Jump to content
Official Community Forums Home

thurisas

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,101

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    4

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by thurisas

  1. thurisas

    Inept Scam Artist

    By thurisas,

    So we all know that there are intelligent people out there and there are most assuredly some very unintelligent people out there. This is a story about one of the latter.

    I had a customer try to do a return the other day. He was a nervous looking sort and that usually sets me right on alert. There's nothing to be nervous about with seeking a valid refund. That was my first tip that Mr. Inept wasn't exactly on the up and up.

    Mr. Inept wanted to get some money back for an item he said his mom purchased. Now, please keep in mind that this person had to be in his 40's and he was speaking as if his mom did much of his shopping. Okay, fine, I can accept that might be true for any number of reasons. This, however, increased my suspicions.

    Mr. Inept had a HP monitor he wanted to return and had no receipt and couldn't remember the day he bought it. Okay, fine again, some people throw away their receipts and think that everything with every new item is going to be peachy keen and hunky dorey. I'd already accepted that if this guy was telling the truth anyway he wasn't too bright. Still, one must assume the best until the customer proves themselves otherwise. Still, every alarm was going off now.

    Mr. Inept put his item on the counter and I finally got a good look at it as he was telling me his story. I almost couldn't help but chuckle as Mr. Inept explained to me how he wasn't satisfied with the color on the monitor when he hooked it up. How he just wanted to "Get it off his hands" now. The reason I was chuckling had nothing to do with the story.

    You see, my store employs an anti-theft device called spider wire that takes a specific tool to unlock. Failing to do so properly results in a very annoying alarm. This wire is snuggly set around high-ticket items and it is impossible to get into the box the item is in without mangling it. You know what? Mr. Inept's monitor had the spider wire completely snug around the box.

    When I cheerily pointed this out to Mr. Inept he claimed that we must have forgotten to take it off. Fine, said I, I can accept that such a thing might happen. I told him we had systems in place just for this reason. I took the serial number on the box and went to look it up. At this point Mr. Inept was very nervous and suddenly declared he didn't want to deal with the hassel. He told me to keep the monitor and he walked away.

    I decided to follow Mr. Inept and converse with him about how sorry I was this didn't work out for him. I let him know that I thought it was a really good idea for him to keep the monitor and walk out the door with it. Apparently this sort of pressure started to smarten him up because he declined saying again how he didn't want any part of it and started walking faster.

    I got my last chuckle when he left the store and walked clear across to the other side of the building where our other entrance was and then moved to the farthest part of the parking lot. I did the only thing I could do in this situation and chuckled at Mr. Inept as I walked to our security cameras and got a nice picture of him.

    Now, you might think this is the end to my little tale, but Mr. Inept came back a few days later. He was speaking with a higher member of management than myself. I just happened to walk around the corner to see them and heard Mr. Inept speaking about the monitor. I couldn't help but cheerily ask him if he'd remembered the date of his purchase. As soon as he recognized me he was off again.

    My question is, how can ANYone be THAT stupid?

  2. thurisas
    So, are you one of those customers who believes every store is out to get you? That every policy ever made was made to make your life miserable? That the only way to get what you want is to be a pain in the behind to the person behind the counter? In plain, are you a person who knows that the more belligerent you are and the more hard of a time you give to the people behind the counter, the better your chances are at getting what you want? Let me clue you in on something.

    I've had customers over the years who were very...well...heated in what they wanted and demanded. Regardless of the policies and procedures that any company puts in place, there is a type of person who feels that the same rules shouldn't apply. Over the last two days I had two instances.

    In one instance a person was trying to return a fairly expensive item. He had no receipt, he couldn't remember the day it was bought, and he couldn't come up with a valid ID for the return. Of course we refused the return and he turned belligerent. Violent even as he chucked his item across the room and it ricocheted to hit one of our service people in the face. The gentleman(for I am still polite) decided to leave without the refund and without the item. A few hours later he called and demanded that we "take care of him". Of course the reply was "I'm sorry, sir, if you step into this building or any of our other properties again, you will be arressted and we should tell you a notice of tresspass has been filed with the county. Thank you, have a nice day."

