I was thinking that too. I wonder if there is another person giving out somewhere because some person decided to leave work really earlier and they couldn't get what they needed done as that person was unavailable.
Customers...
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I was thinking that too. I wonder if there is another person giving out somewhere because some person decided to leave work really earlier and they couldn't get what they needed done as that person was unavailable.
Nope, because my workplace was already closed to the public. At that job I was typically scheduled to work an hour longer than our public hours, so as to get paperwork done without interruption from clients. But this one time I arranged to leave right when we closed instead of staying longer.
Kor
The customer is always right....but if it's about something you didn't pay for, you're not a customer.
I encounter WAY more jackass customers than employees in my day-to-day. Which is REALLY wierd since nice customers usually get the best treatment. Entitlement gets you the least...curious it is so popular.
I encounter WAY more jackass customers than employees in my day-to-day. Which is REALLY wierd since nice customers usually get the best treatment. Entitlement gets you the least...curious it is so popular.
I've often thought that the customer is always subjectively right (ie their opinions/wishes should always be considered), but can be objectively wrong (if they have the wrong information or are clearly trying to take advantage).
Bookstore? How quaint.
Half-Price Books is God's gift to consumers of media.
Time for another story from the sex shop. Though this one could have happened just like that (well, very similar) at most stores.
It was on a Saturday evening that a customer came up to me at the counter, wishing to return a sex toy.
Most sex toys are not returnable, but there are exceptions from certain manufacturers. This was one such exception, but the manufacturer's warranty was only for broken items.
So I asked the customer what was wrong with the sex toy. Nothing. He just wanted a refund. So that's another thing with the warranty, it's not a refund but an exchange of a broken item for a working one of the same model.
When I asked why he wanted to return it, he told me this:
Since our store has a promotion on every Saturday where couples get a %15 discount on their purchases, he wanted to bring it back, come back next Saturday with his girlfriend and buy the very same item again, but with the discount.
Of course I told him that we couldn't do that.
And of course he was outraged, proclaiming never to buy anything at our store ever again.
And of course, when I told the manager, from whom the customer had bought the sex toy in the first place, the story on the following day, he confirmed my suspission, that the customer had been informed of the couples' discount before he made the purchase.
It was on a Saturday evening that a customer came up to me at the counter, wishing to return a sex toy.
Most sex toys are not returnable, but there are exceptions from certain manufacturers. This was one such exception, but the manufacturer's warranty was only for broken items.
So I asked the customer what was wrong with the sex toy. Nothing. He just wanted a refund. So that's another thing with the warranty, it's not a refund but an exchange of a broken item for a working one of the same model.
When I asked why he wanted to return it, he told me this:
Since our store has a promotion on every Saturday where couples get a %15 discount on their purchases, he wanted to bring it back, come back next Saturday with his girlfriend and buy the very same item again, but with the discount.
Of course I told him that we couldn't do that.
And of course he was outraged, proclaiming never to buy anything at our store ever again.
And of course, when I told the manager, from whom the customer had bought the sex toy in the first place, the story on the following day, he confirmed my suspission, that the customer had been informed of the couples' discount before he made the purchase.
Caveat Emptor.
I did get irate in a store one time. In the 90's, I had bought a digital camera at a big box electronic store and the camera was still under warranty. Over the years, It had developed a problem that I think was related to exposure and white balance, and after they had told me it would at least take a few weeks, and had reluctantly agreed to have it sent away to get repaired. They can never really tell you the timeframe or give you an estimate on when you'd get it back, it seems. In general, there's a woeful lack of feedback for the customer. Box store retailers really need to improve on that end, I feel. There's sometimes no real assurance that something is being done.
Anyway, I checked back multiple times. Physically went to the store to get updates and find out if there was any progress. They'd first give me a date to check, went back on that day, and so on. This went on for months, each time giving me a new date to check. I was getting pretty upset and couldn't understand why it was taking so long and felt I was getting the runaround, and finally managed to get some information out of them when the person I was dealing with told me they'd heard back that it couldn't be fixed. And I had a particular feeling that I'd never see that particular camera again, that they wouldn't bother even shipping it back. Why take so long to tell someone this? Why couldn't they be more proactive and give the customer an update via phone? I was shocked and stunned at all this, and visibly upset. It seems many stores are happy to sell you something expensive but drop the ball big time when it comes to repairs. Fortunately, after all that, the person agreed to give me a new camera which was the next model up since they didn't make the same model anymore. But what a headache. I wished it didn't have to happen that way.
