Kroger FINALLY Contacted Me

Dear Ms.          :

Thank you for contacting The Kroger Family of Stores. I do apologize for the  delay in your response. Upon review of your account, I see that this issue has been taken care of and if you have any further concerns, I would be happy to assist you.  I am typically in the office Monday through Friday, 8:30am to 4:00pm EST.

If you have any additional questions, feel free to contact our Customer Service Center at 1-800-576-4377.  As always, thank you for shopping at the Kroger family of stores.

Sincerely,

Consumer Affairs

Reference:

Dear                      ,

 

My concerns are most DEFINITELY not taken care of.  The way this matter was handle by your corporation is absolutely absurd.  I was humiliated in one of your stores.  One of your managers and customer service desk ladies treated me like I changed price tags on an item (which I most certainly did not do) and your manager spoke to me in a manner that not only drew attention from the ENTIRE front end of the store, but also treated me like I was an idiot.  That has been my issue this entire time.  So I am confused by you thinking that the matter has been taken care of.  If you think that having $5 put on my Kroger Plus Card handles this situation then you are sadly mistaken.  

 

Never once has the issue been that I was not given the Scanner Law.  Sure it started out that way when I approached the customer service desk, but the way I was treated and how I was spoken to and the lack of concern on Kroger’s part when it came to my complaint about how I was treated has left me not wanting to step foot in a Kroger store again.  It saddens me that a corporation such as Kroger’s finds it appropriate for one of their managers, a Representative of their corporation perfectly acceptable.  Never ONCE was I contacted by anyone from Kroger, until now.  Not the head store manager of that particular store, nor anyone from the corporate office.  

 

So please, do not think for one second that I feel this matter is taken care of.

 

Leah 

Dear Ms.             :

 

On behalf of                ,  I am sorry your concerns were not taken care of.  Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences from your recent trip to Kroger. I am so sorry that your shopping trip was not satisfactory. Our customers expect and deserve quality products and great customer service that makes them want to return. We do appreciate knowing when we have fallen short of that.  I am forwarding your concerns to the store director and feel confident in knowing that the necessary steps will be taken to ensure that you and others have a better shopping experience moving forward.  We certainly do not want to see you go elsewhere to purchase your groceries.   The store director will be contacting you regarding your concerns.

 

Thank you again for bringing this to our attention. We appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns and we hope you will give us a chance to earn back your trust and loyalty.

Sincerely,

 

Specialist/Web Support Team

Web Support Team???  What the heck?  Did anyone in the corporate office even see my issue?  Why in the world is the Web Support Team responding to me?  I mean really?  Isn’t their job to oversee things like the Kroger website, their Facebook page or their Twitter account??  It finally dawned on me that the people that needed to see my complain, have not seen it.  So I decided to start over.  This time I was going to go directly to the Kroger store where it happened and demand to see the manager.  I was hoping that the woman I was harassed by was an assistant manager or a manager of some department and not the head store manager.  I was right.  Before I had a chance to contact the actual head store manager…he called me that very night.

He was very apologetic; assuring me that this kind of thing would not happen again; telling me that he was personally sitting the assistant manager (the chick who humiliated me) down and retraining her (also making sure that she is well versed on the Michigan Scanner Law.  But what he said at the end of the conversation really floored me…and I get that he is trying to make things right, but really…it was a joke.  He wanted to give me a $25 gift card to hopefully bring me back into the store and make up for the way I was treated.  I just laughed and said “sure…whatever” and thanked him (that’s what a polite person would do…but really I was laughing inside).  Though I have to say…it’s been around 4 days and I haven’t received the gift card yet…but seeing how long it’s taken the company to even contact me, it doesn’t surprise me much.

But what happened the very next day truly gives me the last laugh.  Remember how I said I wrote a letter to the editor?  Well they published it!

Kroger rudeness

I feel my friends and neighbors in Canton need to be aware of a situation that occurred at the Michigan Ave. Kroger store in Canton.

On July 21, I went into the Kroger store to purchase a plant for my son to give his teacher for the last day of school. It was marked $4. I got a few other things, paid and walked out of the store. When I got to my car, it dawned on me that I paid more than I should have. I checked the receipt and sure enough, the plant rang up for $8.88. So back into the store I went. What happened to me with the customer service desk lady and the manager was absolutely humiliating.

When I showed the customer service woman (Linda) my receipt and the marked price on the plant she looked at me and began rubbing her finger over the price tag. She then told me she had to call the manager (Kelly) over for situations like this. The manager came over and before even talking to me she said “so how good is that sticker stuck on there? Are there any others over there marked that price or is that the only one?” I did not have a good feeling about where this was going so I spoke up and told the manager that I did not like what she was insinuating.

She ignored me and finally said “well she can have the difference in price, but she does not get the scanner law for this.” I pulled the Michigan Scanner Law up on my phone from the Michigan.gov site to show her that the item was indeed part of the scanner law. She began raising her voice so much so that the entire front end of the store was looking at me and said “Ma’am that is not part of Kroger’s policy.”

We went round and round for a bit, me telling her that it didn’t matter if it was Kroger policy or not, that it was a law and her continuing to yell and degrade me. She finally cut me off midsentence, told me the conversation was done and she walked away. I have NEVER been in a store where a manager walks away from a dissatisfied customer before; especially one who told the manager that she didn’t like it being insinuated that she changed the price tag.

I immediately came home and e-mailed Kroger through their “contact us” section on the website. I never heard anything from them. I called about a week later and spoke to one of their corporate customer service reps. He told me that he was appalled at the situation and was going to immediately forward it to the people who head up the Michigan stores for them to contact me. He also wanted to put $5 on my Kroger Plus card to pacify me.

I still have not heard a thing from any higher up at Kroger. I think that is a poor way to treat their customers. I used to go into Kroger all the time for things here and there, but not anymore. Not only will I boycott the Michigan Ave. store, but quite frankly, Kroger has left such a bad taste in my mouth that I don’t think I care to give them any of my money.

It has never been about the scanner law, it has always been about how I was treated during the situation and the lack of concern on Kroger’s part, after the situation.

Leah

Now obviously, when I sent this I had not had ANY contact with them and part of me wonders if I should send an updated letter to the editor.  Well here’s my update…maybe I’ll just send my blog post to the editor.  He or she can choose what to publish!

So Kroger, you may be satisfied in how this has been handled, but I think it’s laughable.  But I will take your $25 gift card and use it to buy the food for my daughters bday party, but it will be a cold day in hell before I set foot in your store after that.  You could be giving food away, but I still would not go there.  The way you’ve handled this situation shows me that you do not care about your customers AT ALL.

Your loss.