customer Service for thirty years and am familiar with every excuse for poor service - they don't wash with me. I don't care if the dog's died, you don't get paid much etc etc ... smile.

The shop floor staff in Asda OKR seem always very helpful - even to the point that if they don't know it they will go and find someone who will. Fingers crossed they keep it up!

gaffer wrote:

Courier companies - any. I regularly work at home to catch a scheduled delivery which doesn't arrive. A call into their call centre at day end gets the standard "the system says the courier attempted delivery and put a card through the door", to which I reply "I've been here all day and there is no card", to which they reply "I can only tell you what the system says" (i.e. computer says "no").
Recently Ticketmaster tried to deliver tickets via SecureMall. When I phoned Ticketmaster to find out where the tickets were I was informed that they'd been returned because the courier said "the property was derelict". I assured them that wasn't the case.....

And I thought this only happened to me! SecureMail has been by far the worst, because of them I went for weeks without a valid debit card from my bank. No amount of complaining helped. I think the most couriers don't even come to any residential SE1 addresses despite whatever they say.