Anyway, I checked back multiple times. Physically went to the store to get updates and find out if there was any progress. They'd first give me a date to check, went back on that day, and so on. This went on for months, each time giving me a new date to check. I was getting pretty upset and couldn't understand why it was taking so long and felt I was getting the runaround, and finally managed to get some information out of them when the person I was dealing with told me they'd heard back that it couldn't be fixed. And I had a particular feeling that I'd never see that particular camera again, that they wouldn't bother even shipping it back. Why take so long to tell someone this? Why couldn't they be more proactive and give the customer an update via phone? I was shocked and stunned at all this, and visibly upset. It seems many stores are happy to sell you something expensive but drop the ball big time when it comes to repairs. Fortunately, after all that, the person agreed to give me a new camera which was the next model up since they didn't make the same model anymore. But what a headache. I wished it didn't have to happen that way.
This is why I won't buy electronic or digital items at stores that don't do onsite repairs. Staples lost my business for computers the moment they uttered the words "send it away."
I feel your pain, a couple of years ago I ordered and paid for an item at a store as it wasn't in stock and they would contact me when it was in stock. After a while having heard nothing from the store I called the companies jelp line, they tried to contact the store, they couldn't called back X days later, they still couldn't reach anybody in the store this went on for a few months me calling their customer support line and them being unable to contact the store. Eventually I had had enough and decided to go the store to complain. Guess what my item had been in stock for months and they couldn't contact me becuase my phone blocks calls that won't reveal their number. So what they are saying that in this nationwide company nobody has a phone that won't reveal their number. I was not amused.
Yeah, normally I'd agree. Although I find there are less and less local options these days, at least in my town. Even the big local electronic store contracts it out, and I haven't had great experiences getting something repaired there either. We took a video camera in that needed repairing (the audio went out), and they sent us to the repair shop they use and the repair guy didn't have a clue, and instead passed the buck onto another problem that didn't make any sense whatsoever. He blamed it on the external mic we used, telling us to use the same brand as the camera, when in fact we never had a problem with this setup until this problem hit. The fact that he didn't explain why this was the case smelled BS to me. Nevermind the fact that the camera obviously needed repairing and couldn't use any mic in the first place, which just seemed like a slap in the face to me. We ended up not getting the camera repaired by him as he didn't seem too interested in figuring out the problem.
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London Drugs is the place I go to. The local store has an excellent technical staff in their computer department. I don't know about the cameras, as I haven't had to have any fixed..
I unfortunately don't have any of them near me, but I do hear great things about them.
These days, I go into stores (or start telephone Customer Service encounters) so well informed and researched that I have no doubt that I get used as that "Training Example".
Having been a retail manager for 7 years and a police officer for 10, most of my working life has been customer service in one way or other. I'm never rude, I'm never obstinate, I've just know every excuse, every "mitigation circumstance" and "line" they can throw at me.
I recently had to swap my Samsung Note 7 - and after two phone changes, three contracts (one set up without my permission) and two store managers, I have no doubt that my encounters "could be used for training and development purposes". The new manager spent most of his time blaming the world on the old manager, rather than keeping it simple, focusing on the customer and addressing their concerns.
Retail is a hard job, no doubt and I hated it when I left. But, as a customer, what I loathed was being given "well he should have done this, he should have done that", when what I want is "I am going to do this, I am going to do that". Focus on the solution, not the problem, manage expectations accordingly and keep your customer informed. That's how I treat my customers - give them the reality of the situation, how I can best try to solve it and update them. After 2 weeks of no update, when I went in, the manager of the store retorted (when I suggested that keeping me in the loop wasn't out of the realms of possibility) "Well, what would you like? How's about I call you every day, that OK?"
Yes, good sir, patronising your customer is always the best way of retaining them, I find.
Hugo - Now gets a weekly call.
Having been a retail manager for 7 years and a police officer for 10, most of my working life has been customer service in one way or other. I'm never rude, I'm never obstinate, I've just know every excuse, every "mitigation circumstance" and "line" they can throw at me.
I recently had to swap my Samsung Note 7 - and after two phone changes, three contracts (one set up without my permission) and two store managers, I have no doubt that my encounters "could be used for training and development purposes". The new manager spent most of his time blaming the world on the old manager, rather than keeping it simple, focusing on the customer and addressing their concerns.
Retail is a hard job, no doubt and I hated it when I left. But, as a customer, what I loathed was being given "well he should have done this, he should have done that", when what I want is "I am going to do this, I am going to do that". Focus on the solution, not the problem, manage expectations accordingly and keep your customer informed. That's how I treat my customers - give them the reality of the situation, how I can best try to solve it and update them. After 2 weeks of no update, when I went in, the manager of the store retorted (when I suggested that keeping me in the loop wasn't out of the realms of possibility) "Well, what would you like? How's about I call you every day, that OK?"
