So awhile back a guy came in to the store wanting to make a return and on that day I made a mortal enemy. So this guy walks up to the desk lays down a receipt and says that he wants to return a hamster cage as a corner was broken when he bought it. Then came the madness. Yeah, believe it or not he didn’t have the broken cage with him. He wanted me to give him a new cage and trust him to bring back the broken one latter after he had moved the hamster to its new home. After I patiently explained that I couldn’t trade the nothing he brought for a new cage (and mind you he was PISSED) he said that all he wanted was a replacement bottom to the cage and I said sure we can do that but I would need the broken piece to do the trade. He seemed mollified and so I went back to helping another customer. Only then he came back up to the front and told my co-worker that I had said that we would let him leave the store with a new cage bottom. So I turned around and had to explain yet again that we couldn’t make the trade. He stormed and raged and threatened to return the cage, the hamster, and everything hamster related he owned. He threatened to take his business elsewhere. Which I always think is funny that the worst customers do that. Do they really think we would care? We have been dreaming of that day since the first time they bitched about waiting in line for 24 seconds. At any rate he threw a tantrum all about how he bought the cage in good faith and we betrayed him and how I was an idiot etc. etc. The whole time the only thing I said was “I am sorry you feel that way. But surly you have to recognize my position, I want to help but my hands are tied.” Yeah he didn’t recognize my position. The only nice part was the people I had been helping whispered to my co-worker during his tirade “Do you want us to explain to this idiot that you could lose your job for doing what he’s asking?”
Ha, Vindication!
Return of the hamster guy
So four days latter I am at work. Which is the story of my life right now, but no matter. I was working in the back and when I came back to the front all my co-workers said:
Coworker: “This guy came in and he hated you. What did you do?”
Me: “I’ve only been on duty a half-hour. I have no idea. What did he want?”
Coworker: “He returned a hamster cage that had a tiny little crack in one corner.”
Me: “Ohhhhhh right, the hamster guy.”
Coworker: “Yeah, he said he wanted to talk to a manager and that he wanted to return his hamster and then he changed his mind because he liked his hamster. When I asked why he mentioned it he said that there was some little, pimple faced, 18 year old manager who wouldn’t help him. He said that the hamster was peeing out of the crack onto his furniture.”
Me: “Good for the hamster I hope it ruins his entire sofa set.”
1 comment:
Well... If it makes you feel any better, your description of your customers vastly improves my opinion of my customers. My customers are generally very nice, and we tend to establish a rapport, even though they're pretty dumb and have no clue what they want, or what they need, or what is involved in getting what they don't know they want or need. But your customers furnish the rest of us with endless delight. :)
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