Clutter, Chaos and Crummy Customer Service

Ugh! Have you ever had one of those shopping trips where you leave the store angry and flustered? I'd like to vent about a recent experience that left me promising, “Never again.”

I've been looking for a pair of skinny, ankle-length jeans for 2 years. It has been an exhausting effort, full of disappointments. The jeans I've found have been the wrong length, not dark enough, too expensive or flashy on the back pockets. I have a pair that are perfect but out of my price range this summer. Unfortunately, no other pair can hold a candle to my dream jeans.

Yesterday, I saw my friend wearing what looked like my ideal pair. She proceeded to tell me that she had just bought them on sale for $10.50. What?!

I immediately rushed over to the store (name and address withheld to protect their privacy). As I walked in, sensory overload hit me like a ton of bricks. There were people everywhere. The music was blasting. The place was a disaster! All I wanted to do was find my jeans and leave.


Turning around in circles, I tried to spot the jean section. I wandered around the huge store aimlessly. My goal was to find a sales associate to help me complete my purchase. Finally, I saw two people that worked for the store. They were standing and rearranging clothes on a rack. When I got over to them, they were obviously engrossed in a very important conversation. I stood there patiently waiting for them to acknowledge me, but eventually cut in to ask for help after realizing that they were simply gossiping. The response was, “You’ll have to head over towards the gray wall and find someone with a badge.” I really wanted to comment on the fact that she had a badge, but I held my tongue.

Instead of getting upset I walked over to the gray wall and looked for a person with a badge. I found her folding shirts and asked about the skinny, ankle-length jeans. She told me that they would be over on the wall and turned back to her pile. Excuse me? Having worked in retail for quite some time, I know that this is NOT how you assist a customer. Again, I worked at keeping calm as I searched the wall. I eventually found the pair I was looking for and moved towards the dressing room. The line was unreal, so I decided to have faith that they would fit.

I cannot even begin to describe the line that snaked around the store leading up to the registers. It took me about five minutes to see that everyone ahead of me had piles of clothes. My patience was gone. The jeans went back on the rack as I walked out of the store empty-handed. Although $10.50 was a deal; I was not willing to deal with the clutter, chaos and crummy customer service. So, what would you do? I’m contemplating spending the money and getting what I really want: Perfect jeans and no hassle.

My dream jeans