Soft Moc - Ottawa, Ontario K2T 0K5 (Tanger Outlets Ottawa)

Terrible customer service | by Chri on Nov 12, 2017

I recently bought a pair of boots for $180 with a Tanger Outlet gift card. I was told when purchased that if I needed to return them to bring back the card and money would have to go back on it. This ended up being the case. When I went in to do my return, the manager on duty ended up helping me and said that the money could not go back on mall gift card and that a store credit was only return they could do. I explained what I was told when I bought the boots but she continually said with attitude that there was nothing she could do. I spoke with 3 other stores in the mall and customer service in the mall and was told the cards could be reloaded for return purposes and that I was lied to. I went back to the store and explained that return could be done and received the worst customer service I ever had in return. The manager told staff that she did not want to come out and help me. The clerks said it could be done but needed approval from their manager. Manager would not do it so they said they had to call her manager to get approval. They left me standing in the store for an hour and a half with my pregnant wife and 3 year old doing absolutely nothing to help me and serving other customers in the store. The manager popped out of nowhere hour later and went to the service centre in the mall and came back and said the line was too long and she wasn't going to wait. Continued to say there was nothing they could do. She said if she returned on mall card, I would lose the money. Finally at the end of it all a cashier, who was the only good employee in the store, said she could do refund in the store to put on mall card and it was done in 5 minutes. I have managed in a retail environment for over 20 years and have never seen such disrespect and poor customer service in my life. The manager refused to give me her name and told staff not to tell me while she hid in the back and only showed up to help other customers instead of dealing with the situation at hand. I have spent a lot of money at SoftMoc in the past and after this will probably never step foot in one again and will make sure everyone I know doesn't either. Retail is based on customer service. Whoever the manager was should not be in position she is, and honestly should not work retail period. I get that stores do not want to lose sales, however stealing money and forcing refunds from a mall card to be put on store credit to guarantee store gets money, is wrong in every aspect of the word. I hope that someone actually pays attention to this and reads it because there is at problem at this store location and needs to be dealt with.