Saks Redux

Saks Redux

I received a phone message yesterday from Dan Wolman (I may have that spelling wrong) who said he’s a new assistant general manager for the men’s department at Saks. He had read my blog entry (scroll down a few postings) and wanted to talk about my experiences. After all this time, that’s a good sign.

Well, I called the direct number he gave me, which is not a working number. But perhaps I heard it wrong on the voice mail, so today I called Saks’ main line at their flagship New York store. The first time, after waiting for two minutes through boring advisories (this call may be recorded—yes, but why doesn’t the service improve?) I finally got an operator. She asked how I was doing, I told her it took two minutes to get to her, and she became quite snippy. When I asked for Mr. Wolman, she put me on hold—permanently! Five minutes later, I hung up and redialed.

After a similar wait, which I dared not mention, the operator told me that he couldn’t find Mr. Wolman’s name or that position, so I said that he should forward me to the store’s general manager, who I figured ought to know his own assistant. Guess what? On hold again, no one ever returned.

How is it that Saks harbors such completely uncaring people? Why is the service so slow and inefficient? Does any Saks executive EVER shop his or her own store or department? If they do in men’s wear, I’m hoping they take provisions and extra batteries. And I’m betting their families don’t try to reach them through the switchboard.

So, Mr. Wolman, if you’re out there and still reading my blog, I tried, I really did. Give me another call, I’m happy to talk and relay my being almost completely ignored by a dozen sales people. And now two operators. But, if you’re a new guy, maybe you can cap this well.