Customer Tries to Inflict Guilt Trip

At 9:30AM the phone rang at work.  This is nothing unusual in itself, but the subject of the conversation was different.

Seems that the customer had been in the store on Sunday asking about having a refrigerator delivered to her house that day.  Well, for starters, we are basically only open on Sunday for video rentals.  We used to be closed, but we had several requests from customers that we be open on Sunday.  We tried it for a little while and it paid for itself, allowing us to provide more hours to our part-time employees.  When the employee working told her that we don’t do deliveries on Sunday, she tried to play a trump card.  She told him that the former owner, from 7 years ago, had told her to have the employee call the owners at home.  Now I don’t know what she thinks “former” means, but to me it means “they no longer have any thing to do with the operations of the store”.  Needless to say, she did not have a refrigerator delivered to her home immediately on Sunday.

When she calls at 9:30, she tells me that she had tried to call the store early in the morning, but no one answered the phone.  I asked her what time she tried to call.  She called at 6:00AM and 7:00AM.  Well the store opens at 9:00AM (she knew this), so why the hell did she think that someone would be here at those times.  Now, we do have people here at 8:00AM to open the store.  Had she been patient and called a little later, someone would have been there to take her call.

Now, for the reason why she was calling now.  She wanted to let me know that because she had been in yesterday, she had not gotten a call back Sunday night and she was unable to reach us at 6:00AM, she had called another store, in another town and purchased another refrigerator.  WTF?  Ok, am I supposed to be upset?  By this time I am realizing that this lady is a nut.  She called attempting to make someone feel guilty about her not purchasing an appliance from a “local” business.  Out of all the people involved with this cluster, I think that she is the only one feeling any guilt.  I am certainly not.

Actually, the woman did manage to accomplish one thing in all this.  She managed to waste about 3 minutes of my time!

The Customer is Always Right

I know that the old saying is, “The customer is always right”, but anyone who has worked in retail knows that this saying is incorrect.  It should be “The customer is sometimes right” or “The customer might be right”.  The only thing I know for sure is that the customer is not “always” right.  They can’t be.

Here is an example.  The currents owners of this store have owned it since 2001.  When they took over the store the POS was changed and all records of customer purchases prior to 2001 are in the possession of the previous owners.  So, anytime a person comes in that purchased something from this store before 2001, we can’t tell them anything about it.

A “customer” came in who, at some point before 2001, had purchased a refrigerator.  He wanted one that was comparable to the one that he had, but he didn’t know what brand it was, what size it was, or what the model number was.  Basically all he could tell us was that it was white and that it was indeed a refrigerator.  We looked on his account for previous appliance purchases and found a purchase for a 6cf refrigerator, but that was not the one that he was looking for.  We asked him if he could go get the make and model of the refrigerator, but he just wanted to argue.  He insisted that the owner had delivered the appliance, so we had to have a record of it.

Needless to say, this conversation was going nowhere fast.  We couldn’t produce a record that we didn’t have and he wouldn’t back down.  We had a problem.  The problem was, no one could tell the guy that he was full of shit and was remembering something that didn’t happen.  This is because of the motto, “The customer is always right”.  Well I call “Bullshit” and I say we start a new movement in retail.  One where we get to tell idiots that they are idiots.  Also, we need to stop letting assholes treat store employees poorly.  But, we need the general public to start helping, because they are the ones who just sit and watch while innocent store workers are berated by poorly behaved shoppers.

Customers Shopping at an Appliance Store

Just a quick observation.  Why do perfectly normal people turn in to complete assholes when they are shopping for an appliance.  They will walk into the store with the most adversarial mindset possible.  Remember that we are people too.  I personally want you to be satisfied with your purchase and I am not going to sell you something that you don’t want.  Even though my living is made from selling appliances to people, I don’t care if you walk out of my store without buying anything.  In fact, if your nasty about everything, I would prefer that you do leave without buying.  It saves many headaches for everyone.

Maybe this attitude comes from other shopping experiences, but maybe you should access the environment of the location you are shopping before getting an attitude.  If you don’t like the way they are selling, leave.  Go somewhere else.  Not every store believes in the “high pressure” sell.

Shopping @ Electronics Stores

I would like to recommend that when you shop at an electronics store you NOT use terminology for the sake of using terminology. This is especially true when you are not familiar with the terminology you are using. For example you walk into an electronics store and ask for a “power inverter”. When you do this you will be directed to the power inverter section and shown a device that will convert 12VDC to 110VAC. You will not, however, be directed to the area that sells replacement ends for your laptop cord that you bent all to hell. Funny how that works. This will be especially frustrating for the clerk / salesperson when you continue to ask for the power inverter, insisting that you are right. Sometimes you are going to have to concede and admit that you are wrong.

What do I suggest? I suggest that when you are in doubt, bring in the offending item and show it to the person you are seeking help from. If this is not feasible, then you generic terms to describe that item / problem. Such as, “I broke the thing at the end of my laptop cord that plugs into the laptop.” There simple and concise, I now know what you need. A new power supply, because if I know that if you don’t already know what you need, you will screw it up and kill your laptop and possibly yourself.