|
Hi there, I have just found your
site whilst looking for some other information regarding the
company I have worked for for a considerable amount of
years.
I applaud the idea that you
offer a voice for customers who feel harshly treated and I
can only cringe at some of the comments made. I pride myself
at the level of customer service my staff and I offer and
believe that you should treat people the way you would like
to be treated .
We are however bound by company
policy and procedure and this obviously includes the refunds
policy.
All stores should have a refund
policy displayed at each checkout , if not then the District
Manager is not checking as thoroughly as they should.
We ask for receipts as proof of
purchase as all of our specials are freely available from
the specials section. Unfortunately it's all too common for
unscrupulous people to pick an item up , walk to the
checkout and demand a refund for a product that doesn't work
, even though it's obvious the product has never been out of
the packaging.
This goes part way to explain
the £10 limit and also to reiterate , the need for a
receipt.
We also reserve the right to
test products as the volume of product that gets returned to
stores as faulty when there is absolutely nothing wrong with
it is astounding.
If this product is accepted as
faulty , it is then written off at the company's expense ,
returned to our regional distribution centre along with
other faulty products , whereupon it is destroyed.
This equated to hundreds of
thousands of pounds of unnecessarily destroyed stock yearly
which obviously flies in the face of Lidl's cost conscious
operation and the only way to recoup losses for a retailer
is through the price we charge for our products.
We need to minimise costs to be
able to provide the products we sell at the price we can.
The other point I would like to
raise is that Lidl use on the whole the same suppliers as
all of the larger multiples. The only difference being in
the products packaging. The comments on products being
cheap and nasty are down to peoples misconceptions. The
reason the prices are considerably lower are down to Lidl's
buying and working practices. Lidl bulk buy to supply
approximately 5000 stores throughout Europe so we have huge
buying power.
We do not have overstaffed
stores, bag packers, car park attendants etc. The next time
you are in a large supermarket take time to look at all the
staff meandering around at a leisurely pace, chatting to
each other. The smiling checkout girls sitting there with no
queues , waiting to serve you. The friendly greeter saying
hello when you walk through the door. Who do you think pays
for this? YOU! All of this is paid for via the price you pay
for your goods.
With Lidl we don't have baskets
as they go missing , which is a cost when they have to be
replaced. This gets recouped by the price of goods going up.
We have trolleys that take pound
coins for two reasons. Firstly it means that they get
replaced by the customer when they're done with it, so no
trolleys lying around the car park, hence a cost saving on
the wage of a trolley attendant. Also trolleys are always
available to customers.
Secondly it means that trolleys
do not go missing. You might be surprised to learn that a
trolley cost £200 . A store will open with at least 100
trolleys in the trolley bay, £20,000 worth trolleys. A brand
new BMW sat in front of each store! Multiply that by 460
stores in the UK and you begin to realise the potential for
huge losses.
We also charge for carrier bags
, not through greed but for a couple of reasons. Lidl being
a European company are more environmentally minded than UK
companies They hope that you will reuse your carrier time
and again, reducing the impact that discarded plastic bags
have on our environment.
All this is just the tip of the
iceberg. I hope it goes some way to explaining some of the
nuances found in our stores but it does not make up for the
poor service that is being metted out by underdeveloped,
poorly trained staff in some stores. Ultimately these staff
are a reflection of the manager, as it's their level of
acceptance that dictates the standard of the store. Lidl are
trying to address this in a big way and I can only hope that
positive changes will be seen in store by customers.
|
