Tell 'em how you feel!
Well I'll be doggone. Taking action when you've been shafted by a company actually works! It's not quite that simple, of course, but something good came out of the aftermath of the second big incident in the last entry. I've been a little remiss in sharing this, but better late than never.
Not long after my car was towed from the Rite Aid lot near a restaurant I've gone to for years - a lot I've parked in a number of times after the store closed for the night, mind you - I went looking for anything out there along the lines of "boycott Rite Aid". In the process, I lucked into the CEO's e-mail address, as apparently they're an advertiser with the Philadelphia Eagles and an animal rights group wanted people to e-mail them.
With that, I then looked up info on the company and found it's not doing well. It recently lost money for the ninth straight quarter, has closed over 100 stores this year and there's speculation among analysts that it's not far from bankruptcy. So I had a few raw nerves I could hit while telling the CEO that the store lost a customer. After telling the story, I finished with this paragraph:
"The message Rite-Aid is sending is very clear: stay away from our stores - far away. You will surely be happy to know that I plan to take heed of that, as do others in my family who heard about this. Maybe this is why the company is losing money and had to lower its guidance for the fiscal year a few days ago."
It got a response, all right. She dispatched an executive VP onto it, and he drilled down lower into management to look into it further. Eventually, I got a call from a local manager - as I recall, he's a step or two above a store manager - and he said they would reimburse me for every penny of the cost. I did get a little run-around - the store sent me back to the towing company, which told me I had to come when a manager is in and that's rarely at a time I'm in the city - but finally got it taken care of as they actually mailed a check for the amount to me this past weekend.
So it's safe to shop at Rite Aid again, although admittedly Target beats them on several items I might buy there. Target can, however, be out of supply fairly often while Rite Aid doesn't have that problem. We'll see what happens, but this is a good outcome.
The moral: let them know how you feel, and be prepared to follow through on a threat to do no more business. When a company, especially one that's struggling mightily, sees that it may lose another customer or two - which means they lose $$$ - they take notice. Heck that's why many have a department full of people who try to "save" customers when they're ready to close out an account - whether it be a credit card or Internet service - and who you hear from as soon as you tell them you're ready to cancel.
Not long after my car was towed from the Rite Aid lot near a restaurant I've gone to for years - a lot I've parked in a number of times after the store closed for the night, mind you - I went looking for anything out there along the lines of "boycott Rite Aid". In the process, I lucked into the CEO's e-mail address, as apparently they're an advertiser with the Philadelphia Eagles and an animal rights group wanted people to e-mail them.
With that, I then looked up info on the company and found it's not doing well. It recently lost money for the ninth straight quarter, has closed over 100 stores this year and there's speculation among analysts that it's not far from bankruptcy. So I had a few raw nerves I could hit while telling the CEO that the store lost a customer. After telling the story, I finished with this paragraph:
"The message Rite-Aid is sending is very clear: stay away from our stores - far away. You will surely be happy to know that I plan to take heed of that, as do others in my family who heard about this. Maybe this is why the company is losing money and had to lower its guidance for the fiscal year a few days ago."
It got a response, all right. She dispatched an executive VP onto it, and he drilled down lower into management to look into it further. Eventually, I got a call from a local manager - as I recall, he's a step or two above a store manager - and he said they would reimburse me for every penny of the cost. I did get a little run-around - the store sent me back to the towing company, which told me I had to come when a manager is in and that's rarely at a time I'm in the city - but finally got it taken care of as they actually mailed a check for the amount to me this past weekend.
So it's safe to shop at Rite Aid again, although admittedly Target beats them on several items I might buy there. Target can, however, be out of supply fairly often while Rite Aid doesn't have that problem. We'll see what happens, but this is a good outcome.
The moral: let them know how you feel, and be prepared to follow through on a threat to do no more business. When a company, especially one that's struggling mightily, sees that it may lose another customer or two - which means they lose $$$ - they take notice. Heck that's why many have a department full of people who try to "save" customers when they're ready to close out an account - whether it be a credit card or Internet service - and who you hear from as soon as you tell them you're ready to cancel.