Kroger — Local services in Bluffton

I want to start by saying a review was my last option. I tried to discuss with the manager, and corporate customer service, but was lied to, blamed, and blown off, by both. The assistant manager even tried to claim he was a co-manager which I caught him on. This has led to speculation that the manager doesn't even know what's going on, or if the assistant managers are hiding it.

I had an issue that was not the fault of any hourly employee in the store. The self serve checkouts accused everyone checking out of theft, and every single lane was waiting for the absent attendant to come review the recordings. By the time it was all done I had been there 40 minutes, and left without groceries. I left, and called the manager, as I didn't want to harass someone just doing their job. No hourly employee programed these lanes, but management is the presentative of corporate.

Management offered to call back "she's in meetings", which never came. I called again, asking for a call. I was assured it was an oversight, but was ghosted again. I called a third time, and an arrogant gentlemen insisted I speak to him, proceeded to give me "hacks" on how I can do a better job being a customer, and literally told me it is not Kroger's job to ring up groceries, and really it all my fault for "moving my hands to fast" scanning groceries. (Note: In the dozens of times I've seen this happen to me and others, I've never seen them catch theft in this way. May happen, but never with me, and never in my presence.)

When I told him it has always been a retailers job to scan items, but I am happy to use self scan, I just want to stop being held up and treated like a criminal he told me I needed no call corporate. Sir, I didn't want to talk to you in the first place, I asked for the manager, or U.S. based customer service and you insisted "no, I can handle it." and implied I was racist for wanting the representative to understand my speech.

He refused to give me a name, or a number for a manager, or district, but instead gave me 1-800-krogers insisting it goes to Cincinnati. This was the second time he told me a bald faced lie. Guess what, it went to India, where the representative, (who actually spoke quite well so thanks, but still didn't care about the customer of a store she's never laid eyes on) informed me that without an exact time, the description of the employee who ran the self checkout, and the name of the manager, they couldn't help me.

The assistant managers withheld the information needed to get customer service.

So, they successfully stalled until I couldn't talk to anyone about the problem, and told me I HAVE to scan slower.

Guess what,

I don't HAVE to shop at Kroger at all. And telling by the shape of the store, and average age of the foot traffic, I'm just the latest that make that decision.

Just for fun I used their chat service too. Check out the screenshot of Kroger...

This place is a giant Charlie Foxtrot every time I shop. The aisles are so narrow that when one person stops or positions their cart slightly at an angle, they hold up both sides. It turns perfectly nice customers into frustrated and annoyed jackwads by the time they get to checkout. There are about ten or so registers in addition to the self checkout, yet I was told by the manager this evening that it’s against union rules to have more than two registers open 😑. As a result, there was a line backed up nearly to the bakery of tired working people who needed to get home and feed their kids. Here’s an idea, since 8 registers are useless at any given time, why not clear them out and expand the store aisles so that you don’t feel like you’re going to be crushed to death by fruity pebbles and canned tuna when grandma rear ends you into the shelves? Or, just have a space for people to sit and figure out their shopping list before they cause a traffic jam in the produce section? Idk, just seems like a waste of space. Food for thought.

Update ~1 week later: This store has lost a customer today. I just had the worst team effort customer service experience I've ever experienced. I received a gift card from my company and decided to buy a large quantity of seltzer water. I roll up to checkout with 20 boxes of seltzer and it's self checkout only, which is kind of annoying but oh well, I'm here I have to deal with it. I ask if there's a way to only have to scan one, and the employee watching everyone scan their items tells me it can only be done if there are 12...okay, so I go back and get more. I return and she scans them for me. Cool. I try to get my digital gift card on my screen and the woman is obnoxiously instructing me to scan my Kroger card like I'm five years old. When the barcode doesn't show up on my phone, I ask if there's a way to enter the code, she tells me there is not, and to checkout and take the receipt over to customer service. Okay, so literally as I'm putting my credit card in another employee who was watching all of this go down OPENS A REGISTER and tells the woman behind me she can check her out. Seriously? I take my receipt over to the customer service desk, and the employee there tells me she will have to refund the whole order, RESCAN everything and check me out again. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? So you're basically a fancy cashier? I just walked out of there. I'm giving the gift card to a friend and never coming back...

I shop at this Kroger all the time. I don’t like going to Walmart. Today I went in and bought over $100 worth of groceries. It was at about 12 noon. I went to get a certain kind of ice cream, made by Kroger, and it was out. I ask the manager lady if she had some in the back. She went back there and came back and said she couldn’t get to it because the truck had just came. Could I come back mid afternoon. Fair enough. So I came back at about 6:30 that evening and the manager lady was stocking the ice cream and was clearly on a personal phone call. I stood there for a minute and finally she acknowledged me and I ask could she get my ice cream. Without even going and looking she told me she didn’t see it. She was rude and I know good and well that she could have gone back there and at least looked for the ice cream. I spend a lot of money in there every week between gas and groceries. I made a special trip back just for that ice cream and she wouldn’t go back and look. She didn’t want to interrupt her phone call I guess. Poor customer service. I may have to start...