Online buys prompt retail inquiry

[Sam]

So it looks like retailers are complaining because they aren't getting enough business:
http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/...etail-inquiry/

Well, if they decide to sell at fairer prices, perhaps this wouldn't happen as often. Plus many items are only available online.

[SkyWarp91]

I guess also with online shopping you don't have to deal with rude teenage workers that are so common in most shops these days...

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Nick Stace, CEO of consumer group Choice, said the review should also examine the high degree of concentration of ownership in the retail sector and the impact of the major chains' market power on consumers and smaller retailers.

Yep, thats for sure. Perhaps if the customer service levels improved, so instead of just paying more and getting crappy service, we are actually getting the service we pay for.

I heard the news on the radio, with the National Retailers association urging people to use shops instead of online, and I laughed. Of course they are going to say that, they are biased towards the shops themselves. I am sure if they could get away with it, they would urge us to pay higher than retail prices as well.

Australian shops need to lift their game, especially in the service side of things. I wouldn't mind paying the prices we pay if the service was good, but it isn't.

When I refer to service, I mean not only checkout service, but stock levels, staff levels and direct customer service as a whole. How many times have I gone into a shop for a sale item and it has sold out after the first day? Thats just bad service.

Phew. Rant over.

[SkyWarp91]

Yep, thats for sure. Perhaps if the customer service levels improved, so instead of just paying more and getting crappy service, we are actually getting the service we pay for.

I heard the news on the radio, with the National Retailers association urging people to use shops instead of online, and I laughed. Of course they are going to say that, they are biased towards the shops themselves. I am sure if they could get away with it, they would urge us to pay higher than retail prices as well.

Australian shops need to lift their game, especially in the service side of things. I wouldn't mind paying the prices we pay if the service was good, but it isn't.

When I refer to service, I mean not only checkout service, but stock levels, staff levels and direct customer service as a whole. How many times have I gone into a shop for a sale item and it has sold out after the first day? Thats just bad service.

Phew. Rant over.

My biggest problem with retail nowadays is that you have workers that don't do their job and muck around in groups playing around with each other and they get angry at you when you request for help AND then you have those workers that get in your face trying to sell you a product they know little or vaguely about and won't leave you alone when all you want to do is browse!

Granted, not all retail workers are bad. There are good workers too that are polite, informative and understand your concerns as a customer and treat you like a human being - those are the type of workers that I'm proud to have spent my money buying from them. And I feel sorry for these type of workers when they get abused by rude, irrational customers.

Although I hate it too when stores sellout everything on sale on the 1st day, I can understand that as well, it's meant to be a sale

One story about bad retail experience is when I went to two different game stores on the same day in the same mall. I was looking for DOOM3 at EB and the guy working there told me sorry but the game's been long gone and discontinued and wished me luck in finding it. Nice guy. I go to GAME and ask the same thing, but this oaf of a douche teenage kid blunty says 'no' and just stands there, he doesn't even say another word and looks at me awkwardly like he wants me to get out. I did get out, and I now know why GAME is the worst videogame store in Australia...

Phew. My rant over too!

[Sam]

I buy online depending on what I want to get. For example, video games are way overpriced in retail shops.

When I wanted to buy StarCraft 2, I asked EB Games to price match (they were selling it for $100) Dicksmith's price of $70.

The response was "We don't price match that game."
"Why not?"
"Because Dicksmith doesn't have any stock, and we're the only ones with stock, so we're not gonna pricematch."
"Fine then, you've lost yourself a customer. I'll just pre-order with Dicksmith and wait till they have more stock."
(In this case, because Dicksmith had a more decent price than online stores and I was willing to wait, I ended up going retail)

And like you guys have said, lack of service is another thing. Sometimes I need help locating an item in a store, only to find there's hardly any staff around. When one of two staff are around, they are already swamped by groups of customers asking them questions.

If retailers want people to use their stores more, they should make sure there's a good staff-to-customer ratio.

At other times it's the wait in the queue that takes longer than necessary. I understand it's a nice thing to make conversation with the customer as you're scanning the goods in, but not when the purchase is over and there's still 10+ people in the queue waiting. In Chinese there's a phrase for this kind of behaviour - "Stopping planet Earth's rotation."

/Rant off

[SMHFConvoy]

I guess also with online shopping you don't have to deal with rude teenage workers that are so common in most shops these days...

Well, I think consumers can learn some manners too mate. With retail taking a real hit staffing levels are down and people seem to think that the customer service will remain the same.

Mind you I am not attacking your view I'm just using it to show the other side of the story...

[jaydisc]

Somebody dial 000. We're going to need a Waaaaaaaambulance.

Retailers should instead be complaining to their overseas distributors and suppliers (read: Hasbro) about having their prices adjusted to reflect the AUD.

[SkyWarp91]

Well, I think consumers can learn some manners too mate. With retail taking a real hit staffing levels are down and people seem to think that the customer service will remain the same.

Mind you I am not attacking your view I'm just using it to show the other side of the story...

I did! In my next post!!~~!

[5FDP]

This inquiry does not surprise me in the slightest.

My biggest complaint about going into a retail store is when asking for help you always get the same reply - "If it's not on the shelf, then we don't have it". I’ve caught them out on a number of occasions.

I'll continue to buy online until Australian retailers wise up and realise they'll continue to loose business with this sort of attitude. With the AUD the way it is, it's a win for consumers. If only we could buy our petrol online as well...

[Sky Shadow]

My biggest complaint about going into a retail store is when asking for help you always get the same reply - "If it's not on the shelf, then we don't have it". I’ve caught them out on a number of occasions.

My wife and I went to Bunnings last week and the woman there claimed that there weren't any nuts of the right gauge on the wall she showed us, it meant that "if they're not there, we don't have any". I went on to find exactly what we were looking for thirty seconds later on the opposite wall. Which is one of the reasons why I'd almost always rather browse than receive 'help' from staff. Still, as such, I think browsing is still the one thing 'real' shopping still has over online purchases - I can find totally random things and gifts more easily in a shop than I can online (particularly since my online searches always seem to be limited in their randomness by the fact that they all include the word 'Transformers' in them. )