I don’t usually get upset with bad service but today it was worse than bad.
I was at Chapters in Metrotown Burnaby BC to buy a book on baking. I had taken 4 books from the shelves and was looking for a place to sit to review the books. Every seat was taken. Every person in a seat had a single book that was being read. It didn’t look like they were going to give up their seat anytime soon. There was a lot of space on the side by the shelves so I sat down on the floor and began to look at the books. If I am buying a book on a subject I want to review it to get the right one. Within a minute an employee came up to me and said I couldn’t sit there, company policy, and I had to go to the far end of the shop to sit. I was about to tell him there was no space but he walked away. I picked up the books and wandered through the shop, once again no place to sit. I came back to the bookshelf area and put the books back. No luck in finding the person who originally told me I approached another person stating my problem. All that I was cited was it was company policy and sorry. I left the store not buying anything.
Chapters really didn’t want my business. No one that spoke to me wanted to help or discuss the problem. It was like a take it or leave it attitude. Sorry but with that type of service you couldn’t give me the book for free. You really need a few lessons on customer service. No way I am going back there.
When economic times get tough business is going to have to get better in so many ways to survive. It will probably be difficult to a large business like Chapters to key into this given their size. It will take a lot of work to change such a haphazard attitude towards service. Gook luck Chapters. Time to get better acquainted with someone else.
Tinfoiling 
Gene,
I love a good economic crisis for weeding out the slackers like Chapters. I have yet to hear of a US company failure that made me think “Oh MAN, they were so GOOD…how could they fail?”
Bye Bye Chapters!
I work at chapters, and guess what? we survived the crisis; why? because people came in droves looking for books on how to survive the crisis.
Im sorry to hear you couldnt find a seat. but there is a reason. for everyperson who just wants to review a book, theirs 50 more who just read entire series, or magazines and the whatnot while waiting for another event for the day, people set up shop in my store all the time, never buying anything but sitting around on the floor, infront of shelves, swearing and when we tell them to leave and find another hangout, they bitch and swear somemore. we’re not a library we are a busness, we’re here to make money. its no excuse for bad customer service, but this job can be extremely streeful, when your being yelled at because your told to find a book thats been moved by another careless customer in a store with literally hundreds of thousands of books.
Yes, I am extremely upset with those scammers. My situation was slightly different, I ordered a book online for my new job, I paid for the premium shipping so it can be shipping in 2-3 days. I ordered the book on a Sunday. The book was in stock. There were 5 in stock. My wife ordered a book on Tuesday and used free shipping because she doesn’t care when it arrives. She gets it this morning! Mine has yet to be arrive and try dealing with the customer service! It’s insane, it’s like talking to a 3 year old kid. And, because I used my wife’s account I couldn’t get any info on the status of my order, even though I had my order number, my credit card info.
It’s pretty stupid because all I wanted was a “yes, theres a problem” or “no, sorry theres no problem but it will be a bit late” but instead they insisted on denying service to me…. I will NEVER shop at chapters again, Amazon would have had it to me by now. Moreover; would have provided customer support.
So get a load of my Chapters “customer service” experience:
As my wifes b’day was approaching I decided it was time to purchase the Kobo ereader. I dropped into our local Chapters and found out they were sold out … not one to give up, I called a number of Chapters with 1 1/2 hours and found a store in London, ON that had just received a shipment.
They assured me they would hold it for 48 hours and so I made the trip (1 1/2 hours each way) during a brutal winter storm, only to be told upon my arrival that they had sold it that morning and couldn’t believe that a “customer service” person would say that they would hold it!
I was told that I could email the ChaptersIndigo “customer service” website and explain the situation, I did and, shockingly, have not received a reply, so my mission is to now tell the world!!