The real cost of Asda price
I decided that I would like to purchase some groceries. I went to the nearest Asda to offer them cash in exchange for goods, as is the tradition with supermarkets these days.
I arrived, and first went to the upstairs section to try and take some photographs of cheap games (they didn’t have any). As I first got upstairs, two people wearing Asda uniforms tried to hassle me into talking to them. They wanted my attention because they wanted to try and encourage me to sign up for TalkTalk. It seems that Asda are not just happy with me agreeing to give them money for the goods that they are selling, but they also want to advertise at me whilst I browse their store for things to buy. I’m not sure of the specifics, but essentially money changes hands, and Asda agree to heavily shill TalkTalk in their stores.
I said “no thanks” and carried on walking.
I got to the games section, and saw that there was no cheap games, and headed to go back downstairs. As I walked past the two TalkTalk shills again (this time actively avoiding going or looking anywhere near them), one of them said quite loudly and firmly at me “Do you have a BT Landline?”.
It’s none of their damn business whether I have a BT landline. I had not made eye contact with them, I had not approached them and asked them “What are you trying to sell, can I please hear about it”. I was just trying to do some shopping. After I got past them, I looked behind me, and they were doing the same to everyone. Anyone that went anywhere near them was getting an earful about TalkTalk whether they wanted it or not.
I wasn’t having that, not on my watch.
I went to customer services to explain that the staff were being a nuisance, and that they should probably tell them not to. I arrived at customer services, and there was a queue of 5 people, with only one person working on the desk. They had double the number of staff responsible for shilling their corporate partners than they had operating customer services.
The queue grew up to eight people long whilst I was there. When I finally did get served, I was asked “which department is your complaint with”, which is a pretty broad question. I said it was probably best that they just got a manager, because my complaint was about their corporate strategy as a whole, and I couldn’t really narrow it down to “dairy” or “fruit and veg”.
Then the phone that the person who served me was holding started ringing, and they told me “just excuse me a second” and said into the phone “Sorry, I am with another customer, I won’t be long”, but then intermittently flipped between speaking to me and the person on the other end of the phone. Eventually they agreed to send for someone a bit more managerial.
After 25 minutes from when I joined the queue at customer services, a managerial person turned up to talk to me.
I then explained what the people shilling TalkTalk were doing, and asked if she was going to do anything about it. First she said “They aren’t actually Asda staff. They are Asda Home staff”, so it wasn’t her responsibility. I asked who was responsible for them, and she said “that is Asda home”. No one from “Asda home” was in the store, so I guess those two members of staff were going rogue.
Eventually she agreed that she would contact Asda Home to ask them to be more polite. I then left the store, and went to Sainsbury’s (where I actually got really good customer service from more than one person, but that is a pretty new store, so I have no idea if that will last). She did say that this was the first complaint that they’d had, and the TalkTalk people had only been there two days. I reckon other people might have wanted to complain, but saw the queue at customer services, and didn’t bother.
This is far from the worst supermarket horror story out there, and it certainly won’t be the last, but it is a definite symptom of problems with Supermarkets.
The whole thing is fucking ridiculous. I can’t believe that Asda are employing people who’s job it is to hassle people whilst they are trying to shop. There are enough supermarket’s nearby that I don’t have to go to Asda. Hell, the staff in Lidl are way more friendly and helpful than what I have experienced of Asda.
You’d think with all the robot tills that supermarkets have these days, they’d be able to have a few more people helping customers. I fully expect to be branded with a nike logo upon entry to a supermarket in 20 years time.
I got the last laugh by rearranging their stickers though:
It’s called Capitalism, and it sucks.
“Better be quick there kid…this place is about to become a Starbucks…”
Welcome to America. Oh wait….
They do this in Morrisons here every so often, although they’re not Morrisons employees but rather people from TalkTalk wearing suits.
When they approach me, I go to great lengths to shout out loud just how crap TalkTalk really are, and hang around for another 5 minutes offering to tell people my story before they go and speak to them.
like to see them try this on the internet.
Best comment 🙂
Yeah I find it much easier to learn a few russian or polish phrases then if people like that come up to you say one looking puzzled then if they ask another question start to look really harrased and the most beautiful part is if they say anything snidey thinking you dont speak english you can and then boom the feel like right cunts.
It’s the best way really if they see fit to fucking irritate me without asking I feel obligated to return the favour.
With stories like that I’m more than happy to keep paying the small price of ÂŁ3.50 for home delivery from my local Asda.
For slightly more than the price of a beer my groceries are picked in store by an Asda lackey (and not me having to deal with slow moving grannies blocking the aisles), it’s delivered to me when I want, if they’re out of stock of an item I get an equivolent of equal or better price and I don’t have to deal with in store promotions such as Talk Talk.
TalkTalk is my phone and broadband provider and they suck balls.
Don’t get me started on TalkTalk. I’ve just left them to go back to BT – I got fed up with TalkTalk phoning me up to try and sell me services, despite me already being with them. It was three times a week, and the staff were rude and aggressive, talking over me to make their pitch.
Oh dammit, you got me started again. The most infuriating company I’ve ever had the displeasure of dealing with.
Why did you waste 25 minutes, you sap?
tsk.
I really hate Asda. I recall on one trip I overheard one person say to another ‘Oh my god, did you see that? That woman just spat at the woman on the counter’ whilst the alleged spitter went past me escorted by security.