DUANE READE'S NEW CUSTOMER SCREW

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WOW
DUANE READE SCREWS CUSTOMERS AGAIN
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Duane Reade 42nd Street


It never amazes me about businesses in the Times Square Area. Duane Reade, the drug and shopping store, which I have written about before, has pulled a new fast one on its customers. It may not seem like much, but you used to have the Duane Reade rewards card, that if you spent a hundred bucks, you got a 5 dollar coupon. Like I said, its not much, but last week I went in there and the clerk said they had this new great rewards plan, and I should switch to it. She said they gave double points now on purchases. Who wouldn't want to take this new offer? So I go into there the other day and my points went over a hundred which would mean I got a five buck coupon. How wrong I was. What the clerk neglected to tell me when I signed up for the new rewards card, was that they raised the cheep five buck reward card from 100 points to 500 points. So much for taking care of the customer. In the past I have written about them before. The very long lines where sometimes you wait 30 minutes to pay for your purchase. I contacted the company then and complained about the lack of service at their store and do you know what they did? They gave copies of my e mail to employees of their store and I got contacted by one of them through my e-mail who went off on me for complaining about a cashier sitting on a milk crate, managers who did nothing when the lines were long and many other things. So much for customers privacy. This company has brought up all our family owned pharmacies in New York City to just about create a monopoly. Now I see they were brought by Walgreens for almost a billion bucks. Duane Reade has been yelling and screaming lately about how good their prices are. All the employees are walking around the store wearing shirts that say WOW. There is nothing WOW about Duane Reade. I am just going to walk a little farther down the road and shop at CVS. CVS has fair prices, you never wait on line long and you do not have to worry about deceptive advertising practices. I think the WOW at Duane Reade stands for WOW, we ripped off the customer again!

Comments

Anonymous said…
The fact that the first 15 days of January you could use the old card for discounts only but didn’t continue accrue new points pissed me off. The fact that the old balance didn’t transfer to the new program also pissed me off. The fact that I was expecting my $5 coupon to kick in with $100 spent like the old program did and found that I had to spend 2.5 times as much pissed me off. Their campaign advertisements on NYC subways stated something like: “Flex Rewards – proof that New Yorkers really do get what they want. ” What a crock. Is what I want to be screwed over even more by this ubiquitous chain I can’t help but to shop at for lack of almost anything else in NYC? It should have read “Flex Rewards–screwing New Yorkers over once again. Proof that we suck and you’re stuck with us” I’d so rather shop at CVS, but I have to walk too many blocks to get there. I hope when Walgreens takes them over they look at DR’s price points and bring them down. As far as I can tell Walgreens seems a bit cheaper. God knows their pharmacies work much more professionally and efficiently than DR’s ever have. About a year ago they started to get their clerks to ask customers if they found everything they were looking for. Yesterday I was asked and told them that in fact I hadn’t (many of the chains don’t carry the same stock especially with food items). Upon hearing my answer he just stood there like a slack-jawed idiot. Not even an “I’m sorry”. I guess their brilliant management didn’t train them in answering a no. Don’t get me started on the branch at 6th and 8th Street that hasn’t had matches for an $11 pack of cigarettes for 2 straight months. Duane Reade is a despicable excuse for a business. You're post is right-on. I can’t hate them enough.
3:53 PM
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