Last week, I recalled my unimpressive shopping experience at The Bay.

There’s a great article from TechCrunch that zeros in on exactly how some corporations are misusing social media tools to enhance their customer service.

Seeing how the in-store customer service at The Bay is already lacking AND coupled with @thehudsonsBayCo to tweet effectively, I wasn’t exactly  holding my breath for someone to get back to me when I tweeted about their poor service.

Example:

You do realize that unless your followers also follow @jeanne_beker, they can't see this tweet? I guess not.

Nonetheless, within 30 minutes of tweeting my displeasure at their customer service (or lack thereof), @thehudsonsBayCo sent me two direct messages:

As their DMs promised, I received an email from their Senior Manager, Service Excellence. I won’t post the email, but this manager apologized and thanked me for my feedback. This manager also asked which store I was shopping at, so my blog could be shared with the appropriate personnel.

You’re kidding me right?

I replied to let him know that I was actually shopping at the Richmond Centre location. He replies to let me know that he has shared my blog with their regional executive team and Senior VP of Stores. The end.

Okay. Seriously?

Did you actually read my blog? Are you really rectifying my problem? My problem was – I COULD NOT FIND THE BAG THAT I WANTED. Maybe for “Service Excellence,” you could have inquired to WHICH bag I was looking for and HELP me locate it at one of your stores?

MY problem is NOT your store staff’s incompetence and your inventory system inefficiencies. That is YOUR problem – Senior Manager, Service Excellence. I could not care less if you shared my blog with your staff or not. I don’t care if my feedback will help you and your job or not. I just want the bag.

But then again, to understand your customers and actually try to solve your customers’ problems – that would be customer service.

And clearly with The Bay, they don’t do that – they only care to patronize me and shut me up.

Read on!