CeX — Local services in Aberdeen City

I have been coming to this store for years but unfortunately I think today will be my last visit due to some appalling customer service.

When you approach the counter there are two clearly defined separate queues - one for selling and one for buying. I joined the selling queue as I was collecting a voucher from an item I’d dropped off for testing yesterday.

My issues were due to a specific member of staff, a young woman with short black hair, glasses and a lilac jumper. She served multiple people in the buying queue who had clearly arrived after me. After around 10-15 mins of this dynamic, I felt for whatever reason I was being ignored because I was in the selling queue.

At this point in an effort to get served I joined the back of the buying queue, which now has around three people in it who had arrived after me. These people were all served and it was eventually my turn to get to the front of the queue. To my disbelief the young woman then suddenly turned away from the buying queue and began to serve a customer in the selling queue who again had arrived in the store much later than myself.

I’m not sure if I had offended this woman. I have never seen her before. I queued much longer and with more patience than I’d imagine the majority of people would in that situation. I did not wish to confront her in the shop, as I’m quite sure this would have done nothing but make matters worse. I’ve never had an issue with anyone in the store before.

If there was no reason for this and she simply treats customers like this because of poor awareness, then she clearly needs further training or her eyes tested. I honestly don’t make a habit out of complaining on google reviews, nor targeting a specific person, but my treatment in the store today was just egregious.

I was eventually served by another member of staff, a young woman with pink hair and glasses. She served me yesterday as well and I’m glad to say she was an absolute credit to your store, very polite and helpful throughout. It’s a shame that one member of staff has let down my experience, but unfortunately I think I will just be selling and buying on eBay...

I hope you enjoy queueing, because despite there always being a group of staff clustered behind the tills, you're lucky if more than one of them will actually be helping customers. This results in the person serving being moody and short with you as they look noticeably stressed and the queue continues to grow.

Several times I've been in and the single person serving has had to angrily shout "Can someone jump on the tills and help?!" to get their colleagues to actually clear the queue of unhappy customers. This is highly unprofessional and embarrassing to witness. It's clearly an issue if the staff are having to call out their workmates and air their dirty laundry in front of customers.

Don't go in here if you're in a rush as even a simple purchase is a lengthy process and as all the staff on tills are left to fend for themselves, they rush you through and exhibit no manners as they try to deal with the rush on their own.

This is the kind of shop where customer service goes out the window due to the laziness of 75% of the staff causing the few good ones to be bad tempered and unhelpful.

I'm sure I'll get some passive aggressive response from someone at head office pretending this issue doesn't exist and is a one off occurence. It isn't. It's widespread across the company but the Aberdeen store in particular is just the pits for employing people who don't want to actually help customers and hide in the back areas until being shamed by their co-workers into helping.

I feel secondhand embarrassment for them that they operate in this way. Maybe get a job shelf stacking at a supermarket out of hours if helping customers is such an...

Abysmal customer service and shoddy business practices. Visited the store and got a price to sell two identical devices, which were brand new and unopened. Accepted the price given and was told to return 45 minutes later so that the devices could be tested. I was given a receipt at this point.

Returned approximately 50 minutes later to be informed that testing would take around 45 minutes longer. I advised the member of staff that I would not be waiting that long and would return a week later, since I work nearby and would be returning to work after the Christmas holidays on that day. He said that this would be fine.

A week later, I returned as promised, only to be told that the price per item on offer was substantially lower than what I had agreed to. When I queried this, I was told that the original price was a quote. At no time had I been informed of this. When I complained and asked why I hadn't been told it was a quote subject to change, I was told that mistakes can happen and that it's "the joys of retail". I'm unsure who was experiencing any joy, as I certainly didn't. I was also told that I had been incorrectly quoted for black devices, when mine were white. This may have been the case, but neverless I had been quoted the correct price, as I had checked the CeX website before heading to the store and was quoted the price I was anticipating.

I was advised to contact the company's support team by email, which I did. This was a complete waste of time; they were useless and reiterated that I could sell my items at the lower price.

A dangerous mix of incompetence and dodgy business practices. Avoid...