CVS, once a small Rhode Island drugstore, is now one of the largest pharmacy and convenience store chains in the country. Here in little RI, we specialize in corruption, so it was not a shocker last year when the CEO of CVS, one of the state’s largest companies, was implicated in bribing public officials. As a taxpayer, that got me mad, but not nearly as mad as the business practices of this chain.
I’m a pretty good father. I am crazy about my 9 year old son and 6 year old daughter. They both love photography, like I do, so I let the older one use my older camera and for the little one I have been buying one shot cameras. With 24 or 35 shots per camera, she burns through them pretty well. Unfortunately, we don’t always rush them to get developed.
A couple of weeks ago we finally dropped off 5 or 6 cameras that had accumulated, and we headed out of town for the New Year. The next day I got a call from a Providence police detective telling me he needed to meet with me, but he was very cryptic about why.
When I finally charmed him into to telling me what it was about, I discovered that CVS had called the police when they saw some of the photos we had dropped for developing. Evidently the help at CVS couldn’t tell the difference between child porn and a five-year old shooting nudes of friends. The policeman almost apologized but said we had to meet. Given that he was wasting my time, I asked him to drop by the house instead of me going to him. No problem.
I was surprised not to recognize the girls in the photos. I later discovered my daughter had taken them the previous summer on vacation with her mom and another family. There were definitely some nudes and a few close ups as well. As the detective noted, it was pretty clear the kids were having fun and they were healthy. He left the photos and thanked me for my time.
I picked up the photos the next day at CVS. I paid for them and then looked at them when I got to the car. Only four rolls had prints, but I paid for five. They had charged me for the photos they printed and gave to the police, but they never gave them to me. I didn’t particularly care that the police had. I had given CVS 5 rolls, they charged me and gave me 4 printed and gave the 5th to someone else, yet they charged me for it.
I went back in and when I request a credit they called the manager. He tried to tell me that he printed them for the police and that I had to pay. I asked if they often give product to someone and charge someone else for it. He refused to refund my $7.
The fascinating part of all this is that they had just given me a $2 off coupon to get me to come back in the store. I spend well over $1,000 per year at CVS and most of it in that location which is 100 yards from my home. But this genius couldn’t figure out that it might be worth it to give me the credit to satisfy an angry customer even one that spends a good amount in his store (he can check how much I spend because I have one of those little cards that lets them track). Some loyalty program!
I have high expectations for customer service since I used to be in retail and regularly provided it. James Brausch just posted on the lifetime value of a customer. I always understood it and regularly went out of my to provide it as you can see in stories on my fundraising blog, but used to be my combined Internet marketing and fundraising ideas blog. I actually paid a $15 parking ticket for a customer who bought a 90 cent ice cream cone from me. So, am I an idiot, or is the CVS store manager?
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