    In the other instance, the customer was also trying to return an expensive item without a receipt, without an ID, and she wanted cash back. In this instance, however, the customer actually listened to what we were saying, was actually interested in the reason behind the policy and then politely made her case. In the end, she simply had to go home to get the ID she'd forgotten and because I felt sympathetic to her plight I decided to break with policy and give her cash back without the receipt even though the policy dictated a gift card. Her only inconvenience was having to get her photo ID. She was happy and thanked me profusely for breaking with the policy.

    Policies are put in place in stores because so many people out there abuse the "I am the customer and I am always right" attitude. In some cases they abuse it in such a way that the company loses money. Believe it or not, a company is out there to make money and the best way to get you as a customer to return is to take care of you. Most times a good service person is more than happy to make sure you're taken care of. Its the people who have abused the systems that has caused the real problem here. If people were honest with themselves and just used a little common sense and a bit of jam instead of vinegar, the retail world would be a much nicer, friendlier place.
  3. thurisas

    Customer Blackmail

    By thurisas,

    Customers come in all shapes, sizes, and attitudes. I had an opportunity the other day to meet a gentleman(term loosely used) who I now call the Blackmailer. This is the type of customer who believes so fervently in the "Customer is Always Right" attitude that they believe that they can leverage it against you to get anything they want.

    Mr. Blackmailer came into the store the other day seeking out a lawnmower blade. Now, anyone in retail knows that stores are usually a couple of months ahead of the season. Hence the reason you will see Halloween in stores from now through October and why you saw back to school items just as school was getting out. The basic thing is you have to have time to sell through the old season to make room for the new. Mr. Blackmailer didn't get this no matter how I tried to explain it to him.

    Mr. Blackmailer did notice that we had some lawnmowers left over and at this point it came out. "You want to make me a satisfied customer, give me the blade off that lawnmower." The thought went through my mind of course Yeah, I'm going to deface a $200 machine to get you a $12 part. I told him I couldn't do that and let him know that he could likely order the part through the company that made the mower. Of course, Mr. Blackmailer only pays for everything in cash.

    It was at this point I let him know that I would search for it at other stores, but because it was the end of the season I didn't think there would be much luck. I also let him know I would try to order the part and it would be at least two weeks before it came in. His reply to me was 'This isn't treating me right and I know BigBox Store is supposed to take care of me. I've got a big truck with a big tailgate that is perfect for telling people exactly how you treated me today and I travel all up and down the coast. If you don't get me that part, that's what I'll do."

    Unfortunately, I'm not able to find a part. When telling this story to the other people in my store they laugh and roll their eyes much the same as me. Some people just aren't happy unless they're being miserable, I guess. I feel sorry for Mr. Blackmailer and if you see a pick-up truck with a sign explaining poor customer service on the Maine coastal routes, well...now you know the story.

  4. thurisas
    I work in retail. I love retail. One of the things that makes it fun is the challenges that happen during the course of any given day. Of course, being in retail one has to deal with a "customer is always right" attitude and you must work in a beaurocracy. These are my thoughts and what really goes through my mind in a given situation.

    What really happened...
    I had a customer complaint that I had to look into yesterday. Apparently we had a customer come in and look about the store and she was throroughly unimpressed. The body of her message said that the shelves in the store were always empty and that we didn't have enough of a selection anymore. Of course I called the customer and spoke with her about her concerns. It turns out that she was upset because we were out of some things that she was looking for. I let her know how our replenishment system worked, how we stocked our shelves, and how we decided what we carry. I told her I was sorry that we didn't have what she was looking for. I asked her if she'd spoken to anyone in the store to find what she wanted. She said she did not talk to anyone and I encouraged her to speak to an associate in the future because many times we have alternatives and on occasion the actual product she wanted. I also told her that we would be overjoyed to go to the back and get it for her. I thanked her for bringing this to our attention and she was pleased.

