Boots — Local services in London

This is actually the very first time I have written a Google review; such is my frustration with this branch.

Sadly, I can only concur wholeheartedly with reviews that bemoan the appalling lack of customer service, which is a blight on the Boots brand. A specific example would be an evening last week when only one member of staff was serving a line of 7 customers still at the prescription till (as two behind the counter tills were not in use) AFTER the closing time of 8pm; whilst the (actually very polite and professional) security guard brought down the shutters and three other members of staff, not qualified to serve from behind the counter, dawdled and grumbled, stony faced and clearly eager to get home. And glaring daggers at the inconvenient customers I might add.

The poor young man in question was serving and fielding complaints, whilst a man in a blazer - and presumably management - faffed around, sorry, I mean, was “busy doing something” in the back corner of the medicine area; blithely ignoring the audible frustration, huffing and puffing of his staff and, more pertinently, asks for help from his customers. “Is that gentleman (who was well in earshot) able to serve from these tills?” I asked the single young server. “Yes, but he’s busy doing something important” was the reply. So now you know, dear fellow customer, your value to Boots managers. I finally got out of the store half an hour after closing time.

So very sad to see a quality British high street brand with such a rich heritage and reputation for customer service be damaged in this way. Should anyone with the authority to do something about this be at all bothered, please arrange staff training to reinforce the most basic of customer service concepts and, ideally, let the long list of dissatisfied reviewers here ghat you care. (Assuming, of course,...

This is a poor branch of Boots.

If they have what you want, great. It’s a shop. It’s not exciting. The trouble is they rarely have what I want. My issues are hardly the end of the world; it’s just a drip-drip of continuous disappointment than means more and more of my money gets spent on Amazon…

Take tonight. I needed a breast pump in a hurry that was listed as in stock on the website. Nope. Nowhere to be seen. I wanted to use the three-for-two on multivitamins. Only two packets on the shelf AS USUAL! Favourite Carmex. Nope.

A few weeks ago; three-for-two on #7. Nope. Only two on the shelf. Had to go home, use click and collect and wait four days, after which it sat in a big pile by the checkout with everyone’s surnames visible to anyone.

I have NEVER seen the free “Parent & Baby Club” products in stock.

The listless staff avoid eye contact and one can never tell if they are available or speaking on their stupid headsets. Checkout staff don’t seem to understand the words “I would like to pay with my points please”, ring up the order, quote the price and seem surprised when I repeat that I would like to pay with points. This then takes them longer to re-scan everything and means the queue grows longer. Sigh.

From reading other reviews I’m just thankful that I have not had reason to use the pharmacy!

It is a world away from the (different) branch I worked at in my...

I wanted to buy a product that needed to be collected from the till (as it said on a sticker) as it wasn’t on display, only the packaging. I paid and when I asked for the real product the lady look confused and honestly not bothered and told me to go to another colleague at the prescription desk. He was busy with several people and after waiting a bit I went back to the till and asked her to check (she wasn’t doing anything it seemed and no one else was at the till)…she checked and couldn’t find it, so I asked her to ask the pharmacist and I overheard him telling her it was in the basement… but she turned to me and said (smiling quite a bit at this) that it was out of stock and she would refund me. I asked the pharmacist if they could check the basement and they did… and the product was there. No apology from the lady, just super grumpy. Then, when I got home I realised it was about to expire so returned it to the Balham high street store and bought a new one.

Super service and efficiency 👌😅 and a nice waste of 1 hour and annoying as I needed this product urgently and had to wait for the next day. That service is not ok anywhere but for sure not around healthcare...