In a trending TikTok video, a Portland man shows what happens when you submit a complaint via the CVS shopper survey. It’s quite effective.
In the clip, Michael Barber (@michaeljbarber) shares a storytime about a recent incident that happened at CVS Pharmacy.
He shared that he recently walked into a CVS to quickly grab two bottles of water (he even showed the two purchased bottles on screen) and was surprised when the security guard stopped him because of his bag.
Barber explains that he had a brown leather satchel bag on him for work because he was coming from the office. When he walked into the store, the security guard told Barber he’d need to leave his bag at the front.
Barber explained that he was extremely hesitant to leave his bag behind since it had several important items, including his laptop, iPad, and passport.
“Absolutely no way. Not leaving it,” Barber told the security guard.
When the security guard said Barber could leave it right at his feet, Barber again refused, instead asking if there was an alternative and secure location for the bag.
“There’s lots of good stuff in there that people would want if they’re of that kind of person,” Barber says in the clip.
They compromise, and Barber is allowed to leave his bag at the front, presumably by the registers, where it’s still in eyesight while he takes 45 seconds to grab the waters. He then checks out and is on his way.
But the situation doesn’t end there. When he gets an email survey from CVS, he fills it out, detailing the incident and how bad of an experience it was for him.
To his surprise, Barber got an email back from the manager apologizing for the incident, stating that they were talking to security about the issues, and included their phone number in case Barber wanted to talk about it one-on-one.
“The state of American retail right now? Bad, bad, bad, bad,” Barber says.
The video has more than 90,000 views and nearly 300 comments as of Thursday morning.
@michaeljbarber Don’t ever disount those post shopping surverys yall. #customerserviceproblems #wtf #cvspharmacy #cvs ♬ original sound – Michael Barber
“Don’t ever [discount] those post shopping surverys yall,” Barber wrote in the caption.
Some commenters said that Barber shouldn’t be so impressed by the email response, pointing out that it was likely autogenerated.
“It is a form letter and they click like 2 boxes to respond to it. The managers are REQUIRED to respond to surveys daily and they actually don’t GAF,” a top comment read.
“That’s an auto response template to flagged reviews,” a commenter said.
Barber said he’s aware that the manager likely didn’t write the email themself, but still commended them for the response and specificity.
Many commenters were surprised by the security measure and even the ones who weren’t agreed that the pharmacy chain needs to do a better job at securing items they require customers to leave behind.
“I get why the want to do this but they need to provide a secure location for bags. perhaps they need some lockers if they are that concerned,” a person wrote.
“I went into a store the other day. Said no bags, purses, or backpacks inside. They wouldn’t let us bring in our reusable shopping bags,” another shared.
The Daily Dot reached out to Barber and CVS via email.
