Today I tried to buy an umbrella, not an onerous task I grant you, but have you tried shopping in David Jones on a Sunday lately? They have removed all the staff that had a clue and replaced them with young droids with no personality or ability to think for themselves. I browsed the umbrellas for a few minutes finally settling on an umbrella I liked that would fit in my satchel. I then noticed the umbrella didn’t have a price tag so I waited patiently at the checkout whilst the nearest droid did his best to ignore me. He finally gave up and asked if he could help me. This led into 20 minutes of trying to find the price and holding up in the air umbrellas that bore no resemblance on the umbrella I had chosen, he then gave up and told me he couldn’t sell it to me as he had no idea how much it cost. This was not the answer I wanted so I asked to speak to the manager, who was conveniently on a lunch break, at 3.30 in the afternoon.

He wandered off and found an equally disinterested droid and the whole charade started over again. When they finally decided it was too hard, I made my way to the customer service desk and requested to see the manager. They don’t have a manager on duty on Sunday’s, presumably they have no problems that might need such authority on Sunday’s. The droid at this desk then found the administration manger, a secretary, to help me. Once again the searching through the tangle of umbrella’s began with no luck, she then wandered off promising to find out the price. I gave up at this point and spent $3 on a crappy umbrella at the Reject Shop.

There was once a time when you could go into David Jones and be greeted with a smile and a helpful and informed member of staff that had pride in the job they were doing, they could help you buy a shirt and offer suggestions on matching ties, I wouldn’t trust the driods in there now to tie there own shoes.

Whilst David Jones have reported a 2.2% rise in first quarter earnings they have done this at the expense of good customer service. Head on down to your nearest suburban David Jones and try to get some useful advice or find out if that TV you are after is available in another store, the chance is you leave disappointed, they have no way of knowing what stock they have “out the back” or at other stores. I once ordered some trousers at Hornsby, they needed to be transferred from Castle Hill, a distance of 13 kilometres by car yet they took 2 weeks to arrive, in this time I had gone elsewhere and had no need of them.

Many years of experience has made way for cheap labour, even Target is starting to look more up-market than DJ’s. It is a shame as they once had a great reputation. I will try my luck at Myer next time, but they aren’t much better.

Reuters – Australia’s David Jones Q1 sales up 2.2 pct.