A while back, I covered the three rules of recovery customer service, which a company should use when they have messed up. Sadly, very few stores keep to them, and consequently lose a lot of longtime customers over rather trivial incidents. Just the other day, I had an opportunity to revisit that idea at ShopRite.

I went into ShopRite, my favorite supermarket, to go food shopping. Walking around, I noticed a price label for 32 oz. of Norwegian Salmon that was surprising - $2.99 (after Price Plus card discount). Excited, since this item usually costs $20.53 for just one pound, I looked around for the right package, only to find that none existed. It was then that I realized they made a labeling error, and guessed that all of them were bought up already by someone with a sharp eye.

Aware of the law in New Jersey, which requires stores to mark each item with a price and sell it for that price, I went to the customer service desk to ask for a rain check for four of them (the limit of offers per person). Now, I like to think of myself as a nice fellow, so I invited a bystander in the aisle to join me for a rain check as well.

The customer service person who was working there tried several times to “dump” the issue on someone else in the store (a common tactic to avoid responsibility), but no one working there had any clue what to do. Finally, he asked me to get the label for him to look at. In a flash, I was back at the customer service desk with the label, and a knowing look came over his face. Although he didn’t mention that they messed up on the pricing, when I asked him if he would like me to return the label to its proper place, he offered an unfriendly “no”. He obviously didn’t want to put that firehouse sale back on the shopping floor.

I shop there every week. Once in a while it’s a nice feeling to know that there are some perks to that loyalty (like a chance of finding a great unintended deal). Way to go ShopRite, but don’t give me a hard time when you make a mistake - it ruins that feeling.