My wife was in homepro this morning. I hate it will not go there. There was an expat trying to get part for his lawnmower and had problems with getting this through to the staff, To be fair to the staff I suspect they have not had proper training.
I thought if we could get a list of bad service given to customers. typed it out in Thai, presented to the Manager for a reply we could get some improvement.Did this with a store in England and it did improve especially as we said if he did not take action we would send it to his Managing director.
My gripes below.
Went to buy a lawn mower picked the one I wanted we were told not in stock. when will it be in, we are not ordering any more, I will buy the one on display then cannot sell that a display item I was told, Well take it off display then if you have none to sell reply cannot do that.
With that I left went back next day spoke to Manager his reply we can order it. that took about a hour. When will it be here on the 8th the reply can you ring if it gets here early yes sir the reply. I rang on the 8th is it in yes been here a week why did you not ring, no reply went to pick it up took half an hour to find it.
Went to buy a light to them 45 minutes to find one on the shelves do they not know where the stock is.
Bought a cooker no gas connections when delivered when I asked about the connection I was told they do not stock them. My reply was unrepeatable.
Lets have your gripes please when we have enough we will let you know what happens.
homepro
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lindosfan1
- Deceased
- Posts: 4069
- Joined: Wed Mar 05, 2008 1:26 pm
- Location: uk
homepro
Woke up this morning breathing that's a good start to the day.
Re: homepro
You were very fortunate a Manager in England could read Thai.lindosfan1 wrote: I thought if we could get a list of bad service given to customers. typed it out in Thai, presented to the Manager for a reply we could get some improvement.Did this with a store in England
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sandman67
- Rock Star
- Posts: 4398
- Joined: Wed Jul 11, 2007 6:11 pm
- Location: I thought you had the map?
Mate
remember that most Thais leave school (for what thats worth) by the time they are 14....they have no experience of tools and DIY at all....in Thailand you get someone else to mow your lawn, if you have one.
The lads and lasses in Home Pro are the lowest level of shop assistants by our western standards, so if you are expecting owt else from them other than "heres and isle full of drills" then you are daft.
Smile, say thankyou, and then make your own selection based on your knowledge.....if you are expecting western standards of shop assistance you are gonna be well disappointed.
And forget the manager....you are a farang so your opinion doesn't even figure on his management scale....sad but true.
Thats just the way it is....y cant blame em.... cos TIT
remember that most Thais leave school (for what thats worth) by the time they are 14....they have no experience of tools and DIY at all....in Thailand you get someone else to mow your lawn, if you have one.
The lads and lasses in Home Pro are the lowest level of shop assistants by our western standards, so if you are expecting owt else from them other than "heres and isle full of drills" then you are daft.
Smile, say thankyou, and then make your own selection based on your knowledge.....if you are expecting western standards of shop assistance you are gonna be well disappointed.
And forget the manager....you are a farang so your opinion doesn't even figure on his management scale....sad but true.
Thats just the way it is....y cant blame em.... cos TIT
"Science flew men to the moon. Religion flew men into buildings."
"To sin by silence makes cowards of men."
"To sin by silence makes cowards of men."
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Wanderlust
- Legend
- Posts: 2862
- Joined: Wed Aug 04, 2004 12:27 pm
- Location: Hua Hin
sandman,
I think you are being pretty unfair on the staff in HomePro; agreed some of them are as you say, but many of them do know about the products, and the ones that do are normally called by the ones that don't when a question they can't answer is asked. The other thing, to the OP, is that i am sure if the question was asked in Thai that customer would have got a speedy response and complete understanding; we are in Thailand so should not expect everyone to speak our language. On the issue of display items not being in stock etc, yes that is annoying but I would imagine that is largely out of both the sales assistants AND the manager's control, although the assistants should know that it can be ordered (probably sent from another branch I would suspect), which is an issue of training.
I have had problems with them finding stock before, but in terms of service they always look until they find it or can give me a 'not in stock' answer, and in a store of that size it's not too surprising if some things end up in the wrong place. As far as I know, all stores that sell gas cookers do not supply the connections, only the suppliers of the gas do that, and when you think about it, as you would need a bottle of gas anyway then it is not an issue.
