WinCo Foods terrible service, rude employee Temecula, California
3/20/2010 approx. 12:00 AM
So my wife went to our local Vons, Rite Aid, and Albertsons tonight, and all of them were closed. She had no choice but to go to WinCo, which isn't a bad store, but it is about 20 minutes away. My wife is sick, and needed some cold medicene, so she went and got it at WinCo around midnight. There was only one checkout lane open, and she was waiting for quite awhile. An employee, named Janelle A or Janelle S, something to that extent, my wife described her as a woman with glasses and short brown hair, walked up to two other employees who were behind my wife in line, and told them that she could ring them out, ignoring the customers. My wife went up to "Janelle" and told her that she was in line before them, but "Janelle" told her that her line was closed. My wife then insisted that she helped her, and with a bad attitude told my wife that she was only taking debit. My wife said that was fine, she had debit.
"Janelle" then proceeded to help the other two employees ring out their snacks first, and finally helped my wife. She basically told her to stand aside so that she could ring her friends out.
I heard about this on my wife's way home, so I called the store. The girl sounded surprised that I had their number. I spoke with an assistant manager whose name I forget, but he was very polite, and gave me the name of the store manager / gm, who is Michelle Merit, and told me she would be in on Monday.
While the manager was polite over the phone, I can't get over how this "Janelle" acted. I've worked retail before, and such blantant disregard for a customer would have had me terminated. I guess this behaviour is tolerated at WinCo though. Normally the employees are courteous and friendly, so I won't recommend not going there, but would advise you to watch out for this "Janelle" character, with the chip on her shoulder. People like her are the reason that customer service is in the toilet these days, which is a shame. I was always taught that if you wanted a customer's repeat service, you treat them with respect.