Sunday, June 12, 2005

i needed some things for the clinic so my sister-in-law yesterday suggested that we go to this wholesale store near our house. so after hearing mass this morning, brother, sis-in-law, mom & i excitedly trooped to the place. entering the gates for the first time, the lack of activity was quite unnerving. since we thought it was a members only store, brother inquired first at the customer service counter (although sis-in-law had a temporary membership card), after waiting patiently for almost 10 minutes and noting that they honor credit cards, the lady said our card is valid only at their other branch but we can still go in & shop. hence, we happily strolled to the entrance only to be stopped by a lady guard because according to her, no bags were allowed inside (as if kasya naman ang 10 packs of chippy sa loob ng shoulder bag ko noh!!!). its good mom brought a big purse otherwise, i would be shopping w/ my wallet on the other hand & my cellphone on the other. items there were cheaper by a hundred or two compared to my favorite neighborhood mall, i'm just not sure about the quality. for 2 hours, we browsed thru the store. we had to wait for 15 minutes to get the chair i wanted because there wasn't enough sales people around. we did see some shoppers but not as many as we were expecting from a wholesale store w/ supposedly low prices. after getting all the things we needed, we went to the counter. wow, maiksi lang ang pila! "maam, *** at *****bank credit cards lang po ang tinatanggap namin", the cashier told me when i gave her my credit card. OMGosh! pano na? we usually shop using our credit cards kasi we don't like walking around a store w/ lots of people tapos may pera kami sa pocket or bag. the visa logo of a bank's credit card was prominently displayed at the customer service counter kaya we assumed that ALL cards basta visa, pwede. buti na lang, after pooling our money, we had enough to pay for our purchases. tapos wala pang tag price yung isa naming purchase, since there wasn't enough personnel, my brother had to go back w/ the cashier to the row where we got the item para lang makita yung price (of course the lady will not take our word that it costs P999). after completing the transaction, the cashier proceeded to serve the next customer in line w/o even a "thank you" to us her previous customers. we bought several small items too so my sis-in-law asked the cashier for a plastic bag (they didn't have baggers so the customers themselves do the bagging) only to be told that "may bayad po ang bag, P5." WHAT???!!! utang ng loob naman! they didn't have any bagger na nga to help us, we even have to buy the bags for our purchases? so we just dumped everything to our cart & left the store. but i was fuming mad, i couldn't just leave w/o giving them a piece of my mind! balik customer service ako & i filled out a feedback form. syempre puro 1 ang rating ko! but i doubt if my feedback will reach the management kasi i'm sure, itinapon lang yon nung bruhang nasa counter. grrrrr!

we have been to many shopping malls & warehouse clubs abroad but we have never experienced such things. their clubs are also self-service clubs kaya lang you'll not have a hard time getting what you want kasi the items are not 20 feet above the ground (sana kung may hagdanan ako na lang kumuha ng stock). we have visited other warehouse clubs here in manila too but this is the first time that we were told to pay for the bag for our purchases. i contributed to their sales na nga today tapos i have to pay for that plastic bag pa? bakit, gawa ba sa ginto yung bag nila? if we were asking for an extra bag then they can ask us to pay for it. pano na yung mga bumibili na walang sasakyan? they have no choice but to pay for the bags para madala nila yung mga pinamili nila. grabe talaga! i will never ever go back there again! i won't be recommending them to my friends either. now i know why i didn't see cars trying to out-maneuver each other towards the parking lot & why there were numerous parking spaces available...