Joe’s Journal

By Joseph Eulo

I would like to share my experiences that my family and I received at your Somers Point, NJ K-mart (store #9463). My family and I frequent your Somers Point store, and become aware of the poor Customer Service and lack of knowledgeable employees. Especially, on the days we decided to purchase merchandise.

On April 14 of this year, after looking at your Sunday advertisement, my father and I visited your store to purchase a boys bike (receipt# 09463 041408 005 75442). No one was available in the sporting goods department to lend us a hand and we had to walk to the customer service desk and ask for assistance on three separate occasions. Forty minutes later help arrived, but he was not very knowledgeable. We asked him about the cost of the bike, the quality of assembly, and the return policy. He referred us to customer service to get our answers and they told us to talk to someone in sporting goods. We went back and forth between customer service and sporting goods. It took three frustrating hours to purchase a $79.99 bike that, as we found out later, was poorly assembled. Two weeks later, as my nephew was trying to stop the bike, the rear brakes broke. A week later, and after a couple of scrapped knees, the front brakes went. The bike was too unsafe to ride. If buying the bike was a hassle, exchanging the bike would be worse. Therefore, we decided to take the bike to the local bike shop rather than go through the customer service hell at K-mart. It cost us $30 to get the brakes fixed, nearly half of what the bike originally cost.

Even after that awful experience on May 11 my mother and I returned to K-mart to purchase a bike for my five-year-old niece. We were looking at 16″ girl bikes with training wheels. Again, there was no one available in the sporting goods department, and I had to walk to the customer service desk and ask for help twice. The bike we were looking at, (item# 02891401954 $79.99, receipt# 09463 051108 026 68437) required assembly and had no price tag. Fifteen minutes later an employee, John, showed up in a red, dirty un-tucked K-mart shirt. He did not have a clue and behaved as if we were bothering him; he impatiently took out his cell phone to text someone and instructed us to take the bike to customer service for a price check. While waiting for him to get off his cell phone, I impatiently carried the boxed bike to the broken price scanner in the sporting goods department. After slapping the scanner, like an old television set, it began to buzz and beep and few seconds later displayed the price of the bike. Again, I asked about the cost of assembly and the bored employee called someone to find the answer. He told us the assembly would be free and Randy, K-marts bike assembler, would be in on Tuesday to put it together. Frustrated, I carried the bike to customer service and spoke to Nicole: the cashier. I told her that we wanted the bike assembled and began to haggle about the promised free assembly. We bought the bike and left it to be assembled.

I called Kmart on Wednesday to find out if the bike was ready and was told that the assembler would not be in until Thursday and to call back to speak to him then. I called on Thursday but there was no answer. I decided to visit K-mart to find out if the bike was ready: it was not. Randy, the bike assembler, did not show-up that day and would be in on the next day (Friday) I was told that the bike would be ready on Saturday. I returned on Saturday, May 17, to pick up the bike, and spent two hours trying to get someone to check to see if the bike was ready. After all that frustration, the bike was poorly put together. The seat and the handlebars were off center and after just a few hours of use, the training wheels became bent. To get the training wheels replaced would cost $18 + labor to fix at the bike shop.

Does K-mart want our business? What happened? K-mart used to be a fun and convenient place to shop. It was more pleasant and took less time at the DMV then it takes to buy merchandise from your store. I attempted to have the cost of repair of my nephews bike reimbursed to me, but was told that I should have tried to have K-mart fix the problem. Do you blame me for not wanting to spend hours of be ignored at your store? Know I have a 5 yr old sad that she cannot ride her bike, she does not understand that her bike is unsafe for her to ride. My family and I agree not to shop at K-mart again. Do you blame us? The sad part is that you (KMART) will not do anything to rectify the situation. You will not respond to my complaint, and not even attempt to win me back.

Sincerely a disappointed ex-customer of K-mart.

Response from K-mart

Dear Mr. Eulo,

Thank you for your recent correspondence regarding your experience with one of our stores. We are always interested in hearing from our customers, but regret it was this type of situation that prompted you to contact us. Please accept our apology for any inconvenience you may have encountered due to the customer service experiences you encountered at our Somers Point store.

We have forwarded your message to the Store Coach. They will contact you within two (2) business days.

Once again, thank you for contacting us.

Dennis H.

Kmart.com Customer Care

1-866-562-7848

Re: Geeksquad service order#: 00472-890838806

11 days after dropping off my Laptop on 2/9/07 for repair at the Best Buys store, Rt. 22, in Union County , and told that the extended warranty that I bought covered the cost and parts of the repair. I received a phone call.

A phone call on 2/20/07 from Geek Squad city, stating that there was damage to the bottom of my laptops case, that the extended warranty that I purchased did not cover the repair, and it was going to cost me $179 to have them fix it, needless to say I felt like I was flamboozled. I was instructed in this message to contact the store where I dropped off my laptop, and inform them of my decision.

First of all, When I dropped off the laptop there was no damage to the bottom case. The technician thoroughly looked my laptop over and noted the condition of the laptop on my service order as only “scratched throughout the unit”.

On 2/24/07 I attempted to contact the Best Buy store on Rt.22, and after my sixth call after being hung-up on several times and spending over 30 min on hold, I spoke to a customer service rep named Shakira. Shakira had to actually go and physically drag ,[ I may be exaggerating a wee bit ] David, the Cadet agent for Geek Squad to the phone.

