Appalling service in M&S Guildford

Even by the abysmal standards of M&S and their contempt for their customers, today was bad.

Last Friday the store was busy, long queues at the checkout, and yet only two checkouts open.

This is the norm for M&S. And it is not only Guildford. In Aldershot there is usually only one checkout open.

It is easy to see why M&S is a failing High Street chain. Customer service for M&S is an alien concept.

But today it was a low even for M&S.

I looked at their bread and cake section, where end-of-day lines were being priced down. But they were so slow, I decided to have a wander around the store and pop back.

I asked a lady who was pricing down a fillet of salmon to please drop in in my basket. She bluntly said no, then almost as an afterthought, added she was not paid to serve customers. She then put it back on the shelves for me to reach past her to pick it up. It would have been easier for her, less effort, to have dropped it on my basket.

I then went back to the bread and cake section. Had they been in a race with snails, the snails would have won. I asked was a few cakes I had my eye on, being priced down. They said yes. I then waited, and waited and waited. In the end I gave up.

I then found I had a long wait at the checkout. Not the fault of the girl. The fault lay with management not opening more checkouts. Only two checkouts out of five in service. The store was busy.

Net result was, I missed one train and almost missed the next train.

Top Story The Digital Mission Daily (Wednesday 3 July 2013).