RE: UNACCEPTABLE EXPERIENCE AT VINCENT PARK BRANCH.

This letter is regarding an incident that occurred on the 21st May 2011 and continued on the 26th May 2011 at the Vincent Park branch of Foschini, which I feel should be brought to the attention of the managers as well as the main branch.
I had been having problems with my Simcard for +/- 2 weeks and decided to go into the store on the 21st May 2011 to request a sin swop. My reasoning for approaching Foschini to handle the sim swop and to not go directly to the network (i.e. MTN) was owing to the fact that I had a One-2-One airtime contract with Foschini and the staff at MTN informed me that they could not help me and I could only deal with Foschini itself.
I walked into the store at +/- 1pm on the 21st, and went directly to the cell phone counter to ask for assistance. After waiting for +/- 15 minutes without assistance, eventually an employee by the name of Delores came to assist us. After explaining my situation to her, she promptly began to rummage through a pile of books and presented me with a form, which she asked me to fill in. The top of the form read “ONE-2-ONE AIRTIME CONTRACT”. I was slightly sceptical about filling in a form, which indicated that I was opening a NEW contract with Foschini, which was NOT my intention. After voicing my concern, the staff member assured me that this was indeed the correct form and I needed to carry on filling it in. My relative, who had been standing behind me, had gone through this similar ordeal a couple months earlier and confirmed my suspicions by stating that this was not the same form as she was given to fill in months earlier. When voicing my concern again, the staff member proceeded to ask another employee for guidance, only to be told that that was indeed the incorrect form. We then watched whilst she proceeded to search for the correct form. When she eventually found it and I was satisfied that it was the correct form, I proceeded to complete the form once again; however not once did she apologise for the mistake; which was entirely hers. She then told me that the transferral would only occur on the following Tuesday as the department involved had already dispersed for the weekend. I accepted this as it was fully understandable and seemingly unavoidable. I left the store completely under the impression that all had been taken care of.
However, Tuesday came and went without any transferral occurring. I decided to wait until the end of the working day on Wednesday before going back to the store and follow up on the matter. When I had established that the transferral had STILL not occurred by the Thursday afternoon, 26th May 2011, my mother and sister went back to the store to find out the reasoning.
When they arrived at the store and asked the staff member on duty why the transferral had not taken place, it came out that the form had not even been faxed to the right department to begin processing. Delores (the staff member that had assisted us on the 21st May) clearly did not know anything about the department in which she had been working, nor how to complete the transferral correctly.
Owing to her carelessness and lack of training, I have been without a phone for an entire week, which is my only means of communication, whilst waiting for the transferral, which was SUPOSSED to happen on Tuesday (24th May) and is now expected to happen on the 28th May.
This has been a huge inconvenience and annoyance on the lack of training for employees, lack of knowledge by staff members working within their departments as well as appalling manners shown towards their customers.
I have a very large family living in East London and we have all been loyal customers and account holders of Foschini for many years; however, this unforgettable experience will seriously make me, as well as them, rethink our next visit to Foschini.
I feel this staff member, as well as the topics brought up, need to be severely addressed and immediately rectified.

I look forward to hearing when this matter has been addressed.

Regards,

Kimberley Klinkradt

Please can you get your Call Centre to stop phoning me? Yes, I have an account with you which I am grateful for, but please I don't want anything else...at all! What really upsets me is that they phone me on my work phone. I see clients all day, I don't need unnecessary phonecalls wasting my time and that of my clients. When you do actually get a word in they sound really annoyed that you won't talk to them...I don't need that, from anybody!

On Wednesday i went to Foschini-Fourways Mall and i saw some shoes there. I then asked some lady to put them aside for me and she did that whilst i was still instore. Today, i mean 20 minutes ago, i went there to buy those shoes and guess what happened? The lady was not at work and i could't get my shoes and i wanted to wear them tomorrow. I was told that they don't know anything about those shoes and when i asked why aren't they communicationg amongst themselves, no one was even interested in helping me out. They didn't even bother to contact that lady who's off to ask where she put those shoes...YOUR SERVICE IS PATHETIC FOSCHINI...THIS IS TOTALLY NOT LIKE YOU... AND YOU CALL THAT CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!

It's frightful at the types of people that companies in the service industries employ to service clients at the front line. I don't know if the quality of people at the Foschini Group is indicative of the company's view of their clients because if is it then everyone needs to stop shopping at any of the Foschini group stores.

I made a purchase on Friday at the Menlyn store for a family member in preparation for a burial on Saturday. The item that i bought did not fit and in the chaos of the funeral, i misplaced or lost the slip. I did however pay for the item on my debit card and can pull the proof of payment to tgis effect.

The store refuses to offer the refund and so i called head office to find out what the group's policy is. Yesterday, I was told by Claudia that I should get my refund which the store is disputing. I called head office this afternoon and was serviced by a shockingly rude Shirley Chakane!!!

Firstly, she told me that she needs to get off the call and go home because it's home time. She then very rudely and quite unproffessionally reverted to speaking in venacular said that in case i was not aware, she cannot entertain the call at home time. The nerve!!