The idea of making the list is OK but i doubt would achieve anything really, and the issues mentioned are not ones of service, but mostly of procedure, that has no doubt been handed down from 'on high', and any feedback should be directed to HomePro's head office (no doubt in Bangkok).
I think you are being pretty unfair on the staff in HomePro; agreed some of them are as you say, but many of them do know about the products, and the ones that do are normally called by the ones that don't when a question they can't answer is asked. The other thing, to the OP, is that i am sure if the question was asked in Thai that customer would have got a speedy response and complete understanding; we are in Thailand so should not expect everyone to speak our language. On the issue of display items not being in stock etc, yes that is annoying but I would imagine that is largely out of both the sales assistants AND the manager's control, although the assistants should know that it can be ordered (probably sent from another branch I would suspect), which is an issue of training.
I have had problems with them finding stock before, but in terms of service they always look until they find it or can give me a 'not in stock' answer, and in a store of that size it's not too surprising if some things end up in the wrong place. As far as I know, all stores that sell gas cookers do not supply the connections, only the suppliers of the gas do that, and when you think about it, as you would need a bottle of gas anyway then it is not an issue.
The idea of making the list is OK but i doubt would achieve anything really, and the issues mentioned are not ones of service, but mostly of procedure, that has no doubt been handed down from 'on high', and any feedback should be directed to HomePro's head office (no doubt in Bangkok).
Sorry Lindosfan, but I read your OP and just thought of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCbvCRkl_4U
Championship Plymouth Argyle 1 - 2 Leeds Utd 
Points 46; Position 23 RELEGATED
Points 46; Position 23 RELEGATED
we use homepro a lot and while their not perfect they're better than most and are miles better than index.
homepro almost always deliver stuff within a week and theres always loads of staff fussing round you, bit annoying when they follow you round.
The staff seem a lot more knowledgable about their little section than in the early days, for obvious reasons. Plus Thais seem to like to change jobs a lot so the learning curve starts again.
they seems to have almost everything you need there, although stored in bkk.
The birds ain't all that though.
homepro almost always deliver stuff within a week and theres always loads of staff fussing round you, bit annoying when they follow you round.
The staff seem a lot more knowledgable about their little section than in the early days, for obvious reasons. Plus Thais seem to like to change jobs a lot so the learning curve starts again.
they seems to have almost everything you need there, although stored in bkk.
The birds ain't all that though.
The problem with selling display stock is not only applicable to Thailand, large stores here like Kmart or Target have exactly the same policies.
Wanted to buy a washing and they only had one on display and would not sell to me. So just walked out and bought elswhere.
Wanted to buy a washing and they only had one on display and would not sell to me. So just walked out and bought elswhere.
Always Borrow Money from a Pesimist. "They Never Expect it Back"
I bought a petrol bush-cutter from Home-Pro last year and I’ll agree that the staff struggle to find things. They were pleasant and doing their best, but they were basically just opening lots of boxes looking for something that looked like the display item.
You have to appreciate that things in Asia don’t work like they do in the West and I managed to find one before them by looking at the model number and finding a box with the same number on it.
Obviously you shouldn’t have to do that in such a store, but if you need something quickly I would suggest giving them a hand instead of getting upset.
Though I haven’t had a personal problem with this, people I know have had a poor response when returning defective items to Home-Pro.
You have to appreciate that things in Asia don’t work like they do in the West and I managed to find one before them by looking at the model number and finding a box with the same number on it.
Obviously you shouldn’t have to do that in such a store, but if you need something quickly I would suggest giving them a hand instead of getting upset.
Though I haven’t had a personal problem with this, people I know have had a poor response when returning defective items to Home-Pro.
I'd say some of the sales staff in the audio/video section are quite knowledgeable. I went in there a couple of months ago looking for an amp and surround system for the TV and PC, the stuff I was shown were pretty mediocre 5.1 audio systems by LG, Samsung, Sony etc, average sounding but nothing great.
I asked for something better sounding and the dude looks at me and says "we have, but more expensive" ... then proceeded to show my this Yamaha rig with an amp that needed two people to carry ... it nearly blew my shirt off - sold!
I asked for something better sounding and the dude looks at me and says "we have, but more expensive" ... then proceeded to show my this Yamaha rig with an amp that needed two people to carry ... it nearly blew my shirt off - sold!
Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed? - Hunter S Thompson
Never had any problems with Home-Pro. Did go in once looking for cornice, the shapely bit that joins your walls to the ceiling. I was shown everything from bathroom fitting to curtain rail....lol. In the end I just pretended to be interested in something else so as to allow them to save face. They had tried to grasp what I was needing but the language barrier prevented this and how can I blame them for that? Anyway, my life has been no worse without the cornice and I'm sure I'll stumble across some at some point.
I love Home-Pro because they allow me to walk around dreaming of a perfect house....lol.
I love Home-Pro because they allow me to walk around dreaming of a perfect house....lol.
Don't try to impress me with your manner of dress cos a monkey himself is a monkey no less - cold fact
Gotta say they seem to be improving, might be to do with staff being up to speed now with their little section.
Use it a lot and there's usually at least 1 bod in each department that knows the product. Any non-stock stuff (most of it) always gets delivered from Bangkok within the week they quote.
Best of a bad bunch for me, Index are ***** **** **** **** *******.
Rather than how bad they are, we should look at how good they are compared to the others.
SJ
Use it a lot and there's usually at least 1 bod in each department that knows the product. Any non-stock stuff (most of it) always gets delivered from Bangkok within the week they quote.
Best of a bad bunch for me, Index are ***** **** **** **** *******.
Rather than how bad they are, we should look at how good they are compared to the others.
SJ
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carlekennedy
- Novice
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2008 10:43 pm
Yes it is a little frustrating trying to find a certain item in ANY large Thai store
but like someone said earlier we are in their country. I found 2 things that
work great. Take a English speaking Thai friend with you or before you go
take a piece of paper and draw a simple picture of the item. Doesn't have
to be a fancy work of art just a simple crude line drawing. If you can find
a picture in a magazine or find a picture online then print it out works good
also. Yes I know printer ink is expensive but do you want to find the item
or not!javascript:emoticon(':thumb:')
but like someone said earlier we are in their country. I found 2 things that
work great. Take a English speaking Thai friend with you or before you go
take a piece of paper and draw a simple picture of the item. Doesn't have
to be a fancy work of art just a simple crude line drawing. If you can find
a picture in a magazine or find a picture online then print it out works good
also. Yes I know printer ink is expensive but do you want to find the item
or not!javascript:emoticon(':thumb:')
Here's my HomePro experience with buying something mechanical from them (and it will be the last time I do!).
I bought a gasoline trimmer/brushcutter there. It had blades and I wanted the string head attachment which the sign above it advertised. They ordered the little plastic spool and charged me an extra thousand baht for it even though they kept the blades. Ok so far I'm only a little frustrated. Got the string attachment a week later and took the whole rig home. It was very hard to start and worked for about a week and then wouldn't start at all. My gardner at the time was quite handy so he tried everything like cleaning the plug and adjusting the choke and idle and still nothing.
I took it back to HomePro and after waiting at the customer service counter for an hour while they discussed my problem with half of the store employees, they concluded that it would have to be sent to Bangkok for repair. Six weeks later I was called to come pick it up. It was in a big cardboard box (for shipping I presume) so I brought it home and opened the box and it was in pieces! Me and the gardner were able to re-assemble it and then guess what. It still wouldn't start.
I ended up getting it fixed at one of the Thai garden/machine shops.
Never again will I buy anything with moving parts at HomePro.
I bought a gasoline trimmer/brushcutter there. It had blades and I wanted the string head attachment which the sign above it advertised. They ordered the little plastic spool and charged me an extra thousand baht for it even though they kept the blades. Ok so far I'm only a little frustrated. Got the string attachment a week later and took the whole rig home. It was very hard to start and worked for about a week and then wouldn't start at all. My gardner at the time was quite handy so he tried everything like cleaning the plug and adjusting the choke and idle and still nothing.
I took it back to HomePro and after waiting at the customer service counter for an hour while they discussed my problem with half of the store employees, they concluded that it would have to be sent to Bangkok for repair. Six weeks later I was called to come pick it up. It was in a big cardboard box (for shipping I presume) so I brought it home and opened the box and it was in pieces! Me and the gardner were able to re-assemble it and then guess what. It still wouldn't start.
I ended up getting it fixed at one of the Thai garden/machine shops.
Never again will I buy anything with moving parts at HomePro.