Thread: Employees here spoke no English: Bad customer service

Here's my letter:
should I send copies to anyone else?


To Goodwill Industries:
Last week I visited your XXXXX store located at XXXXXXX
While shopping in the store, I requested assistance from someone at one of the registers.
Unfortunately every employee posted at each register in this store spoke no English and could not understand my request.
I also approached at least two more individuals in the store only to discover that they spoke no English as well.
I finally located one employee who appeared to be an American citizen who spoke perfect English. I had requested a Customer Comment Card as promoted in the front of the store.
According to the English speaking employee, these cards should be at each register. However the employee was unable to make my request known to the other non-English speaking employees, since they spoke Spanish and she did not.

When I asked the American employee why there were no employees at the registers who spoke English, she responded that "most of our customers are Hispanic, so...."

That, unfortunately, was a very insulting comment. The fact that there was no one at this store to assist an English speaking customer in a country where English is the common language spoken and communicated is discriminating.
XXXXX is located in the United States of America. What about the large numbers of English speaking citizens who frequent this particular store and others? Are we not important enough to the economy to be considered?
Evidence of having employees who are unable to speak and communicate in America's common language of English could be interpreted by some as highly suspect. I would hope that this situation be rectified and would also hope that Goodwill Industries is not in the practice of hiring illegal immigrants, which is against Immigration Laws.

Not only have I shopped frequently for over thirty years at Goodwill Stores, I've also donated good quality items to Goodwill, which have included clothing, toys, furniture, a Wurlitzer organ, and a number of collectible items.
I never dreamed that I would enter a store which is considered an American-bred entity, a household name, and located on American soil to encounter a serious language barrier.

I eventually found the Customer Comment Card I initially requested from someone in the store's front office.
Regardless, that is not the point of my letter.
The entire experience was very disappointing, frustrating, and disconcerting to put it mildly.
Sincerely,

I will be having yard sales in the future.......

Great letter. I went to Rite Aid a few weeks ago
and got the same treatment.

Looks like goodwill is out of the picture for me. Hello Salvation Army.... for now....

bornbredhere I would also send your complaint to:

http://www.give.org

and

http://.www.bbb.org

It cannot hurt.

make sure to check this out to.

http://www.goodwill.org/page/guest/abou ... /contactus

bornbredhere,

Looks like goodwill is out of the picture for me. Hello Salvation Army.... for now....

Thanks for the heads up. I too have donated to Goodwill for many years. But after your post, that stops now. Can anyone share a histroy lesson about Salavation Army's customer base?

Where I live in east TX, theres a lot of hispanics, but I've not gone to a store/restaraunt where all could not speak english. More times then not, at least a couple could Speak english. But if you go into Dallas, around the business district near I-35, you'll come across many places that hire hispanics and I've gone to a couple fast food joints and they had a hard time understanding me.

Also, I noticed that signages in the area were more likely to be in dual languages or in Mexican.

lsmith1338,

Be careful with garage sales; make sure you have plenty of helpers. I have a friend who lived in California and had a garage sale due to moving to N. carolina (I believe). She was leaving the area due to the problems discussed in this forum. Anyway, while she was putting out the signs, her husband was opening the garage to pull things out, when he was overwhelmed by hispanics (I assume most illegal due to the area?). They pushed their way into his unlocked home. They stole her narcotic drugs (she's on morphine and many more things due to a lot of surgeries on her jaw which lead to bone disease of her lower jaw) along with many of their possessions. She said that there were way to many that showed up all at once and overwhelmed them and took advantage of the situation. Her husband called her to come home immediately. When she got there, she was telling them that some of the things they were carrying were not for sale, they told her that they had paid for it. She was screaming for them to get the you know what out of her house. Needless to say this was the worst experience she had ever had and left her in tears......

Go to a restaurant (particularly fast food) in DC, ditto for the DEN airport and some other airports - don't expect to be answered in English or Spanish! More likely expect Hindi or some other language.