I also need to rant for a moment or two. Normally I just let things go but Kroger REALLY ticked me off today. I had purchased a couple of gift cards (one for Amazon and one for Barnes and Noble) at the Kroger on Canton Center & Ann Arbor Rd. in Plymouth. These were Christmas gifts for my cousins and the other day my cousin Nick tried using his Amazon gift card with no luck. I told him I would figure it out ASAP! So today I paid the Kroger a visit and very politely explained the situation. They proceeded to explain to me that because I never saved the receipts I was out of luck. I then told them that they could look up the receipt in their system with my credit card (after all, I'm not trying to scam anyone here). They said it wouldn't help and there was nothing they can do.
Got bumped to the main manager after the lady at customer service couldn't handle my logic. He explained the same thing, once the customer service people told him how they deny looking into anything unless you have the receipt for the gift cards. Then I lost my mind...just the week before I was boasting about this Kroger because they expanded and made their produce area much larger. I probably pump at least $400 - $600 worth of money (from groceries) into this store monthly. When I mentioned that to the manager he proceeded to tell me "that doesn't mean anything." I said you NEED to get me another person to talk to because I'm not going to be out $25 because your staff isn't willing to put in the time (or they don't know how to solve these problems). He proceeded to tell me I can call 1-800-KROGERS. I called and spoke to Melissa, a VERY nice lady who gladly took my credit card number, spent time contacting Amazon...and turns out that Kroger never activated the card in the first place (which means I wouldn't have a confirmation receipt in the first place). Melissa got it working and I let my cousin know he was good to use it.
My point is this...had the customer service person spent the time to call this KROGERS number, looked up the receipt (like I had suggested), and corrected the situation I wouldn't have had to spend probably one and a half hours standing in the lobby area of Krogers. The manager told me he worked in retail for 40 years, I'm guessing he forgot how to give good customer service in the first 30. Good business practice is to assist the guest and if you cannot accomodate them (or you don't know how), you go above and beyond to find a way to make it right. Truth! Now I got to go meditate and get this anger out of my veins. Cheers!
