Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Sam's club-am I the only one they piss off?

I have a Sam's membership. I have had this for several years. I go there pretty often. I spend lots of money there. However, they always seem to piss off. Their customer service sucks there. We have a costco right across the street from Sam's. I have looked online about switching to them but they just seem so much high in price. For example the membership fee at Costco is $50, Sam's is $40. I checked the price of diapers on line at both places since I but plenty of diapers. Costco is $52 for a box of huggies. Sam's is $38 (although this varies every time I am in there between $32-$39) for the same thing. That is a huge difference.

Sam's has pissed me off so many times. Once, about 2-3 years ago, I had Sam and Joe in the cart plus everything I had planned on buying. The cart was full, but I had it all crammed in there pretty good. I had enough time to check out, load the car and then go get Max from school. I check out and the lady starts putting my stuff in a different cart. She loads up the seats where the kids sit. I told her I would prefer just one cart and for that space to be open. After-all, Joe was a baby at the time and I was not going to be carrying him, pushing a cart and making Sam walk. If you have ever pushed a cart full of stuff along with 2 kids in it, you know how hard it is - now make that 2 carts and it gets crazy. There parking lot is somewhat up hill , by the way! Well she told me I could have someone help me out. I asked her to go ahead and call someone up for that. She told me to ask at the door. OK, the door was about 7 feet away. Really, would it not be better to call ahead so they are ready? Guess not. So I spend $400. I go to the door and ask for someone to push my 2nd cart out. I was told nobody was available to help me. Umm, yeah, there will be! So, she ask this other guy about it. He says he can help me in about 15 minutes. NO! I ask for a manager. She was just as worthless! She was saying nobody could help me right then. What was she doing??!! SO an older couple saw what was going on. They asked me if they could help push the other cart. I said yes. So off we went, the manager standing there staring at us. She follows us out and tries to back pedal. We are pretty much at the car and then asks, if there was anything she could do to help. I told her something along the lines "no, these people were nice enough to offer help and and I don't want help from someone that was as rude as her." I look at her name tag and say, "Shelley" -- Just so she knows, I know her name. I tired to take this high up but got nowhere.

The store has not gotten better. In fact, the same door people still work there. They do things all the time that make me so mad.

I went to Sam's on Monday of this week. It's cold here. It is best to park by the exit so when I come out I don't have as far to go, pushing a full cart plus 2 kids, going up hill and hoping the cashiers put my stuff in the cart good enough so it doesn't start falling out. The cashiers suck at this by the way. I generally help load the cart just so things don't fall out in the parking lot. I park by the exit then generally walk over to the entrance. Like I said though, it's cold. So I was going in the exit that day. I would rather get the kids inside the building as fast as I could. I have gone in the exit once or twice before. (I was leaving the exit once when someone was coming in it and the door lady said- they can wait on you, cause they are coming in the wrong way- as she gave them a dirty look and tired to ignore them). So I know the door people are not big fans of this. OK, so I go to the exit, an older guy is going that way as well. The door lady says (pretty much directed to the guy) "You can't come in this way." He asked "since when?" and she said "this is the exit, the entrance is over there." "well, I know that," he said. The entrance is at the other end of the building. He stands there not sure what to do next. By the way, this man is old and barely walks. I watched him limp up to the store. I told him I was going that way anyway. I was loading a cart up and waiting for some people to get out of the doorway that were coming out. The man is standing there when someone inside saw this and called his name to come in. This person knew him and saw what pain in the butts Sam's was being so she helped him out. I later saw this guy in the store in a wheel chair (the ones Sam's offer). I was all geared up to ask for a manager if they tired that crap with me. I walked in and kinda waited. I asked Joe if he wanted in the cart to stall. They never said anything but gave me some dirty looks instead. I was really ready to take it out on that manager if they said a word to me.

I get done shopping and go to the exit door to get my receipt checked. The door guy was up there when this was going on earlier, he clearly remembers me. (BTW, this is the same guy who said he could help me in 15 minutes- years ago- his name is Ernie). He usually draws a smiley face plus a 'halo' over it on the receipt and gives to the kids. It drives me crazy. It takes time, people start lining up and really, my kids could give a rats butt about it. SO this time, he looks at my receipt, looks at the cart, puts a line on the receipt and hands it to me. That was it. No words, no smiley face. SO I guess, to make him stop with the annoying smiling faces, I just have to piss him off.


Does anyone go to Costco? What do you like best about it?

Also, I am going to throw this in the post so when people search "Sam's club review" they know that the Sam's club in Lenexa, Kansas sucks on customer service!!

12 comments:

Karen said...

