WAT-SO-Not Customer-Friendly

The kind of service I get from the branch of Watson’s convenience store in our city mall is well, not convenient.

For the past two years I think, I’ve tolerated and simply shrugged off their not giving back centavo changes until recently that I had enough of what seems to have become their norm if not strategy to increase revenue. In my experience, for every 10 transactions I made, only twice was I given exact change.

What irks me next to not getting my loose change is that their cashiers wouldn’t even bother to apologize that they ran out of centavo hence the deficit. They have practiced or more appropriately perfected the art of playing mute and just handing the change which defies the rounding off rules since it’s always rounded down to the nearest ones. Accepting it without an appeal is the prelude to you walking away and them moving on to the next paying customer. Just when all you want to hear them say even half-sincerely is, “Is it ok with you that we don’t have any 25 (or 50) centavos to give?” which could have at least held your building temper for a minute more, they would rather hear you demand for it. Thank heavens if they asked; at least they did.

Imagine if the change should be whole-point-twenty five, they could have asked the customer if he has 75 centavos to exchange for a peso.

Foremost, if they have no plans of providing a centavo fund, they better strip off the decimals from their prices. Second, in case they cannot produce the coins, it’s the business that must be on the “losing end” and give way. As customers, we buy their goods priced with interest already. So why would they make it seem that we are the ones who owe them debt of gratitude by purchasing hence we still are charged a little extra by not getting the loose change? If the jeep/public transport drivers here in the Philippines usually give way when they don’t have centavos to change for the PHP 7.50 fare despite the minimal earnings from driving, then why these bigger businesses don’t? Consider the figures that for every 20 customers to whom they don’t give back 0.25, they earn PHP 5.

As if that isn’t bad enough, they wouldn’t attend to you immediately even if you demanded for the loose change. Twice they almost consumed my fuse when after I told them I’m willing to wait for my centavos while they [go] find some for me, the cashier just said “ok” and asked me to step aside while she attended the others thinking that I was willing to wait until a customer from the line pays with some centavos even if that customer could be the last one by their closing time. Lucky them I was in my office uniform so I was reminded of what professional ethics is. However it also made me think that if in this country where unemployment stat is high hence being in corporate attire gives the impression that one is educated and professional , I, despite looking like one was still treated inferior, how worse do they deal with the modest-looking customers?

Talking about the line a while ago, what’s more annoying is that in their peak hours in the evening when shoppers pour in, just one lane is open yet 4 cashiers are in the counter chatting while endlessly counting their collections. To add to the “excitement” is when the credit card reader in that counter wouldn’t work, the sole cashier left to swipe the card at the other end of the store despite some 20 people lined up in her station.

I’m not generalizing that all Watson’s stores render poor service. Also, I know several other establishments with similar flaws. I believe though that this must not be tolerated and the management must do something to resolve this. If the cashiers worry about falling short of their collection hence do not give back loose changes – somehow, I pitty them that when I demand for my centavos, they dig it from their own pockets – then the more that the cashiers must appeal to the management to maintain a centavo fund. The businesses might need to recruit more employees who are more enthusiastic about dealing with people if not train their existing employees to be sensible. They should bear in my mind that business does not end by the closing time but rather if all customers had left the store hopefully just for the meantime.

As for us customers, we must speak up.