Yes, good sir, patronising your customer is always the best way of retaining them, I find.
Hugo - Now gets a weekly call.
Uh-huh. So is the "We don't carry that" line when the clerk is just too damn lazy to find out where the item is when asked. I've heard it enough times to recognize when a clerk is about to trot it out - so when an employee in a craft store had no idea what metallic goldfingering was, let alone where to find it in the store (it wasn't where they'd had it the previous times I'd bought it there), and was rolling out the list of excuses, I interrupted her and said, "And don't even think of telling me you never carried it here, because this is where I bought it less than 6 months ago." Funny, how fast she closed her mouth. I ended up getting it elsewhere.
And then there are the ones who seem to really want the customer to go somewhere else. My dad and I went to Walmart to look at computer desks (to measure, to see if it would fit into the room). I asked the greeter where they were, and he said, "Oh, we don't have those here. You have to go to the big cities like Edmonton." (I live in the 3rd-largest city in my province). My dad was about to leave, but I told him, "I know they have them, let's just go find them." So we did, I wrote down the measurements, and on our way out, as the greeter was talking to other customers, I waved my notebook in his face. "Here are the measurements I took of the computer desk you told me you don't have."
The most recent incident was a couple of years ago, when I decided to get a Discman (like a Walkman, but it plays CDs; seems odd to have to explain that, but apparently the younger generation doesn't know about these things). An online search turned up two local possibilities, and I decided to go to the closer one. When I asked the clerk to tell me where to find it, she looked blank. "Oh, we don't have those. They haven't made those for like 20 years. You better go to a pawn shop."
So I told her that this was very interesting - considering I'd seen them advertised on the store website the previous evening. I ended up getting it from the other place - much farther away, but online ordering worked with no hassles, and it arrived several days faster than expected.
I don't mind if an employee can't remember every item the store carries - but don't tell the customer "we never carried that" or "go somewhere else" as a first response. Clerks should be taught that if they don't know the answer, an appropriate response to the customer would be "I'm not sure, but I'll try to find out for you."
Uh-huh. So is the "We don't carry that" line when the clerk is just too damn lazy to find out where the item is when asked. I've heard it enough times to recognize when a clerk is about to trot it out - so when an employee in a craft store had no idea what metallic goldfingering was, let alone where to find it in the store (it wasn't where they'd had it the previous times I'd bought it there), and was rolling out the list of excuses, I interrupted her and said, "And don't even think of telling me you never carried it here, because this is where I bought it less than 6 months ago." Funny, how fast she closed her mouth. I ended up getting it elsewhere.
And then there are the ones who seem to really want the customer to go somewhere else. My dad and I went to Walmart to look at computer desks (to measure, to see if it would fit into the room). I asked the greeter where they were, and he said, "Oh, we don't have those here. You have to go to the big cities like Edmonton." (I live in the 3rd-largest city in my province). My dad was about to leave, but I told him, "I know they have them, let's just go find them." So we did, I wrote down the measurements, and on our way out, as the greeter was talking to other customers, I waved my notebook in his face. "Here are the measurements I took of the computer desk you told me you don't have."
The most recent incident was a couple of years ago, when I decided to get a Discman (like a Walkman, but it plays CDs; seems odd to have to explain that, but apparently the younger generation doesn't know about these things). An online search turned up two local possibilities, and I decided to go to the closer one. When I asked the clerk to tell me where to find it, she looked blank. "Oh, we don't have those. They haven't made those for like 20 years. You better go to a pawn shop."
So I told her that this was very interesting - considering I'd seen them advertised on the store website the previous evening. I ended up getting it from the other place - much farther away, but online ordering worked with no hassles, and it arrived several days faster than expected.
I don't mind if an employee can't remember every item the store carries - but don't tell the customer "we never carried that" or "go somewhere else" as a first response. Clerks should be taught that if they don't know the answer, an appropriate response to the customer would be "I'm not sure, but I'll try to find out for you."
On the other hand, while the examples above can be valid, sometimes staff will know their stock line-up well enough to be correct when they say "we don't have that at the moment" or similar, particularly if it's a common request or the store has just re-ranged for say the X-Mas season.
My point was that the specific examples I gave were not valid. None of those incidents happened anywhere close to any holiday where things would have been rearranged.
BTW, those CD players I mentioned? They're still available in stores; I saw them advertised just last week. So no pawn shops are required.
CD players? How quaint. 
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