This is not a pretty post, but a pretty upset post.
Today the danna took a day off his super busy schedule so that we could go buy some baby products we needed. We wanted to get something from Combi so we went to Mid Valley.
We always wanted to try out Combi because it is a reliable and very popular brand in Japan. I didn’t even think of other brand options. We went straight to Combi and expected to get what we wanted.
Have you ever given up what you wanted to buy in a shop because the attitude of the shop staff suck SO MUCH? (Like you really need to buy that item so badly but they piss you off so much you would rather go through the trouble to buy it somewhere else then to let them earn money/get commission?!)
In this case, Combi, you just lost a customer because of your horrible choice in hiring albeit having rather awesome products.
First of all nobody was in the shop.
Then i noticed there was a poorly written piece of sign on a poorly located standie outside the shop that says “BE BACK TO TOILET!!” (?! So do you work in the shop or in the toilet?)
Anyway, we really wanted to just get it done and over with, so we waited in the store.
After about 5 minutes, still not a single soul was seen so we went around for a walk aimlessly and time-wastingly, only to come back and realize the “BE BACK TO TOILET!!” sign was still there. It must have been a helluva difficult toilet visit.
I was getting annoyed at this point, but not anymore when i realized that the shop staff was there the whole time.
I went from annoyed to fuming and shocked.
Know why we didn’t know he was there?
He was hiding behind the counter sleeping.
Means all these while he was pretending to not be around with the BE BACK TO TOILET sign permanently displayed outside SO THAT NO CUSTOMER WILL COME IN AND DISTURB HIS BLISSFUL NAP.
(Wonder why your sales dropped lately, Combi Mid Valley?)
So i guess we woke him up (by walking around and *ahem*ing), and he very very very VERY (i cannot emphasize the word “very”enough here) reluctantly walked towards us, bleary-eyed, letting out a cold and dull, “yes?”
I had to garner all my tahan not to slap him and to maintain my cool to tell him politely what we wanted to buy.
He pointed away to some products, with absolutely no intention to elaborate whatsoever. His face expression said “fasterly get the hell out of here so that i can go back behind the counter and be invisible again“. Perfect salesman.
We then asked him a few more questions like, “are those the only colors available?” and “what’s the difference between this and that?”, he was mainly just giving answers in a maximum of two syllabus.
I was in such a dilemma. We needed the item, and if we don’t buy it we were just gonna trouble ourselves more. But i really really couldn’t stand looking at his face a second longer without having the urge to splash tabasco on it. Then the danna said if we buy the product and if something goes wrong with it, this is the attitude we are going to get when we come back to the shop to ask for repair/exchange so there’s really no point buying it there. (The danna is always right. I mean for real.)
So as much as we love Combi, we left and went to the shop nearby and bought a competitor brand.
When we left and passed by the store again, the fella was awake this time, and happily playing games on his mobile phone (i know it is game and not text cuz we all can recognize that frantic hard taps on the screen lol).
a couple walked in to the store, so i was observing what he was gonna do. He stood up after like 30 seconds (since the customers didn’t leave as he wished), eyes and fingers still glued to his phone, occasionally looked up to see if the customers have left or were gonna open their mouths to trouble him again. They left.
That is when i couldn’t tahan and decided to snap pictures and blog about this.
So no offense Combi, but you basically just eff up your own sales by hiring an incapable scumbag. Such a shame, Japanese products Malaysian service.
I would have written in to Combi to complain about this incident but why waste my time? Their human resource is such major failure i doubt even with this post i will get any kind of customer service, if it even exists.
Wow what jerks! Thank u for blogging this ! Maybe u should write a complaint to the website of that shop or d business owner! It'll get them sorted!
I would officially write to the company itself and do attach the photos too..
Geez…..I wonder if the company did any secret shopper visitation to investigate root cause of poor sales lol
This really gives jap products a bad name
Agree, been there few times to check on some strollers before deciding to buy. It was an older male staff . The service was horrible like couldn’t wait for us to leave the shop.
Really?? The male staff i encountered was rather young (with shoulder length hair). Is that the same person?
My husband and I were at the exact same shop being fascinated by its products. The shop attendant didn't care to notice nor greet us at our entry (ok… nvm) but even after we expressed interest and wanted to ask some questions about their products (eg. functions and warranty) he gave us such a frustrated and annoyed look on top of unhelpful answers, we felt so uncomfortable by his muka busuk and unwelcomed so we left…
Wow, maybe Combi should consider firing salespeople who don’t make any sales because they are too busy sleeping, playing games, and being rude to customers. After all, there are plenty of capable people who would probably do the job well.
Yeap! That’s if they even care!
Apparently i posted a comment on Combi Malaysia just so they know what happened this morning, and by evening the post was deleted. i REALLY hope that it was a mistake. I re-commented again, let's see if it happens again.
Looks like nobody cares! *refers to comment above*
DOubt it will be of any help judging from their non existence customer service.
Let's see if they delete my FB comment again/give me any reply at all.
I think you should feedback to DaiSheng (M) Sdn Bhd on this…
Anyway way is to email the main company directly lo…
From my experience at customer service, if u send an email to their customer service department, all their superiors will have excess to it so they will definitely take it seriously. Im not sure if this applies to all companies though
Gosh what's the point of preserving a stellar online image when it's only going to be destroyed single handedly by their own in-store staff when customers come to patron the store…? I hope they would at least investigate the validity of customer feedback (as if people like to complain for fun) if they are serious about doing business.
I don't understand why they're hiring such people and are still opening the shop if the staff is not willing to work. o_o
write to combi international. maybe they will take action on daisheng. or maybe write to daisheng first, then if no action taken only write to combi international?
I went to the. Combi Mid Valley several times to buy items for my baby. For this specific outlet, there were 2 staff. One elderly man who was such a darling and answered all our queries (even though we did not make any purchase in the first few visits). There is another guy in the outlet who always hide in the storeroom or behind the counter. I guess. Cheesie’s experience was with the latter. What a shame. Such bad customer service is not tolerable and hope Combi Malaysia will take action to improve their services once and for all.
OMG !! Your last pic of the guy playing game.. and the BE BACK TO TOILET paper is still there !!! really kns!!
I’ve posted on all the Combi worldwide pages, Taiwan, Indonesia, USA. See if they could forward it to the person-in-charge
Sad to say even I posted on their fb page, they just ignore it and reply on a price enquiry for one of their products!
Hi! I went to combi in Midvalley 2-3 months ago and walked in to drop by my name card to that fellow. (on a weekday)
Yes is a guy but I not sure if it’s the same person.
but the similar thing is… the guy is sleeping at the counter too.
i thought he was tired on that day but after reading your post, i guess this is not the only day he feel tired… i think that’s his working style!
Heya, actually I went to the Midvalley shop early this month or late last month after reading Cheesie’s blog post. I spoke to an elder Chinese man in the shop (maybe the same one Mei Fui met) who was actually quite helpful and showed me and hubby a lot of strollers. Honestly this is the only sales person I know who knows so much about the strollers he is selling, no one else in other shops gave me that much info and was willing to bring out all the strollers I wanted to see from the top shelf. I am loving Combi stuff more and more though, so even though the service at the shop may be bad (maybe visit the Jln Petaling or Pyramid outlet?) I would still purchase Combi products for my baby. I do like and appreciate Cheesie’s post on this issue, but everyone please calm your horses yeah.. Just maybe buy Combi from another shop or online and save yourself from all the shitty sales person. Let’s all focus on happier stuff.. 🙂