Remember the story THE VELVETEEN RABBIT, and how the bedding and stuffed animals of the boy had to be burned? Didn't he have scarlet fever? Anyway, yesterday, this woman returned a bag (garbage bag) of bedding that I think should have been burned. She claimed to have just gotten out of the hospital with pnemonia. I don't know, I never thought of pnemonia as contagious, more something someone gets when an illness goes to ones lungs. Okay, but anyway, I don't know if her coughing was supposed to make me more sympathetic or if it was supposed to distract me from what looked like the result of her emesis all over the bedding. She wanted to keep her own garbage bag, so I had to get another one. Later, after the return was complete, when the woman was in another part of the store,I must have had an expression of disgust on my face, because another customer was sympathetic to what I was doing. She commented what we must have to do at Customer Service sometimes are intolerable things.
Also yesterday, a man brought a pair of jeans from our store that only had a upc on the inner cloth tag. While the cloth tag did match the one on his receipt, I don't for a second believe he wore that pair of jeans only once. He claimed the zipper broke the first time he wore the jeans, but when he went to get another pair, I put gloves on to touch them. The jeans were so soiled with cigarrette dust that they reaked of it and they looked as though they'd been dragged through the dirt and used to wipe out giant ashtrays. Somebody later said some people probably don't do laundry, they just return clothes to the store where they bought them. I put the gloves back on when the customer came back to the return counter with a brand new pair of jeans.. I thought it was interesting how the man kept telling me about the embarrassment of his zipper breaking. Did he want me to give him his money back on those old jeans and have the store reimburse him for what happened to him?
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
What's Your Problem?
Sometimes, it takes everything in me not to yell at the top of my lung capacity, "WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM?" There was a guy yesterday who came up all grumpy wanting to exchange something. He didn't want a refund, he just wanted to go get something else. The second time he approached me, there was still nothing that could crack his surly demeanor. He was crabbed! Okay, so I started to do the exchange, then he threw a fit and accused me of ripping holes in his precious plastic bag. As he straightened his plastic bag, which I noticed had no holes, only a few wrinkles, I saw he didn't share my feelings on plastic bags. When I see plastic bags, I think how they kill animals, fill our oceans and trees and in my mind are one of the worst thing ever invented. I diverge. Next, the man put the new item in the bag, the more expensive item which I hadn't scanned yet! I said nothing to him, as I gingerly pulled back the bag in order to expose the barcode, hoping I didn' set off his simmering temper which was apparent in his body language. I'm the first to admit I have my own issues, but sometimes at work it's hard to realize that somebody else's issues are all his, and that if he pushes my buttons until I yell at him, which I've never done at work, then he's won the match of the psyches. I know I'm way smater than this guy, and I am not going to let him win, because he is annoying as hell.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Let's Break all the Rules and Do What's Wrong
Two male senior citizens give tough competition to a thirty-something female all vying to be the most unreasonable people demanding things at the customer service counter. Trailing in last place is the soft- spoken man without a receipt bringing back the 7 piece pan set he, "bought last Thursday". The employee thought in her head, No way in Hell. Well, there are a few problems, some of which the employee can't mention to the customer. Like she can't inquire, "What did you do take a metal chisel to the non-stick coating?" However, she can ask if he used metal in the pans, or what heat setting he used. He'd never heard of the flu symptoms that can caused by overheated non-stick pan coating. Anyway, then she realizes he can't even count to seven. She does tell him he's missing a pan and missing a lid. At first he tries to argue with her, but she just points to the picture that is on the box that he's supposedly had to look at for almost a week.
The other man starts out pleasant enough, but then starts stamping his foot and yelling like a toddler when he doesn't get back the exact amount he paid for a camera that he claims doesn't work consistently. When the employee explains that he bought it in a state with a 2% higher sales tax than the one where he's returning it, she also tells him he needs to go back to where he bought it if he wants the sales tax difference. Instead of understanding that this is not the repsponsibility of the store, he yells louder and stomps his foot more dramatically. When the manager comes over, she tells him she would want her five dollars too. Yeah, we all understand why the widdle boy is upset! He wants his five dollars, and he wants it now! But techinally, it's $4.94, so the manager says, "Can you count out 6 cents so that then the mean store lady can give you your five dollar bill?"
Our third contender is a woman who actually has a bonafied toddler in the shopping cart with her. The only time she says anything to him, it is to yell at him when all he did was ask when they were going to leave. It's apparent this woman knows how to do little more than yell when she approaches the customer service counter immediately yelling and demanding that store policy be broken for her, because she's somehow entitled. She has a stack of clothes she's returning, but she can't find her receipt. But, store credit won't work for her, because she needs money put back on her credit card. So,when she is told that the store employee won't break store policy, she yells louder that she needs to talk to a manager. The same manager who refunded the state sales tax difference is the one who answers the page. In this case, the manger tells the customer that the customer service representative is following correct store policy. The woman responds by ranting and raving about how store policy was broken for her previously when she couldn't find her receipt. In a calm tone, the manager explains that she doesn't know who broke store policy, but says it shouldn't have been done. Then, she says, "Okay, we will do this for you one more time, but no more." So, for a second time, this manager is giving in to a tantrum, and no lesson will be learned except that if you yell loud enough, you get what you want. Just to rub her victory in the face of the customer service employee, the woman finally her inside voice and says, "I want you to know that I really am a nice person, and that this was nothing personal against you."
The other man starts out pleasant enough, but then starts stamping his foot and yelling like a toddler when he doesn't get back the exact amount he paid for a camera that he claims doesn't work consistently. When the employee explains that he bought it in a state with a 2% higher sales tax than the one where he's returning it, she also tells him he needs to go back to where he bought it if he wants the sales tax difference. Instead of understanding that this is not the repsponsibility of the store, he yells louder and stomps his foot more dramatically. When the manager comes over, she tells him she would want her five dollars too. Yeah, we all understand why the widdle boy is upset! He wants his five dollars, and he wants it now! But techinally, it's $4.94, so the manager says, "Can you count out 6 cents so that then the mean store lady can give you your five dollar bill?"
Our third contender is a woman who actually has a bonafied toddler in the shopping cart with her. The only time she says anything to him, it is to yell at him when all he did was ask when they were going to leave. It's apparent this woman knows how to do little more than yell when she approaches the customer service counter immediately yelling and demanding that store policy be broken for her, because she's somehow entitled. She has a stack of clothes she's returning, but she can't find her receipt. But, store credit won't work for her, because she needs money put back on her credit card. So,when she is told that the store employee won't break store policy, she yells louder that she needs to talk to a manager. The same manager who refunded the state sales tax difference is the one who answers the page. In this case, the manger tells the customer that the customer service representative is following correct store policy. The woman responds by ranting and raving about how store policy was broken for her previously when she couldn't find her receipt. In a calm tone, the manager explains that she doesn't know who broke store policy, but says it shouldn't have been done. Then, she says, "Okay, we will do this for you one more time, but no more." So, for a second time, this manager is giving in to a tantrum, and no lesson will be learned except that if you yell loud enough, you get what you want. Just to rub her victory in the face of the customer service employee, the woman finally her inside voice and says, "I want you to know that I really am a nice person, and that this was nothing personal against you."
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