Meijer Shopping Adventures at Meijer! Cincinnati Area Ohio

Some people love to complain. They make it their mission to complain about anything. The law of attraction will bring them more and more to complain about. Your rambling complaint proves that you are this person. Make it 8 out of 8 where an employee took the time to explain how you are wrong.

A drunk with a fire arm in their back pocket? Really? You would like to see that not happen however; "this happened just one time." Pull the video for what? Oh ok, there goes someone with a gun. Why did you not call the police? "Both my wife and I agreed that it was best not to make the situation worse by calling the police." What do you expect a non law enforcement person to do? Shows that this is fabricated at best. "Before the reader writes they would have done this or that, no one was hurt and that is all that matters." Are you starting to see how idiotic you sound? Carrying a concealed weapon is allowed with a permit. Did you ask to see their permit? How do you know that it wasn't covered with employees that a psycho customer with nothing better to do in life other than complain might have observed someone under the influence with a weapon? Did you conduct a field sobriety test? You expect the store to put metal detectors at the door and a Breathalyzer to see if they are drunk and carrying a weapon?  GET OVER YOURSELF.

On to people smoking at the gas station. How did you know that the clerk saw them smoking? How do you know that it was an employee? Red polo shirts are worn by a lot of people. Maybe it was a Verizon wireless employee. Maybe it was not even a Meijer employee.

Next, your "three page commentary," if it was anything like your post here and a blob of reading, imagine the headaches to read. The VP calling your house, pick up the phone. Don't send a letter and not expect a call. "Now I hope that the Rip-off report fans would go easy on me and over-look a little sarcasm." I doubt they called 2, 4 and 6 times a day for over a week. They have REAL ISSUES to deal with. Not some psycho customer that finds anything wrong with a good situation.

This site is only a tool for TOOLS, like yourself to vent and ramble about stuff that is minuscule. "No point in doing the customer surveys anymore." Do you realize that management talks to their employees and writes the up for customer complaints? So the college student stocking shelves in the grocery department gets written up because they told you that the store was out of a particular item and you got all worked up as you did in this letter and complained.

To the "former employee" that observed "company memo's" about not losing this customer to "XXXX." Dead wrong! I despise how people get on here and misrepresent the truth. There are no memo's as such. If there were memo's, they would have to be a Store Director to see them because they aren't privy to everyone unless they were being used as a tool to better increase customer satisfaction. If this person was a Store Director, I doubt they would complain on Ripoff report.  

You list a lot of CC's. BBB, Attorney General, FTC. Why not send it to the FBI and the CIA while your at it?

My opinion and not Meijer, Jay, you really should just stop dealing with people. Grow your own goods. I doubt your trailer park would let you though. GET A LIFE!!!!!!!!!!! You are worse that the people that get caught stealing from Meijer and posting a ripoff report. I am done ripping into you!

p.s.

It's MEIJER. Not Meijer's

disclosure...

These are my views as an employee of the company and they do not reflect the views of Meijer.

I only want to reply to your statement about cell phones and gas stations.....cell phones pose no danger, this is a fact. It is a myth (that has been debunked several times) that cell phones may cause a threat at gas stations.

thats all

Sam

I read your response to reports related to Sears and you nailed it when stating Sears not only rips off customers, but they rob their employees of earned income.

Sears capitalizes by overcharging its customers for inferior product and service, underpaying installers/contractors, and hitting its sales consultants with anything possible to chip away at their commission for the sale. Sears feeds off its customers, employees and contractors.

See my report # 342824. Not to mention other victims of Sears Home Improvements... reports #314112, #282896, #237261, #239384, #203755, #200896, #187594.

I work at Meijers and just for customers information about the notice that cameras are used at the pump are FALSE!. They only have cameras in the store to watch employees and customers.

*Note: it to may drive offs occur at a store with the same employee shift the employee is fired by the Store director for not getting the customer to pay. No matter if the employee have reported the said drive off to the local authorities.

Hi Jay

I am filing this rebuttal for Meijer not only as an ex-employee but as someone who has worked in management. I managed 12 stores for a company in western Michigan but not Meijer. When I worked for Meijer, I was there for other four years. I learned a lot of things working for Meijer and I am not ashamed of any of the time I was there.

Meijer is a very good company when it comes to customer service. I have seen this company bend over backwards to keep their guest happy. I have personally meet Fred Meijer a few times and have seen him load bags in guest's cars.

I know problems can happen and a customer can be unhappy. However, there are two kinds of customers that complain. Most fall in the first category, people whom felt that they were personally affected. This group is easy to deal with when it comes to resolving a complaint. The second group is about 5% of complainers. This group mostly complains about things that have no real affect on them. Allow me to elaborate; the first group may complain that they did not receive the full value of a coupon. Often the situation can be resolved by refunding the customer the value of the coupon or doubling the coupon. Both parties are happy and life goes on. The second group may start with the same compliant but will not be happy with the resolution. Maybe they think that the product should free. Usually, after that the second group will start to complain about other things that have no direct effect on them. An example would be, the lights in the store are too bright. This customer group can not be help because no solution will satisfy. This group often uses sarcasm to make them selves seem more intelligent. They also treat people that make less then $10 an hour feel like scum and wonders why no one will help them. All the while people try to help them every step of the way.

