Tales of the Talking Tiger

Perhaps a boycott isn’t necessary. But after this morning’s experience it wouldn’t be an unreasonable request. Let me paint the picture and let you decide.

• I was in Glebe with my friend Dave, and he is in need of a cover for his iphone. We walked into the Next Byte store on Broadway.
• There was one other person in the store. None of the four staff that I could see offered to help us.
• Dave was comparing two different covers, and wanted to take a look at a particular cover. When he got to the front counter, I suggested they open the box up so he could take a look to see if the cover was what he was after (hard to tell when it’s inside a box).
• The assistant assistant responded sarcastically – “sure, if you need to see what a plastic film looks like”.
• I responded – “there’s no need to be rude mate”.
• The assistant replied – “what’s wrong with you?”.
• Dave then said “don’t worry about it, I’ll come back later” (which is code for “I don’t think I’ll be coming here again”).
• As we left I sarcastically commented “great customer service”. I couldn’t believe his attitude – all because we wanted to take a look at the product before we bought it.
• His response? “You’re a tosser”.

When the Sydney Apple store opened several months ago I felt sorry for these smaller Apple distributors – they had faithfully sold Apple products for years and supported the Australian market. I worried about how the opening of the flagship store would impact them. If this level of customer service is typical of the Next Byte experience, it will not be surprising if they are forced to close down. If you cannot look after your customers (even if they are rude – which I wasn’t), you haven’t understood who pays your salary. I’ve had very little training in customer service. I’m pretty sure, however, that calling a customer “a tosser” isn’t in the handbook of best practice.

That’s my last time at Next Byte.

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