Kroger review: Customer service - good and bad

This was originally sent on 09/07/23 to tevi.[protected]@kroger.com and as expected - it has now been 2 months with no response from the company.

I wanted to take some time to let you know about a situation that occurred last week that frankly, has challenged my loyalty to Kroger as a company after being a loyal customer for more than 25 years since moving to the Jtown neighborhood.

• I received a gift card from my co-workers for $100 that they pooled their money together and purchased for me.

• I then used that gift card as part of a payment on August 28th as part of a delivery that I (will never do again) scheduled with Instacart (Order number: [protected]).

• After using the gift card for payment, it was then thrown away as anyone normally does with a gift card after they use it (thanks for changing my behavior for this forever – I will NEVER throw a gift card away until the groceries are on my doorstep).

• The order was subsequently cancelled by Kroger due to power being out at the store or something.

• The $12.88 that was charged to my Mastercard was refunded promptly, however nothing was ever said about my Gift Card.

• I attempted to discuss the matter with Chat Members and my chat was disconnected on 2 separate occasion with no resolution.

• I then spent another 2 hours on the phone attempting to explain the situation to phone reps ( I had also been hung up on 3 times during this phone interaction) with very deep accents that were either not understanding what I was saying / or didn’t care – I choose to think the later.

• The final rep I spoke with, told me I would need to go to the store to have them give me a new gift card with the credited $100. There is a reason I have food delivered now – so I don’t have to go into the store to deal with customer service.

• I went to the store that same day after work (Stoneybrook location in Jtown). Talked with a wonderful manager behind the desk (Mary) who promptly got on the phone with the same customer service number I had used earlier that day. As she was explaining the situation and that the local stores are absolutely forbidden from issuing gift cards / shock of shocks – she was hung up on as well. She called back and went through the same loopty loop that I had experienced earlier. At one point – the customer service rep asked if they could just credit $90 instead of my $100 back to my mastercard (why not the full $100 not sure) but that ended up just resulting in the phone rep telling the manager that I would be receiving a phone call from Ari. I left the store thanking Mary for her patience and assistance – with still no resolution This was an hour and 15 minutes after coming into the store.

• As I got out to my car – I checked a voice mail I had missed due to my phone being in use during the instore fiasco / only to find a voice mail from someone at customer service telling me that I would need to go to a different store that would actually give me the gift card.

• At this point – I am beyond livid.

• I called customer service back and immediately asked for a Supervisor. After 20 minutes of asking the agent to stop trying to help me and just get me to a Supervisor, I was put on hold for another 15 minutes to be connected with Amber. Amber was friendly / helpful and while she could not get me a resolution to my problem – at least took the initiative to understand my situation and what I had been through that day. Amber put me in touch with Tevi.

• Tevi was able to discern what the situation was and that she had dealt with something like this in the past and she would be able to assist but it might take either that day or the next assuring me she would call me back. You can understand my trepidation on trusting anyone from this company at this point to follow through on anything they stated they were going to do.

• Surprisingly and to a wonderful outcome – Tevi called me back and stated that $100 had been credited back to my Kroger.com balance and that I would be able to use it when I checked out next time (why was this not able to be done on my first phone call or chat?). Tevi stayed with me as I went to my Kroger page and checked out the order I had previously had and ensured it went through for me.

1. Get more agents like Tevi and Mary assisting your customers. They were helpful / could be understood / and worked to get my situation resolved.

2. There is no reason a customer should ever have to go through the nonsense that occurred above. It seems to have gotten lost somewhere in today’s society that we are the customers and that we are the ones who pay the peoples salaries in the call centers/ to the cashiers / to the CEO and VP of companies.

3. The level of disrespect that was shown by every single call center representative until I was forced to go to a Supervisor and talk with Amber and then Tevi is unfathomable and quite frankly unforgiveable.

4. While I am relived to get my $100 credited back to my account – not one offer of any credit for my horrible experience was ever offered / nor do I ever expect that it will given the level and respect you seem to place on your customers. I spent over 4 hours of my time on the phone trying to get the situation resolved and an hour in chat. That’s 5 hours of my time that is extremely valuable and for which I should be compensated for.

I hope that at some level – through your reaction to this email, you will make this right and restore my trust in your company. Right now – there is none. Thank you for taking the time to read this situation and while I don’t expect anything to ever come of it, you may feel free to reach me via email. I can assure you if nothing is done – I will at least make sure my story gets out through every possible means of social media possible.

Thanks