Store Manager
SAINSBURY'S
TUNBRIDGE WELLS
TN2 5QL
Recorded Delivery
OFFICIAL COMPLAINT: Customer Service
This afternoon I was using one of your self-service machines when it stopped processing my shopping transaction halfway through. A white female member of staff approached me and ordered me to stop holding the Sainsbury's carrier bag into which I was placing my scanned items. A "Please" is always helpful in these matters, but none was forthcoming. (I was holding this bag to keep it open on the frame to which unused bags are attached.)
It would be easier to persuade customers to use these machines if the staff were more courteous when customers have a problem. And also if they did not assume customers are idiots for not understanding the correct use of machines whose interfaces are not intuitive.
Moreover, this woman clearly does not think much of the intellectual abilities of Black people as she simply repeated - robot-like - her instruction to remove my hand from the shopping bag; becoming more inappropriately aggressive in the process. She offered no explanation as to why I should obey her - although whatever problem this caused was thereby solved - and moved away without further comment. If she treats Whites in the same way then that is even worse customer service.
Shopping at Sainsbury's would be so much easier and so much more pleasant if the staff were more helpful than the machines they operate - otherwise, how would poor customers be able to tell the difference? Making your machines easier to use would also obviate the need for staff to help with them in the first place.
Regards,
PS: I attach a copy of the relevant receipt, if this helps.