I think you fall into the second group. I have read your complaints. I feel that a lot of these complaints are a little over the top. First the gas pump story. I was not there but I would guess one of the following is true. (1) The employee had his back towards the smoker and did not know or (2) they were more then 6 feet from a pump. It is hard to ignite gasoline with a cigarette alone. People lighting cigarettes at the pump is what starts fires. As for the cell phone part, it has been proven that cell phone do not start fires at gas pumps. People getting in and out of there cars causes static electricity from their seats. That spark is the cause of most fires at pumps. I can see why the corporate office did not see a need to send out a memo to share your concerns.

As for the V.P., Meijer takes repeat complaints very seriously. The V.P. was only trying to help you. You invited him to call you when you wrote the letter and gave your phone number. If you give your phone number, that means you want someone to call you.

Next, the gun story, I guess I am confused on what you expect the company to do. Meijer is not the police. It is not their responsibility to investigate. Like you said, nothing happened and nobody was hurt and that is all that really counts! If there was no problem, what is the problem? Have people been shot in this store before? Were you shot that day? The employees are not people with IQs of 40. If it were a real threat, the store would have called the police.

Now on to the E-mail list. This one maybe a legitimate complaint, though I am not sure. Given your past complaints I would believe you had problems getting off the list, but I am not convinced they were rude to you. As for the Store Director and the V.P., at this point I don't blame them for knowing who you are and not really wanting to help you. One no matter what they do, you will not be happy. You have made that very clear at this point. Second, they have nothing to do with the website. I understand it is the same company, but it is a BIG company. It is not like this VP and Store Director sit on a computer and keep reentering your email address just to ruin your day.

In closing, I think that you need to relax and worry about things that you can change. Does it really matter if Meijer sends out memos or has meetings to address each and every one of your concerns? In your whole story you only had one thing that truly effected you, the email list. I don't think Meijer is a bad company. They may have 8 complaints on this site but they have over 200 stores and have been in business for over 70 years. They must being doing something right if people still shop there.

Hi Jay-

First of all, very nice article. You do make several valid observations about the sinking ship known as Meijer. After working there for over four years I became very sick of the company and have no problem sharing what I learned in that time to help out the customer. With that said I'd like to comment on your article.

Just a quick note before I start, I'm surprized you didn't say that an employee was smoking...which I've seen happen before.

When you ever have an issue with Meijer, one of two things will happen:
A: Your problem will be not seen as a major issue and thus will be ignored.
B: Meijer management will do "whatever it takes" to ensure you remain a loyal customer.

In my time with Meijer, I have seen a both from A and B. We would constantly give out discounted or free product in order to prevent the customer from going elsewhere. For example, one customer received about $400 worth of free photo processing because her flash card was slowing down our systems and our Store Director didn't want her to go to Walgreens (internal company memos will actually state "we will not lose this customer to XXXXX" F.Y.I.).

Yet when people complained about the long checkout lines, nothing would be done about it. I'm guessing the VP was trying to win you back and somehow got it in his head that doing "whatever it takes" involved ignoring your simple request to stop calling. As a company, Meijer can act pretty desperate at times.

Now my take on the gun situation. Here's a little information about Meijer security for you. Prior to 2004, a store would have about 15-20 uniformed and undercover Loss Prevention team members. When the company went through their 2nd restructuring in 2004, this was cut to about 3-5 undercover LP team members. This would lead to several times when there was no store security on duty. I would constantly hear these team members not worrying about what's on the surveillance tapes because it wasn't worth their trouble. I'm glad no one was hurt and nothing happened. I always used to say "If you need a gun to rob a Meijer, you're trying too hard."

As for your comment about professionalism and the lack thereof, you are right on the money. I've witnessed store management verbaly abuse employees and make inappropriate comments about customers. One store director ignored a team members plea for help when she was being sexually harrased (his response was he was sure the guys were just kidding and wasn't going to do anything about it). Another store director would constantly talk about an employee as they were standing there, as if they wern't there.

Talk about unprofessionalism! And yes, there are some managers who do a great job with customer service. Where are they you ask? Always the victims of another Meijer restructuring. And these restructurings with Meijer are never about losing money. The last one in August in which 500 managers lost their jobs was considered neccesary "in order to offer customers more flat screened TV's and fine wines". True story too.

If I were to disagree with anything you said, it would be that Meijer doesn't want to be average. Meijer wants to be at the top and defeat Wal-Mart. But they have no clue how to get there. And I for one know that mass layoffs and sacrafising customer service isn't the way to do it.

Am I defending Meijer in any way? No, of course not. I'm simply trying to point out their flawed logic. I almost lost my ability to walk because of this company and there is no way I would defend it. Do I believe the customer is wrong? In most cases no. In your case Jay, Meijer wronged you. I haven't worked there in about a year and I feel bad about what they put you through. In fact I'll come right out and say it, I apoligize on behalf of Meijer as an ex-employee and am sorry that upper management doesn't know any better to do so.

I hope this information helps you, if anything, it helps you choose whether or not to take your business elsewhere.