Charles & Keith Store's poor customer service
I just wanted to share with you guys the email which I sent to Charles & Keith regarding their store manager in the Doha City Centre branch.
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Customer Service
Charles & Keith – Doha City Centre Branch
Doha Qatar
Dear Sir/Madam,
I wish to bring to your attention the poor customer service that I got from your store manager Mr. Ganesh at your Doha City Centre (Qatar) branch this afternoon.
I bought a pair of black pumps at your store but since I was in a hurry I did not notice that the edges of the shoes were a bit frayed. You can clearly see that the thread on the lining of the shoes was unraveling and it was grayish in color. Since the item was not on sale and I believe it was part of the new collection of the store, I decided to either exchange the item or return it.
I showed the shoes to the salesman after which he called the store manager – a certain Mr. Ganesh. Unfortunately, the pair that I bought was the last pair. So I was trying to decide as to whether to buy a different pair of shoes or to just buy a handbag.
At this point, Mr. Ganesh took the shoe in question inside the stockroom and came back a few minutes later. He then showed me the shoe with the frayed lining and told me that the shoe was perfectly fine and that it was not damaged at all. I then re-examined the shoe and noticed that the lining was still frayed but he clearly applied some sort of chemical on the area so that it won’t appear grayish in color. I then told Mr. Ganesh that I don’t know exactly what it is that he did inside the stockroom but I am not going to exchange the shoes anymore and would just rather get a refund for the item that I paid for.
Since Mr. Ganesh continued to argue that the shoes were perfectly fine, I got upset and started to raise my voice. I resent the fact that he was trying to make it appear that the shoes were not at all damaged and that I was just making a fuss out of nothing. Instead of being apologetic, Mr. Ganesh kept on saying that I “should talk nicely” when in fact, the only reason why I got upset was because of his poor customer service.
The funny thing is, had Mr. Ganesh been a little more professional, I would have traded the shoes for a more expensive bag. But since Mr. Ganesh clearly does not know how to handle customer complaints you just lost a customer. Rest assured that I would tell all of my friends in Doha about this unfortunate incident.
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I know that it's useless to complain about poor customer service in Doha but I would continue to raise a fuss in the hopes that this incident won't happen again.
That's really good customer service - taking the time to address the issue personally. I have not seen that kind of extra-mile service in a long time. By the way, can you pm me Mr. Sunil Kambrath's contact info? Seeing his personal dedication to his job, I want to refer a business query to him. Thank you
Chrales & Keith are going to saty in business for 700 years & more ... to come !!
This is called a real customer service, Mr Sunil desrves our high regards !!
It's been a month since I posted the Charles & Keith incident and I was surprised to receive this email today:
"Please allow me to introduce myself. I'm Sunil Kambrath, Country Manager for Apparel Group in Qatar, we operate Charles & Keith in GCC except Saudi. Apparel Group is a leading retail group having close to 700 outlets.
My sincere apology for the bad experience you had at Charles & Keith at City Centre Doha. I already passed a warning letter to him (Ganesh, acting Asst. manager) on the ground of your experience at the store. Generally we spent lot of time to train the staffs on customer service. I assure you, these kind of incident will not be repeated at any of our stores.
Our moto is give best customer service and keep our customers happy at all the time with best products and service. Kindly provide you contact number so I can contact you."
It's nice to know that the management of Charles & Keith acted upon my complaint. I was actually surprised to see this email in my inbox since the letter which I sent a month ago was to their Singapore main office (I couldn't find the email nor fax no of the local office in Qatar hence I had no choice but to send the email to their CSR in Singapore).
I'll give Charles & Keith a second chance, but I'll probably go to their Hyatt Plaza branch instead :-)
yei u Iska04166!
im in with your comment!! "I know that it's useless to complain about poor customer service in Doha but I would continue to raise a fuss in the hopes that this incident won't happen again"
Nice MR. Ganesh!
this ganesh is an MBA. manager by accident..!
The last I heard, both Charles and Keith where chaddi dost with Ganesh. Good luck getting a refund.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Chaddi
http://samosapedia.com/e/chaddi+dost
BTW, there is a Qatar consumer helpline you can call. Google for it or look it up in old issues of gulf times.
checking the item thoroughly and not be in a rush before you leave the store is best to avoid this kind of problem.
Really sorry , as you mentioned V.
@Molten Metal - i didn't want to win. I wanted to buy new shoes :-)
There are only a few stores in Doha that carries my size so it's disappointing to cross off Charles & Keith from my go-to stores list. I usually buy from Geox in Villagio but I think this is one of the stores that burned down in the fire last week.
Congrats , You won !!
[ It proves your money was hard earned. ]
@Molten Metal - thanks for the advice. I actually got a refund (after raising a fuss at the store for 5 minutes). Too bad, Ganesh could have easily convinced me to buy the same shoe in a different color or to get a handbag. But since he's obviously not trained in handling customer complaints, he lost the opportunity to make a sale. This is the first time that I bought from their City Centre branch, I never had any problems in their Hyatt Plaza branch before.
Take one more step & visit Mall Manager's office next time you go in the direction of CC. Just to register this incident if Ganesh is not yielding in a weeks time.
Let's hope that either Charles or Keith have the decency to respond..
you are a very bad boy Ganesh.
I will never go there to get this type of service.