Mitre 10 MEGA Hornby — Attraction in Christchurch

Frustrating shopping experience at Mitre 10 Hornby garden section. Went there for a specifically promoted product only to chase numerous staff - who either didn't know what I was talking about, struggled with english or just dismissed me by saying I think it's somewhere over there. I only discovered 15 mins later (after asking 4 different staff members) that it was sold out. I was more patient than normal given that I went there Saturday of busy Labour weekend. Felt like I was an inconvenience when asking a Manager for assistance, as she delegated me to another staff member (who was already helping someone else) The Manager just deflected and said she'll come and help you next. Waited around for 10 mins and the staff member that was directed to help me obviously forgot and walked straight passed me. When I asked her about the product, she said it was sold out. Suggest that they have a promotions board displayed at the entry points to the garden section. This would be helpful with referencing a promoted or featured products. Suggest Mitre 10 label the board clearly as sold out to avoid time wasting for both the customer and staff. Discovered a tiny booth half way into shopping that would have been more useful (if made bigger) and as mentioned earlier, at the entry points. Overall, rubbish shopping experience! I hope to return in future (at a quieter time) to see what (if anything) has improved. Otherwise, may ditch in future for Bunnings.

Update 31/10/19: Originally gave this a 1 star review but have re-visited Mitre 10 Hornby today and based on this experience have changed to a 3 star review. Staff member at Customer Service desk could have been more engaging. Didn't say a word when I got there or when I left. I just appeared and she handed over what I asked for.

Visited the garden section today and significant improvement in our shopping experience. The signage looked to have been improved as well. It could quite possibly be that it was always like this but I may not have noticed when I'd been their last (Saturday of Labour weekend). Nice, relaxing stroll around the garden area. Lots of good fruit and vege plant selections to choose from. A good variety of other gardening products there too. The specials were great and I ended up spending more money than I'd planned to.

Lauren at checkout provided fantastic friendly, polite customer service. Great job Lauren! You'd be a great example for showing others how it should be done. ...

Staff extremely racist and unbelievably rude. We were just selecting a box to hold our purchased products near the designated free boxes area. A middle-aged lady with grey hair suddenly came and shouted at us aggressively: "You are not allowed to take any of these boxes!! Read the sign!!" I was shocked but asked politely: "Sorry Ma'am, I'm a bit confused, the sign says please select a box suitable for your products." The lady then shouted at us again:" You can't take boxes if you don't purchase!". "We have purchased." I showed the lady our plant poles leaning beside along with several other purchased products. The lady paused a bit, then shouted at us arrogantly again: "None of the boxes will fit your sticks so you cannot take any of the boxes! If you want a box that fits your sticks, you must buy it from Aisle x for 3 dollars!" She then pulled out a box from the free boxes, and sneered contemptuously:"if you want a free box you must take this one, because only this box will fit your sticks!". She then grabbed our other purchased products and threw them in. Despite us finding a better box, the lady just kept forcing us to take her pick and insisting ours won't fit. She kept questioning us, teasing us, and forcing us to say if we don't take her pick, then we are using the box for something else, not to hold the products. Seeing us not taking her chosen box, the lady threatened in a tone dripping with condescension: 'I'm just gonna find my manager,' and then she walked away, leaving us astonished at being targeted out of nowhere. After that lady left, a young lady who witnessed the whole scene approached us (not the manager), asked if we were all right. We thanked the young lady, and asked if we could take our chosen box to hold the products. The young lady...

The plumbing team was great. Before going here we went to Bunnings to solve a issue that we had and looking for solutions. Forget listening to the our problem, the Bunnings staff even without hearing us, told he had no product (which we knew already). His colleague was interested in chatting with his mate. While walking out of Bunnings, told their customer service of what happened and they were disinterested as well. Maybe they are used to 1000s of complaints like this and not bothered now.

NOW ENTER Mitre 10: We went to the plumbing section explained the same problem, The person who was at the isle told she is new, but promises to find the best person who can help. The sales person came listened patiently and gave us couple of options explaining the pros and cons. We chose the best option for us to solve the problem. On the way out we went to customer service and told how good the service was and also filled online feed back.

In short it was a great experience at Mitre 10. Will always go back. Well done...