Poor Marketing Strategy: Non-members Not Welcome During Members Sale Event
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 4/7/08
Funny to me. Sogo doesn't welcome non-members. Last year, I brought few foreigners (Japanese and Americans) to dine at its reputable restaurants at Level 6. We were blocked from entering the whole Sogo building claiming there's sale event STRICTLY for Sogo members, thus non-members not allowed. I told the guard of my intention and after 30 minutes of commotion, we were allowed in finally.
Then one year later (i.e. now), I shopped at Sogo last week late evening just to kill my time. I went to Household Dept and found items sold there of good quality. Tried searching for any sales personnel manning the area for assistance but was told all of them had been assigned to assist the sale event (again for Sogo members) at Level 7. Since there was no assistance from Sogo personnel manning the area, I proceeded to self-service checking out some pots with glass lids. When I take up one of them, the glass lid obviously did not tied up properly to the pot!. By accident, I dropped the glass lid and luckily it was not broken. However, personnel manning other areas gave me very akward look as though as I owe them an apology which I should not touch these items! The lady I assume from crystal dept quickly came to check the glass lid giving me very awful body language move, making "chick" sound with "dagger" stares and flipping the glass lid over and over again just to check the glass lid not broken. She didn't even bother to ask if I was ok or the least she should do was to offer a comfort assistance. This was very bad experience having to bear the fault of their shabby work! Since she shooed me off that particular brand, I went for another brand which one male personnel was very helpful indeed after the incident which I bought from him. From this moment onwards, I don't think I will and never again I swear not to step in to this place. You bet it.
MAUNCHIN, American International Group