Part 1 - LBC Steve Allen Customer Service at Maplin Kingston

Steve received some disgraceful service from Maplins Electronics in Eden Walk Shopping Centre,
Kingston, London yesterday and went off on a rant about the unfortunate incident this morning. He's right to highlight it because far too many people put up with unacceptable, lazy service in shops. From Steve's blog on the LBC website:

"Why do people put up with poor service in shops? Well not me - if I get treated poorly I'll take my business elsewhere. If they can't be bothered to treat me politely, I won't hand over my cash."

Well said Steve, and well done on getting your money back. Everybody needs to follow Steve's example. If the service is dreadful, shop elsewhere. If the queues are too long, dump your shopping basket on the counter and go elsewhere.

Listen to Steve Allen live:

Monday to Friday 5-7am and
Sunday 8-11am on 97.3 FM (London) and
Sky 0124 or http://www.lbc.co.uk

Listen to Maplin's statement on Steve's shoddy treatment here: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=u93EesSipNM

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• steve
• allen
• lbc
• steveallenshow
• VID00005
• maplin
• maplins
• kingston
• customer
• service
• rant
• LBC
• 97.3

[Bunniears]

That would be me the ginger boy.

You arrogant tosser, I did indeed say, unfortunately we have no bags. The bag I found was from the returns department. This was when you kicked up a roaring fuss about a bag, where as every other customer completely understood and accepted we didn't have any.

You SIR are an example of pompus pig and if you had indeed dragged me over the counter that would be a prime example of that.

[cliffaudio]

@Bunniears Listen Ginger, you should have used your initiative (if any) to ensure your supply of bags was fully stocked up rather taking the lazy approach by saying you didn't have any. Being able to find a bag proves that there was at least one bag available elsewhere in the store. Why didn't you anticipate that you might need bags? Why didn't you look for some bags before one of your customers kicked up a fuss? Wouldn't that have been the sensible approach? I think so!

[Bunniears]

@cliffaudio Right let's get the full picture here. I am supposed to get bags of which the store had run out. I am not the one in charge of ordering, therefore the manager should be liable not me. The bag I did find was from a returned item, where sometimes people leave the bags of returned items.

Further to that, if people like him didn't demand and use to many bags which he clearly does "I've given up saying 'how else?'" we might have had some left for other customers who genuinely needed one

[cliffaudio]

@Bunniears Fair point. The manager should have ordered more. I don't think it's unreasonable for a retail store to expect to provide one bag per custome, thoughr. He's the customer and is entitled to a bag!

[Supernaut1]

hahahahaha what a massive condescending arrogant self-rightous know-it-all prick. Has obviously NEVER worked in retail.

[cliffaudio]

@Supernaut1 Steve did in fact work in retail, at Camp Hopson in Newbury, Berkshire, a department store that knows how to provide superior customer service. Steve is well-qualified to comment on retail service.

[Londonguy028]

Why do they ask for your postcode ???? particularly if you're paying by cash - really annoys me!!! they do not need it and its a matter of privacy - they can p*ss off!!! . Rude service really annoys me he deffo did the right thing.

[Corsaboi]

what a d**k i would of kicked him out the shop and banned him, we don't tolerate that kinda crap in our yorkshire stores.

[ofcoursehesthefarmer]

Good old Steve.

[NickReilly93]

It's pretty clear steve lost during this; all the hassle he went through such as standing about on his own, waiting in a queue, asking for direction to where something is, waiting for the till, buying the item, being refused a bag, having to get his money back whilst clearly being mocked by the people working there, walking out the shop empty handed, being offered a bag however refusing as he is too embarressed to accept help and having to go to another store just to go through that again, FAIL!

[NickReilly93]

Why do you need a bag to carry one item? Do your hands not work properly? I'm sorry but the only people who rant about something as minor as buying something in a shop are sad old people like you, the fact that you were so offended by this that you ranted on the air about it is beyond me, get some friends, might help.

[576ito1080p]

Are you programmed to only give one answer?

Have you got an IR illuminator? " Have you Looked on the Internet "?

do you have a KO4 bridge rectifier? " Have you Looked on the Internet "?

do you have a 50W Cree LED? " Have you Looked on the Internet "?

do you actually sell Electronic componants anymore? " Have you Looked on the Internet "?

[acid100k]

haha this steve allen guy is a retard. He wasted 10 minutes of listeners time for a rant about nothing. This guy gets pissed off if someone asks him if he wants a bag? Haha, he also doesn't realise that once you buy something in-person, the seller has no legal requirement to give a refund unless it's faulty. I love how people think they can do what they like because they are the customer and "they are always right." From my experience they are pretty much always wrong, like Mr Allen here.

[partycats]

20 people work in maplins and steve is right they are useless ! even i've experienced the their stupidity ! and i too will never shop there again, bunch of bloody idiots.

[zoki742]

i think this man is so funny

[Bunniears]

@cliffaudio Not for a small dummy cammera, in a box about the size of a spindle of CD's. Not very big.

Now I've left this to the end; Use my initiative? Well as I explained in my first comment, how exactly was I supposed to go and get some bags (even if there were some) since staff are not allowed to leave the till area?