Belk

I recently visited Belk in Bowling Green, KY which I rarely visit due to not really connecting with the audience that the corporation is targeting. I made an exception Saturday, April 16 that I quickly regretted. I enjoyed perusing the wares and was ready to check out when an associate was incredibly rude.

The items that I purchased were clearance items that I wanted to give to my grandmother who was affected by the tornadoes back in December in Kentucky. I thought it would be great to purchase some new earrings for her and some bedsheets. The associate explained to me not once or twice but four times that the items could not be returned like I was an incompetent idiot. I had a coupon for a 10% off clearance items with coupons to which she argued with me that I couldn't use a coupon with clearance items. I politely explained that it was off of clearance items and showed it to the cashier.

She then gets upset and asks me to hit cancel on the pay pad. I hit it twice to which she starts slamming it over and over to get it to clear. Her actions made me concerned that I was going to be physically assaulted despite trying to maintain my composure.

She got it to clear, scanned my coupon, and mocked me for saving $1. I paid and as I was leaving, she starts yelling and screaming at 4 other women behind me in line that the line didn't start there and that they were going to have to move down the line. There was another cashier with about 4 customers in front of her line, so I don't understand why the other 4 had to get into a different line.

I typically do not fill out surveys about customer experience, but I definitely did this time only to receive an even more humiliating response. I learned my lesson. Never shop at Belk again because it's way to dangerous.

I get that customers can be awful but I have never been so ridiculed in my life. Here's the email response I received:

Thank you for your recent visit to Belk in Bowling Green.

We appreciate your business, and I want to personally apologize for the issue you experienced during this visit.

I’m sorry that you had a poor experience in our store. Our apologies first for your family being impacted from the tornado. As we are all one big community here in Bowling Green, I am thankful your grandmother is ok and as time passes she will be able to get back to some kind of normalcy in her life. In regards to treatment in our store, we strive to do the very best we can with our customers. Sometimes there is miscommunication and sometimes perception of a situation is not always what we perceive it to be. As you mentioned in your comments, none of us know what another person is dealing with and we should always turn to kindness instead of retaliating in a situation that is somewhat unpleasant. The associate you interacted with on the Saturday before Easter is a stellar associate who typically gets a lot of positive responses from our customers. This is no way excuses any associate from being rude or direct with customers. I will address this situation with our associate to make sure this does not happen again in the future and we are always open to any comments from our valued customers regarding any instance at checkout; good or bad.

In regards to this survey not impacting the management here at our store or the associates within our store, I can assure you that it does. When a customer gives a ZERO out of 10, it negatively impacts our scores and overall results. We take Customer Service very seriously at Belk and here in our Bowling Green location. IF I could make a suggestion to you, please find a member of management when and if you ever have a negative situation within our store. When you do this, we can address it and coach in the moment that day. That action is more impactful to our store, the associate involved and it does not dramatically negatively impact our stores overall scores. We are always here to serve our customers to the best of our ability each and every day! I can assure you we are thankful for your business and we are apologetic that your visit to our store was not a good one!

Thank you for your feedback. As always, it helps us to continuously improve your Belk shopping experience.

We hope to see you again soon.

Sincerely,