My daughter saw a storage stool in the Lidl's magazine. I decided to get it for her. I called in today and was told there were none, the assistant said someone was in yesterday morning, when they the stools were suppose to arrive and the assistant checked for them and none were available. I was told to try the Fraserburgh store ( 26 mile round trip). So I looked up Lidl's phone number and found it was an 0844 number.
I rang and explained the situation. The Customer Service Assistant told me she had no way of checking if they had the item in the Fraserburgh Store, Lidl's have no central computerised system. So I asked for the phone number of the shop. I was told that I could not have that as it was ex-directory and customers are not allowed to ring the shop. So, I asked how could I find out if the item was in the Fraserburgh Store and I was told the only way to find out was to visit the store.. Needless to say I am not going to embark on this journey.
I wrote to Lidl's and received this reply.
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.Lidl UK Hi Jacqui,
I'm sorry to hear that you were disappointed with the response from our Customer Services Team and I will ensure that your feedback is passed on. With regards to your question about store phone numbers, our stores are streamlined so that we can pass on these savings to our customers, for example we don't employ more store staff members than is necessary.
By directing all enquiries to our Customer Services Team, this then allows our store staff to continue with the day-to-day running of our stores.
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So basically, Lidl's have a Customer Service Department, which seems to be a waste of time.. They cannot tell customers if an item is in stock and will not give out phone numbers of stores. It would seem to me that Streamlining the Stores, by not allowing customers to ring, will give the staff lots of time on their hands, as customers will not be able to fine out what they are selling.
