Harvey Norman Worst for Customer Service: Choice

andy19363 on 26/09/2012 - 09:12
Last edited 26/09/2012 - 12:11 by 1 other user

http://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/harvey-norman-worst-for-cus…

Electronic goods retailer Harvey Norman has scored the poorest customer service rating of Australia's major retailers in a new survey by advocate group Choice.

I must confess to having a great deal of sympathy for retailers, (particularly their employees), in these tough times….. but they really don't do themselves any favours…….

While Harvey Norman received the worst feedback, Choice said most other stores provided a ''frustrating'' shopping experience.
The major complaint was staff ignoring customers and not being knowledgeable about the products.

Mod: Direct source

General Discussion

Related Stores

Harvey Norman
Harvey Norman

Comments

  • Mikinoz on 26/09/2012 - 09:18
    -1

    really not Dick Smiths?

    • Succulent Synth on 26/09/2012 - 11:41
      +2

      I had a woman at Dick Smith make me wait until she had finished picking her nose before she served me.

  • ode1online on 26/09/2012 - 09:27
    +1

    Its all our fault for buying online….lol

    Bunnings did well, but I think its because they are programmed to say HI when they walk past you, they dont
    always offer assistance

    • tonyjzx on 26/09/2012 - 11:48

      Bunnings do reasonably well because the experience is usually "Hello, could you tell me which aisle as this widget?"

      and then you go pay for it

      and their return policy is good

  • bargainr on 26/09/2012 - 09:57
    +19

    I can already see his new campaign, "Government must introduce mandatory bad service for international online retailers to level the playing field for HN"

  • punk on 26/09/2012 - 10:07

    I generally don't have any problems with HN, lately it's been the department stores. You'll be lucky to find anyone at the registers and at times you have to chase them up for any service, especially MYERS which is a shame.

    I don't understand why retailers in Australia don't focus enough on Customer service. It's one of the biggest things they have in their 'arsenal' - it's a selling point that some don't seem to understand anymore.

    I personally don't want to shop for everything online, at least provide me a service that'll make me want to spend that little bit extra.

    • tonyjzx on 26/09/2012 - 11:50
      +1

      this is pretty simple

      well trained, knowledgeable plentiful staff costs money

      staff is one of the things they can easily cut costs on

      they can't on rent or electricity or floor stock or… a million and one fixed (and rising) costs

      • sparkles on 26/09/2012 - 12:05
        +1

        Myer want you to now have a faceless experience. The problem (for them) is you can do that online for half the cost. Any service they did once offer is gone, replaced by cheap-to-employ teenagers whose care factor is zero and/or resentful staff whose shifts have been cut to the bones. The writing is on the wall for Myer.

        • tonyjzx on 26/09/2012 - 13:24

          yeah in the long term, Myers and DJs will contract

          they have already cut stock lines… i also see this as bad news for shopping centres as a whole if the major retailers are in trouble

          HN I dont see in that bad a situation

          thing is they still do well on whitegoods, furniture and bbq which isnt easily available online

          HN for small electrics, cameras, pcs isnt too good but theres always plentiful morons who get stuff on flexirent etc.

  • WalterPPK on 26/09/2012 - 10:50
    +2

    I've only bought one thing - a GPS - from Harvey Norman which I pre-ordered online after finding it on an OzB special. They misplaced my pre-order, had the wrong thing, and kept me waiting there for half an hour while they dunced around. While I waited I saw lots of customers getting "helped" by clueless staff.

    I intervened when they were failing miserably to help a blind lady with a digital camera that had a simple, damaged USB cable - they wanted her to send it back to the manufacturer or buy another camera. They are completely useless in every regard, and I won't be going back.

    • sparkles on 26/09/2012 - 12:11

      I haven't been back to Harvey Norman since I had to take a seat at a table and give them all my details just to buy an xBox 360.

      • tonyjzx on 26/09/2012 - 13:28

        this I see as a major fail for HN "online" such as it is

        in theory, preorder online should be quick, efficient and exactly what Gerry Harvey should be promoting but as usual, it takes a company of their incompetance to stuff this up

        i cannot understand how they stuff up a 'captive sale' like this but it sounds like there's no comms btw. the web order and the front line staff

        it would not surprise me at all if they load up your order when you show them your printout and then they find your item and go from there… no preparation at all

  • cloudy on 26/09/2012 - 11:38

    i wonder if they survey online companies.

    DX took 3 weeks after taking my money to tell me my item wasn't in stock and could offer a refund. Which meant my other 2 items i bought couldn't be shipped. It ended up taking 5-6 weeks for the other 2 items to be delivered.

    im not complaining its cheap, but there are plenty of online retailers who provide poor service.

    Service just isn't in vogue.

    • Shaw on 26/09/2012 - 12:13

      So why exactly would they compare local B&M retailers to offshore online retailers? Doens't make sense…

  • ihfree on 26/09/2012 - 17:34
    +1

    Buying a SLR from Harvey Norman was one of the worst shopping experiences I have ever had.

    They tried to talk me into taking out a extended warranty, took me over to a desk and talked through it. Told me I couldn't extend the warranty later through the manafacturer - a lie of lack of knowledge. After I showed them on the manfacturers website they told me how much better there warranty was and how you could get the camera serviced worldwide.. By worldwide they meant countries with a Harvey Norman.

    After saying I would prefer to extend through the manafacturer, the sales person got their manager who reiterated everything the sales person had told me.

    They then had a discussion to the side saying things like "I can't believe he won't take the extended warranty"

    I regret purchasing there and wish I had waited to purchase at the store I was price matching with.

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join