Of Swedish wallets and service rants

I'm sorry to do this again, but it cannot be avoided: a customer service rant is about to be delivered. Brace yourself, dear reader, for I went shopping at a box store today, where the motto seems to be: Put in the time, but don't work too hard.

So, let me set this up for you. I am in the market for a cd wallet - one of those big ones that will hold 100 or so discs. My sister recently got a really cute, affordably priced one at the Swedish store, but the day we were there, I had been thinking of a different storage solution for my music collection. Today, we were at We-sell-everything-real-cheap Mart, but their selection ran to a very ugly though utilitarian binder that could hold every recording ever released by K-Tel. Not what I had in mind. So I popped next door to the store I will discretely refer to as Schmest Buy. I started in the music department, thinking that would be a logical place to look for a cd wallet. Not seeing anything, I asked a store employee if they had such things, and she thought they might be over "you know where the laptops are? They would be in the second aisle over there." Well, I didn't happen to know where they keep the laptops, but being a capable adult, I read the wall signs, and duly found them. After wandering aisles and islands and display counters, trying to interpret if the "second aisle over there" meant the second counting the wall display, second from left to right...or what. After a reasonable amount of time, I asked a person dressed in the nifty blue shirt if he happened to know if his employer stocked cd wallets. He stood bemused in the middle of the aisle for a couple of minutes, wondering if maybe they'd be over in the music section.... I told him I'd begun my search there, then was sent to the laptops, and would he be able to find out? He said he was busy with something else, to which I replied ok, I'll look for someone else to help me. I sought out the helpful greeter person at the front door, who also hemmed and hawed a bit. I explained where I'd been in the store, and asked if she knew if anyone in the store would be able to help. To which she hemmed and hawed a bit more. To put us both out of our misery, I told her I would take my search to another store. And all she had to say to that was "ok, dear."

Can you believe it? It was completely ok with her that I take my business elsewhere! Without even a modest effort to find out if the store she worked in, was employed by, received a paycheque from for delivering service, had the product I was looking for!

Understand: I am not upset because Schmest Buy doesn't stock cd wallets. What really angers me is the fact that three employees had no idea what their store sold, where in the store it might reasonably be, or who among their fellow staff might know; or had the initiative to find the information, or physically check themselves if the product was available.

I hereby solemly promise that I will not purchase anything from Schmest Buy from now on. I've reached the limit I'm prepared to accept of shoddy service from them. I will gladly drive the 40 minutes to the Swedish store, where the employees are happy, and are always prepared to offer good, well-informed service.

And they have really cute cd wallets.