I went to Zellers at Mill Woods Town Centre yesterday afternoon to pick up something I had ordered online and delivered to a local store (this saves me the shipping costs).

There were two ladies working the customer service desk. I'll say, the return rate at Zellers must be pretty high. One of the ladies was tied up with a customer who wanted to return and then re-order something that he had initially purchased using HBC Rewards Points and some cash. He wanted his cash back (or something) and didn't have a receipt. The lady had him fill out pages upon pages of forms, and she had to lookup a bunch of stuff on her computer. The phone rang almost every minute, and she handled these as well.

So what was the other lady doing, during this whole time? First, I had to wait some five minutes for another customer returning a bunch of clothing. Then she left to go upstairs to get the product I had purchased (a portable radio). The only item that they keep in the vicinity is the order form. I had to wait about ten minutes for her to fetch it, and the queue grew by two more people, of course, requesting returns. Their customer service desk is severely understaffed.

In other news, Canada's olympic team isn't doing too well. So we chose the "best" athletes that have a chance of finishing 12th or better by setting tough standards, and we only have three medals to date. What could have been if we allowed those who have proven themselves in the past, but just couldn't meet the arbitrarily-set Canadian standards? Congratulations to the medallists, though.