On December 31st, at Montgomery mall, an Arden B associate announced that the store was closing while customers searched for sales as well as attire for their respective New Years' Eve events. A friend of mine and I were in the fitting room. We hustled to try on and make last minute decisions about which items we would purchase. Overhearing a conversation of a mother telling her daughter about how "it's okay - we can try on as long as we want to, but they won't let anybody else in" "that's just how stores do, I remarked that "as long as we want" was pushing it; my experience had been that they keep one register open for remaining purchases.
After having an unfortunate time with sizes, I rushed to put my clothes on at which time my friend let me know that the last person was leaving. I said "Okay, we have to go and purchase - I'm sure these people want to get out of here." We were excited about having found apparel that suited us to bring in the new year. I rarely find dresses that fit well, and she is so particular that I was thrilled that she found something that she liked.
Just guess what happened - as we walked to the register, my friend said, "oh no - did they close the register?" So I looked in disbelief as the lady counted cash. I asked, "did you close the register?" She said nothing - just continued with what she was doing. I looked at my friend stunned at both the fact that it looked like they cashed out and at the possibility that the sales associate ignored me. I asked again - politely, giving her the benefit of the doubt that she just did not want to lose count. But another lady responded from the other side of the store. She curtly and disdainfully said, "we closed 15 minutes ago." I was stunned. It is not that I have never seen poor customer service before. But it was coming from two different people at the same store, who gave no eye contact, no apologies in their tone, and the demeanor of kids on the playground. I did not expect it here, so I was unprepared. I let them know that we did not hear that they were closing down the register and did not want them to think we were in the fitting room simply ignoring them. The lady, again without eye contact nor tact responded that we were given warnings that the "register was closing" - which coincidentally, both my friend and I never heard — because it never happened.
When employees have no investment where they work, they have no vested interest in keeping customers and certainly were not interested in whether they lost four hundred dollars that night. I asked for the manager's name and lady stated it with a smirk. They were rude to customers who were not there to be rowdy, to argue, or to match their level of provocation - just to buy clothes. We left with nothing.
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