I just recently signed a lease on a commercial location for my business. It has a heated bay large enough for 3 vans and a great office area with kitchen, bath/ shower. Since this is a big commitment and expense I needed to save where I could so I decided to purchase refurbished computers at a local store. My partner and I had already selected what equipment we wanted so when the store manager approached us we told him what we wanted. Three PC Towers, three 17" flat panel monitors, three wireless keyboards and wireless mouse. We also wanted to have the store install a local area network at @ $95.00/hour + travel expense. As the store manager was putting our order together my partner politely asked to use the restroom. The clerk told him that they had no public restroom. Somewhat flustered I said I understood that they did not want people visiting the store just to use the facilities but we where paying customers in the process of purchasing a large amount of products. The response was a curt "I am not going to debate this with you the restrooms are not for public use". I then asked the clerk to speak to a manager to which he replied he was the manager. I asked for the owner and he replied that he would not provide information on the owner.

Am I nuts or is this a bizarre story?

Astonished we left the store without several thousand dollars worth of computer products and services. Both my partner and myself have extensive sales back grounds and we are just astonished that this store would let a sale (this is a small store) of this size walk out the door. I would not only let the customer use the facilities but I would have offered to hold his Johnson while he peed.

Good Lord ... that is amazing.

I hope you'd at least wear a glove.

Be glad you found their level of service now, imagine the nightmare. If you still want to file a complaint with the owner check B.B.B. and Dunn & Bradstreet and local Chamber of Commerce many times one or all will provide owner or president info.

I applaud your resolve to take your wallet (and your need to relieve) elsewhere.

I am betting the owner will freak when he/she learns of his "managers" lack of skills regarding correct customer relations.

What makes you think the owner will ever find out?

Do you really think this mgr is going to tell his boss,

Hey Bob guess what, we had some guy in here the other day and well yeah he was going to buy about 5 grand worth of stuff and he had to pee really bad and I told him; nope, nada, no way buddy are you using my bathroom and he walked.

I bet he didnt want you in the back room so you wouldn't see all the stolen goods they had stashed there.

To be honest with you, that guy deserves to be fired...I would find out who the owner is and send him a letter explaining what happened...That's rediculous!

I think the owner would thank you for bringing it to his attention and ask you to give them another chance...

Joe

This was the reponse to e-mail to store ......

Hi Rick,

Thank you for your email. I appreciate your efforts in bringing this incident to my attention.

Tom, the manager you spoke to yesterday, left me a note about your meeting yesterday. Since I wasn't present, it is difficult for me to explain or justify our actions, I can only try to explain why the policy is in place.

The goal of this bathroom policy is not to inconvenience or antagonize our customers, although it appears in your situation we did both of those things. The first reason for the policy is that we have tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment in our back area, including many small items worth hundreds of dollars that could easily be slipped in a pocket. We also have 40-50 service pieces in the back that belong to our customers, not to us. So from the first day we opened the store, we have had a policy that no customers are allowed in the back area, which includes the bathroom.

That being said, since we've opened the store, I have broken that policy many times to let customers use the bathroom. In May of 2006, during the Mother's Day storm, our store was flooded with 6" of water from the Spicket River. We did not have flood insurance, and incurred a huge expense in repairing the store, and had to prioritize what areas we would fix. Needless to say, the bathroom was our last priority, and to this day, we have not repaired the cosmetic issues. The floor is ripped up, the walls are a mess, and it is an embarassment. Since the flood, I have not let any customers in the back to use the bathroom because it reflects very poorly on our company.

It's hard to speak for Tom, as I only have a paragraph of information that he left me to interpret his thoughts. We have had many people ask to use our bathroom, and we tell people that ours is not for public use, but we tell people that Chili's has one that is for public use. This is the first time I've heard of a customer having an adverse reaction to this policy, and I mention this not to say that you were unjustified in your reaction, but I mention this because I think Tom got confused by your reaction, and didn't know what to do. Tom is an amazing technician, a very hard worker, and a very loyal and trustworthy employee, and he has very much earned his position. He is not a salesperson, and his people skills can sometimes be weak in certain circumstances. In reading his note this morning, I assure you that he wasn't trying to be a jerk or to inconvenience you with the bathroom incident, he felt very badly about what happened. He has the instincts of a technician, not a salesman, which means everything is by the book, and rules are everything to him. I don't think he knew what to do, and he made a poor decision.

I hope you can accept my apologies for what happened yesterday, I'm very sorry you were inconvenienced by what transpired. I will be in until 6:00pm today, and I'll be here tomorrow from 10:00am to 7:00pm. If you would like to discuss this further, please call me at the number below or send me back an email.

Thanks again for taking the time to let me know about this situation.

Justin Zuill
General Manager, MicroSeconds
(603) 894-1993
www.microseconds.net

I appreciate HIS honesty. I would have to ask myself; do i want justice or revenge.

I have often forgotten in the past (still do) that we are all human. I make mistakes daily. I hope the ones upon which I infringe are as forgiving as i wish I were.

Good luck deciding your approach.

Great letter from the owner.

a good learning "thread" in more ways than one.

thanks for posting both.

So if you go back are you going to ask to use the bathroom?


How many times did mom or dad tell you to go pee before you get in the car.

Rick
I think the owner handled it admirably, things happen thats why I don't have employees except per job if needed but I handle all interactions with customers.

business relationships are created when a company does something wrong and then corrects the problem. The key is communication. If you have a carpet cleaning customer who is disatisfied with your service and are not made aware of the problem, you then have an usatisfied customer who will probably not be a source for referrals, just the opposite as stories of bad service are always more interesting to share than ones about a good experience.

That is why we always call the customer back after the job to insure satisfaction. The questions we ask are probing questions that more likely to elicit answers that a yes/no question might.

I do not like to use Rick G's forumn for "off topic rants" but I think in retrospect this thread is more on topic than I thought it would be. Of course readers of this forum as customers of Excellent Supply" are used all inficted with SBECS*** syndrome and as such tend to be rather harsh on customer service issues.

*** Spoiled By Exceptional Customer Service................

It's always interesting to hear both sides to the story. Thanks for sharing, we can all benefit from it in some way.

By the way - what happened? Did you go back?

Sooner or later every business should have staff.
imagine if Bill & Melinda Gates were a mom and pop shop selling Windows XP with no staff? Heck we might stil be using "PC-DOS" LOL