Unique at Uniqlo

Second time I saw it, I was hooked. First time in the shop, the dress impressed me but only seeing it later online resulted in a sudden wave of desire. So strong it was that first thing in the morning I headed to Uniqlo shop, Oxford street, London UK. There I didn't have much patience to go through all the rails (hey, I've got job to do, can't be shopping for dresses all morning) so I approached an assistant. She looked kind of meeky, must admit. But nevertheless, I decided against discriminating her and went on describing the dress: "it's very similar as this one here, same style and colour, but with 3/4 sleeves." The assistant (she was very young, to her defence, but this might a discriminatory statement, no?) knowingly advised: "We don't have such dresses. You have to go to H&M".
Seriously.
I insisted that instead of moving to competetive pastures I shall stay here and carry on with my shopping endeavours. After a while and some minor rants on my side, the assistant decided she'd look in a stock room. "He - I asked - but what for? Since you say the dress doesn't exist in Uniqlo range?" She made a polite nod and disappeared. I very much wanted to leave but decided it wouldn't be pedagogical. Seven minutes later the assistant emerged together with her colleague. "She says we never had such dresses, too" she informed me sadly. She looked seriously concerned. I thanked very much for her help, left for downstairs, met another assistant, found a common ground, perused Uniqlo on my own mobile device, handed over product code and 25 blissful minutes later, the dress was handed to me in another Uniqlo store down the road.
Too small.
Never ever give up.
My eye, sharpened by the shopping ordeal, spotted a familiar 3/4 sleeve down the pile of clothes at the fitting room. The staff person there protested: "I can't move clothes now". It didn't matter. She eventually handed me the dress, it was the size I was looking for. So I didn't do even as much as to give her a look. In return, she didn't hand me the number when I headed for the last check to the changing room.
Done.
My friend requested the same dress. I went straight online.

The event that prompted: STA experience

I know, I know... who in these times buys flights tickets with the agents? I haven't done it in ages, yet my forthcoming trip to Argentina was starting to make me itchy. I didn't have the ticket, the prices started to skyrocket, it's December trip and it's warm and pleasant there, so expect to pay more... But 300 quid more???

Now, that's a bit too much.

It started a couple of days ago: I went to various websites and realized that if I wanted to go, I need to book now. Some of the websites looked dodgy, so I decided to book with American Airlines. However, since my credit card billing address does not match my UK address and is simply in another country, this idea fell. Then my friend suggested that since I'm currently studying, I might be able to get a student discount. I said, Yayyy, STA, I flew with them to US back in the 90s by the greatest Singapore airlines ever, maybe it'll work this time too.

It worked just fine. After school, I went to Russell Square, and sat opposite a nice young man. Then it all started...
The guy at STA first told me not to expect to pay less than 1400. And straight came up with some offers that were above this treshold. Then, he also presented an offer for 1.319 quid. Now, compared to 1.600 and all the dates restrictions, it seemed like a bargain. I mumbled I was a student (though certainly not below 26 :), I mumbled that American Airlines had good prices. The guy said: yes, but not on these dates. No. Nothing. £1.319 is the best you can get.

So I booked, so I bought! Only to discover upon coming home that a certain not so dodgy website sells THE VERY SAME tickets for £1000.40. Yep. A neat small netbook kind of difference...

I felt uneasy, so I called the guy. He goes: "it's impossible, checking this.... yeah... right... well... yes... Well I don't know how they get this price [You should know, you're a travel agent] but we can't offer the same". Ekhm. But I paid.

Now, to make it clear: I expect to pay more when booking with a real, flesh-and-bone agent. But 300 quid? Sounds like a bit of

The best a.k.a. worse was to come: email from kayak com that American Airlines sell for 1000 pounds, too... Now, this is a moment when water boils and angry women start blogging.

I wrote a letter of complaint. Will follow up on this, certainly. Later :)

First one...

Welcome!

It's been a while since I've first thought of starting a blog about customer experience.

My initial idea was to create a blog in Polish, because this is where I lived and this was the place where I most often felt that customer service s****. Oh, sorry for this one. But this is a blog that originates in frustration, so occassionally some non-niceties may appear. Excuse...

Though I don't mean not to compliment great customer service, and in the future, may even thought of some little awards for you, customer-loving-or-faking it-companies (I don't care if they truly love us or not, as long as the service is good), primary goal of this blog is to create a space where we can work on improvement, and notice these spots where some little upgrade of service/products would help.

This blog will contain:
- general reflections on the customer service, worldwide but especially in the U.K.
- review of recent customer experiences (appealing, appeasing, all sorts)
- a bit of historical events: when particularly significant event is recalled.

Hence, here we start! Good luck :)