Bob CollinsA Wisconsin woman with a brain tumor has written another chapter in the ongoing saga of the power of social media to punish horrible customer service.
Alison Ziebel, of Brookfield, wrote on her blog last week that after a radiation treatment, she and her sister stopped into a wig salon, finding mostly styles for elderly people in the few they were allowed to see:
We really liked this wig but wondered if there was any styles that were a little longer and wondered what other colors it came in. The woman pulled out some brochures and was paging through them trying to figure out which color I was wearing.
My sister in law Amy simply picked up one of the wig brochures to flip through and see the other styles to see if there was something else we liked and the woman literally RIPPED the brochure out of her hand and rudely told her that customers are NOT allowed to look through brochures.
We politely asked how we were supposed to buy something if they only had five styles on display and we were not allowed to look at other styles in the brochures. At the other salon, they showed us brochure after brochure after brochure of styles that were available for order. Apparently that is not how it works at Sharon’s.
We asked to speak to the manager so Sharon herself, the owner came to talk to us. She was RUDE and told us that people like “us” only come in to look at their store and then we order online and it’s just a waste of their time. Mind you, we were thinking of ORDERING this wig from them. I told her perhaps people were ordering online because of their terrible customer service.
So I told her I was interested in the wig that I was wearing while we were talking but I wanted to see a longer style so how was she going to make that sale to me if they didn’t have a longer style on display and they refused to show us a brochure.
She told us to look online, find something we like and then come to them and they will order it. Um, hello… why would I not just order it ONLINE at that point. So I took the wig off my head, said I guess you are unwilling to help us and Amy and I started to walk out. THEN.. as we were almost out the door the sales woman laughed and yelled at me “Good luck, I hope ALL your hair falls out”.
“She misinterpreted what we said,” the store owner told a Milwaukee TV station. Too late. Social media was already doing its thing. The shop was inundated with hundreds of messages and phone calls, apparently.
Then the owner issued an “apology,” according to the TV station.
“I want to donate $10 off every wig we sell for this next year. I also want to have a fundraiser for her on March 30th at the salon. I don’t care what she did to me. I want to help them,” the owner said, sounding not at all apologetic.
