After last week’s news that certain importers would no longer sell their goods online to Australian shoppers — depriving Australian shoppers of competitive pricing while forcing them to endure atrocious customer service — another Aussie columnist has responded with a tale of retail incompetence that begins:
Retailers of Australia: I give up. I don’t care what Gerry Harvey says. You don’t want my money so I’m taking it to the internet. Trying to find a shop assistant in a major department store is exhausting. Trying to make a purchase is even worse. I’m tired of trying to buy something only to be told it’s out of stock, advertised by mistake or being sent to Australia by Uzbekistanian yak.
I’ve detailed other examples of retail incompetence and the pathetic responses from Aussie businesses grown fat, lazy and contemptuous of a captive customer base that’s beginning to understand how bad they’ve had it, as evidenced by this comment:
Par for the course. Until the internet and cheap travel came along, I suppose Australians thought that the shoddy, half-arsed, discourteous way they were treated by retailers was just how shopping worked. Now they know that it ain’t. Par for the course also, though, that instead of trying to lift their game, the retailers have taken to calling into question the patriotism and intelligence of their customers when they exercise their option of shopping off-shore.
Another:
Hear hear!!! Who buys anything from a shop anymore??? That is like SOOOO 90s. You would think that if Australian retailers were SO desperate for our money they would invest in something like… oh I don’t know… customer service training. The number of times I walk into a store and have to imitate a meerkat (you know, that thing you do when you sort of peer up and around to catch the salesperson’s eye) to get any sort of attention drives me absolutely insane. Get your act together.
Has Australia reached a tipping point?
UPDATE
It may not reveal a tipping point but today’s Age has the following headline: Watchdog urged to probe local distributors blocking online sales
Watchdogs do just that — watch — so it’s up to consumers to alter their behaviour and force the hands of overcharging retailers. Options like FetchUSA and Price USA provide outlets for buyer anger over being held hostage by foolish, short-sighted businesses who adopt anti-competitive pricing strategies. I’ve used Price USA and was happy with the service. I’ll use them again.
And I’ll never, ever set foot in an Australian retail shop.
UPDATE II
Go figure. Common sense from a government body. Today’s Age reports that Australia’s competition watchdog will investigate clothing importers who have gone on record as saying they’ve reached agreements with overseas websites to either stop selling the products they sell or raise their prices to the same exorbitant level as retailers. Said Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims:
Making sure Australian consumers benefit from the revolution that we’ve got in the online world is a top priority … We will therefore use the [Competition and Consumer] act to its fullest.
Hope, or feel-good gibberish from a powerless gov’t body? Time will tell.
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