Absolutely appalling customer service at Tesco Woodford Green Superstore this evening.
I was using the self-checkout and needed staff approval for a bottle of wine. The member of staff who was supposed to be supervising the self-checkouts was nowhere near the tills, so I had to leave my checkout and find her myself. I politely asked, “Excuse me, please can you help me?” and walked back to my till, assuming she would follow.
When I turned around, she had instead gone over to speak to another colleague and was looking at jars on a shelf. I waited and counted to ten, but she made absolutely no effort to acknowledge me or say she would be with me shortly.
I then had to walk over to her AGAIN and say, “Excuse me, I asked you to help me.” I was still ignored while she continued what she was doing with her colleague. Eventually, she came over, tapped the screen to approve my purchase and immediately walked away. No apology, no acknowledgement, nothing.
I later needed assistance again and, unsurprisingly, she was unavailable, so I had to find another member of staff.
If you are responsible for supervising the self-checkouts, you should actually be available to assist customers. More importantly, when a customer approaches you directly and politely asks for help, completely ignoring them while continuing to chat with a colleague is incredibly rude and dismissive.
I am a regular customer at this Tesco and have never felt compelled to leave a review before, but the customer service I received tonight was unacceptable. Customers should not have to repeatedly leave their shopping and chase staff around the store for assistance at a checkout that literally requires staff approval.