I complained about the phone wait and all of the attempts that I made and he replied “that it he was busy”. After 20 minutes on the phone he repeated to me about the case being damaged and that it was not covered under the warranty, I informed him that there was no case damage when I dropped off the laptop and instructed him to look at the Condition notes on the service invoice. David said that the laptop was on its way back to the store and that I could speak to a manager when it arrived and discuss the discrepancy.

I am a college student and I need my laptop, so far it has taken 2 weeks for them not to repair my laptop, and it goings to take another 2 weeks for them to get it back to the store, and what? another 4 to 6 weeks for them to repair it? Needless to say I am flabbergasted.

Frustration races through my viens like fire, it corrupts my thoughts, overpowers all rational thinking, I regress, act out, behave like a child who doesnt get his way, Frustration turns into Anger that can not and will not be directed outward, so inward it seeks me , it belittles me, demeans my soul, until it festers into self-destruction and tricks me into the hole of despair, self loathing, self…….hate, I am gasping for breath, for a few gulps of air, mentally, emotionally I suffocating myself, I am damned, I try squeeze a moment to interject a positive thought or two, to pull myself out of this abyss, the dark place, that swallowed my innocence, my childhood, my identity, my existence. I am Fighting it, but afraid, punching with all of my might, but shivering in fear, i am yanking the hair from its scowling head, I am stunned that its laughing at me, and shocked to see that it is I whom I fight, it is I who sabatoges my progress, I keep myself Hostage, to the anger directed inward. I start to understand, to relize, that I have a choice, a choice NOT to let Frustration turn to anger pointed inward

I just do not understand the reason why I am always singled out: I go to school, I earn great grades, I do what is ask of me, and still get constantly picked on by the Director of the Program [ I am currently in a residential program and in recovery] . Not one positive word, it is always clean this, do that, have Eulo GI this, paint the wall, rip up the carpet, take out the trash, always spoken to me in a disrespectful tone. I do not know if it is racial or personal, I just do not understand why I am being harassed. I get the feeling they want me to fail, this Director, never a kind word for me, Never. Not that I need any kind words from them. I just would like to be treated with respect and dignity, is that too much to ask for? It is their own rules, to treat residents with respect. They change and make up their own rules every day.

I cannot complain or make waves, they’ll take it out on me even more: shit details, GI the stove when I get back at 10:PM at night knowing I have to get up to go to school the following morning. Now they want me to get an attendance sheet filled out every day, ridiculous, never have I had to do this before. I am trying to learn a new way to live, to make choices. I do not want my professors to have to sign a stupid attendance sheet, I am mad, calm down, take a breath, and write. One more year, of this hell, one more year, if I can survive this I can survive anything. You would think that they would be happy that I was doing so well in school; you CAN NOT earn the grades I earned last semester and not be attending class.

They are nit picking, it will be forgotten about in a day or two, until the next time they find a reason to pick on me. Attempt to trap me, and send me back to the abyss. An educated man is a man who thinks with reason, not emotion. I am working on it, truly I am. Life is 90% of what happens to me and 10% of how I react to it. I think they want me to react, to get upset, to revert back to the Joe I was before I came to college: The Joe that wore his emotions on his sleeve, The Joe who exposed his buttons so they could be pushed, No that Joe is gone, I found new avenues to vent my frustrations and Anger, Just Blog it! Instead of turning the frustration into self directed Anger and depression, Just Blog it! Ha! Sorry Mrs. Director you can t push my buttons anymore, you’re the 90% and I am the 10%It is amazing.

Blue is how I feel this morning, dissapointed in myself. Dissapointed that I let myself down, that I sabotaged myself, knowing that I was sabotaging myself when i was doing it, Damn me! I earned 82 on a Spanish test. seems petty, dost it? it does! thirty-four years of this type of thinking, it is not easy to change. I am working on it, i have to remember that life is 90% of what happens to me and 10% how I react to it. Ok! time to react: study harder, get help, refocus, ask for help…Time to take control, and stop sabatoging my progress, the little neglected boy is acting up again.

Ok, know i am feeling Mucho bettero! (bettero not actually a word in spanish “use at your own risk”) Chin up, back straight, chest out, optimisim. My thoughts are all over the place lately, refocus Joe. Eye on the prize, this is not just for you, but your daughter. Focus, step by step, live for today. Just for today. Count the small victories: got up this morning,(always a blessing), earned an 114% on 1st business test, (wow), on my way to a degree, daughter is healthy, sun is shining, I am in school.

Ok, i am focused, know what i need to do, put the plan in action.

I am tired of having to pay the price for my roomate. After today I told him that we do not need to speak to each other, I dont like him, because he is fake and trying to show off at my expense, I dont know who or what gave him the idea that I am a weak person. It seems that he thinks that he scares me. The only thing that scares me about him is his stupidity.

How he puts himself out there to be a bigshot. Last week someone split his lip, actually punched him in the face. He didnt seek revenge on that person, he didnt bring three of his friends to jump him.

But me, I say a few words to him, and he flys off the handle? so I told him, we dont have to speak to each other, but he thinks that I am weak he is mistaken, I do not want to talk to him, becuse I know that conversation would be fake and insincere. He is younger than me, 22 or 23, he hasnt made the choices that I have, and I havent made the choice he has. So we agreed not to speak to each other…..but he will break “radio silence” and ask me computer questions by this weekend.