November 2017 by Eve P.
MANAGEMENT AT ITS WORST: Christmas music on November 1st and a store manager who told me not to shop there if I didn't like it? Welcome to JCPenney in Sequim, where Manager Beverly doesn't care about customers or employees, and has no control over the store she manages. For instance, if the manager had control, then she would be allowed to appease the majority of customers and staff who don't want to hear Christmas music on November 1st; wouldn't you think? But, as it turns out, Penney's does not give managers control over the music in the stores they manage, which is a sad statement on Penney's business protocol, to take control away from the managers at the store level like that; and apparently they don't train their store managers in how to handle those situations either when customers don't want to hear Christmas music on November 1st; and that's just terrible for everyone involved, but mostly for Penney's because they lost more business today that they could have had, all due to the store manager. A loss of sales goes towards the bottom line, and that's not good for Penney's stock these days as it trails behind Sear's. Sear's who? Exactly. It all started when I took my complaint to customer service, and then that employee started to complain to me about the same issue -- Christmas music on November 1st and they didn't want to hear it either. An employee and a customer having the same complaint? If that's not a sign there are problems, I don't know what is. For starters, is this how Manager Beverly trains her employees, to complain back to the customer?; based on how she treated me, that would stand to reason. Is that why I had to tell the employee that complaints go up the chain to management and not down to customers; were they not trained in that? Maybe, if Manager Beverly doesn't want her employees being talked to in a short manner, she should train them at how to address a customer's needs rather than complaining back to the customer; she should also work at that herself. As the customer, I'm not there to listen to employees who make $11/hour complain to me about what they don't like at their job; that's not in their Penney's job description, is it? That's my job as the customer to complain when I'm not satisfied as the customer; isn't it? So, yes, I will be short to an employee who is compounding my frustrations by complaining to me, and whose manager hasn't trained them properly in how to handle a customer with a complaint. Granted, the employee may not have been trained properly because the manager doesn't know how to do it either, proven by how poorly she managed me when she ended the conversation by telling me not to shop there. Very well, then; Manager Beverly has most certainly guaranteed that I will not be buying another thing from JCPenney outside of a haircut, since I like my hairdresser and have no plans to replace her; it's the store manager who should be replaced. That's actually another strike against the manager, though -- she made the customer upset and the hairdresser was left with an irate customer before getting in the chair. The salon staff did an outstanding job today, considering they had to deal with me being upset due to the manager who never came in to apologize or fix the situation by referring me to someone above her at corporate. She's the store manager of a corporate retail chain who made a customer upset and did nothing to tell the customer who to take the complaint to? That is not a manager, not at all. The employees don't even want to hear the music, so I'm not in the wrong, or the minority, or out of place with my complaint. It's corporate Penney's and Manager Beverly who are in the wrong to play Christmas music so early when the majority of people hearing it don't want to hear it; but m
