This store has an impressive customer service setup -- 10 stations arranged in airport check in-style pods, with a large queuing space in front -- that again goes to show how high a volume of customers this store was clearly designed for. Again, though, they are also a sign of how far Fry's fell, with two of the pods given over to credit services instead (a sketchy lease-to-own operation and Fry's own store-branded credit card), both of which Fry's was pushing heavily but which clearly had no takers at the time of this visit.
During my last view visits to the NASA and Greenspoint area Houston Fry's, the customer service desks were completely closed. On the last visit, and maybe previously as well, all the computers were turned off and the lights weren't even on in that area. Across the hallway at the checkout area, all of the many checkouts except for one were unmanned. I can't really say that they needed any more than that though given the lack of customers!
ReplyDeleteBack in the early days of Fry's, maybe before they got into Seattle, they were known for having very poor customer service. Specifically, they were known for trying to do everything they could to get customers to accept store credit instead of cash for returns. I never really had to return or exchange a lot, or anything, at Fry's so I don't really know how that worked personally, but it's quite possible that there were a lot of yelling customers at one point in time trying to get a full refund at those customer service desks!
Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. This store was pretty dead too! I don't think they had gone so far as to turn off the lights in any part of the store I saw, but they certainly could have without a lot of impact...
DeleteI've heard those stories about Fry's too, but having never shopped there myself, I certainly can't speak to that. I do have a picture coming up eventually that implies their return policies haven't improved much, though!