I can't believe they're so bad on customer service. I dont have a membership at either so I cant help, but I sure hope things get better there.

Laura said...

So sorry BUT, I did laugh reading this post...all the time knowing how mad you were! The funny part to me is...it sounds just like MY LIFE!!!

our Sam's is very nice and helpful, but I don't guess you want to travel to Chattanooga TN to go to Sam's...now we have a Wal-mart that sound MUCH like your Sam's and it's the one that's 2 miles from my house...so i'm subjected to it often. Wish I had LOADS of money and could shop places no matter the cost, then i wouldn't go Wally World or Sam's..I know I'm dreaming.

Can't help you out on the Costco thing. The closest one to us is 2 hours away in Atlanta...wish we had one!

Hope you next shopping trip goes better, and keep those kiddos warm!!!

My name is Sarah said...

Oh I love Costco. My mom takes me there and my job training program shops there too.

Tracey said...

We don't hace a Costco but I rarely visit Sams Club. I got to a Wal-mart in a neighboring town because the one we have BITES! It is a dirty place and not in the best part of town. Maybe there is another one not too far away you can visit... Just a thought...

Debbie @ Three Weddings said...

I hate Sams. I hate Walmart. They are owned by the same people and their customer service SUCKS! Yes, I shop at Costco. Yes, the card is more expensive, but I have never been treated like that and I go in the exit all the time. Of course, the exit and entrance are in the same place. I usually shop at the costco at 119th and Metcalf, but we go to the one on 95th streen on occasion. Good service at both places. When the lines are long they get your through. They have two people working the cashier. One to check you out and the other to RE-load your cart. You get the same one so you don't have to transfer kids. I haven't bought diapers recently, but I have never paid $52 for the huggies. I think it's around the $38 price. I agree some of the stuff is a little more expensive, but the quality is better. We love to go on Sunday after church and the kids eat a lot of the snacks they set out. I'd be happy to take you sometime so you can look around and see if it will work for you. I know money can be an issue, but I think customer service is, too.

WheresMyAngels said...

I love our Sam's club! They have great people there, much better than the slowest people ever at the WalMarts.

One year my credit card wouldn't work because they upgraded it on me, and I never got the new one in the mail. I had over $200 worth of stuff, it was a few days before Christmas. I had no way to pay for it and a young man that worked there. Had never met me, offered to pay it for me. He told me I could pay him back later. Was that not the sweetest thing. I didn't take him up on it, but he really impressed me.

I do hate the 40 dollars though, never been to Costco.

Christina said...

I LOL reading this post..I know it's not funny cause bad customer service does bite..But I love that you remember their names! LOL We go to Bj's with my inlaws..we don't have a membership at any clubs.

Karine said...

I hear the Sam's Club when I lived in the United States, which has left me very impressed, I noticed that in places like that you really do not have the people ask for help, which is very different from Brasil, here we took our purchases and only put in sterling cash, in cash always has 1 person who records the purchases and a helper to wrap our purchases and places in our car purchases, and if we want to lead them to our car and put inside the trunk port, yes!
I can imagine how you felt

Hat said...

We're an hour west of you and our sams club is great. Sorry you've had such bad experiences, that's weird! Once the seatbelts in every single cart were broken and I wrote a note in the comments box (b/c trying to contain a crazy toddler with no seatbelt is crazy not to mention dangerous!!!) The next time I went they all had working seatbelts! I'm sold now!

Kim said...

That stinks! I can't stand stores with rude customer service. It seems like you see it more and more. Like you might actually inconvience someone to do their job. What do they think they are there for anyway? Stand there and look pretty? Hope things get better!

SunflowerStories said...

How frustrating! I say it sounds like it is worth it to check into Costco. Maybe you can go in with a friend who has a card to check it out first?

We never go to those big places because frankly, I don't want to use up that much space in my house storing bulk items.

Anonymous said...

Sam's Club friggen sucks. I know because I work there. I enjoyed your post, some of it was a little fractured but I see Sam's Clubs are the same everywhere. I work at the one in Scarborough, Maine and management sucks. Same exact thing happens where of course they're there to help but in about a half hour or so. I had to wait literally 10 minutes for a COS(supervisor) to get some stamps for me. The wait wouldn't be so long if they weren't such penny pinchers and would put an adequate amount of employees to work a shift. Bad enough as a cashier you have to harass the shit out of a customer to become a plus member everytime they come in. It's ridiculous. I've even seen my manager say on his walky talky (in front of the member who was chewing him out) say something along the lines of "derka derka, I have a member biting my head off" and he walked away. Real helpful. I feel better...