    What I wanted to do....
    After looking around the store I would quickly discern that there was indeed product on 9/10 of the shelves. In fact, of the 750000+ items we carried, only 1400 items are likely to be out of stock at any given time. After making this discovery, I would call the customer and the conversation would go something like this.

    "Hello Ms. Customer. This is Randy from BoxStore. I hear you had a bit of a problem in our store the other day. Would you care to explain?" says I.

    To which she would reply "Yes, whenever I go into your store the shelves are empty and I can't find what I want. Your were out of my shampoo."

    "Well," says I "you'll be happy to know that we have over 748600 different items in multiple quantities and there must be hundreds of different shampoos to choose from on our shelves right now, so your complaint of empty shelves and not broad enough of a selection has been taken care of. Hope this cleared things up for you. Good day."

    At which point I would hang up and sigh as another stupid complaint is taken care of.

    The moral of this story is that if you're going to complain, do so realistically. It helps no one to overexagerate.
    Randy.
  5. thurisas

    The Wait

    By thurisas,

    So, I've worked in a pharmacy setting for a decade and there is one question that always invariably comes up.

    "It's just putting pills in a bottle, why does it take so long?"

    This attitude is so very outdated. When our grandparents were children, this might well have been true. I'm sure that you could get in and out of your pharmacy within minutes. There were far fewer regulations that had to be followed, there was little or no insurance and it was all paper file, and the preferred medication was still alcoholic in nature and didn't need a prescription.

    Today, everybody and their brother and sister is on a medication. INsurance companies give instant feedback about coverage and even though your pharmacist knows the loop-holes to get your stuff covered in many cases, it takes actual phonecalls to the insurance company or your doctor to get it worked out. (Incidentally, how long did it take you to talk to a person the last time you called your insurance company?) Not only that, but the doctors typically don't know how to prescribe the drugs they are giving you in accordance with state and federal laws.

    During one instance of this famous question I listed above, we had a doctor who decided that he would try to E-Scribe a controlled substance. In my state, this is not a legal practice due to the higher risk of fraud. The doctor insisted that it was, and because the customer had a better working relationship with his doctor he assumed that the doctor was correct. It took me little time to pull up the state law and even littler time to relate a story about how pharmacists had gotten hefty fines and jail time for accepting this very type of prescription. Still, the customer was sure his doctor was in the right.

    Another instance of this question had me working for the better part of an hour to get in touch with an insurance company, find out in what instance a presctiption would be covoered, call the doctor back to find out if his patient qualified for that, and then resubmitting the claim. The customer's response was "well, I still don't see why it takes so long to put the pills in the bottle and sort the insurance out later." In fact, you do have that option, but you have to pay the full price of the prescription up front and then a paper bill with your insurance. Then you can get out of the pharmacy in moments.

    The last thing that people don't realize is that while they may be there and see no one else around, there are other prescriptions being filled. They're the ones the doctor's offices are calling or faxing or emailing in. Just because you're actually physically in the store doesn't always mean you're going to take presedence. In fact, some pharmacies do work on a triage type system. If a doctor calls in and says their patient is on their way, that person is still put in the same cue as someone who is standing physically in the store. Because doctor's offices tend to call with batches of people at specific times during the day, this means you could suddenly find yourself 10th in line with no other soul in sight.

    One's best bet is to have the doctors fax in the script whenever possible. Know when your doctor typically calls thier scripts in. Call your pharmacy before that time and update your insurance information and make sure they can find you in their system. Call the pharmacy one last time before going to pick up your order to make sure its ready, and then go on in. If you're in an emergency situation, make sure the pharmacist knows that at the outset. Like I said, oft times its like triage and if you're polite, respectful, and explain your concern, many times you will be pushed through as fast as humanly possible.

  6. thurisas

    The Lost Look

    By thurisas,

    I work in retail. I love retail. One of the things that makes it fun is the challenges that happen during the course of any given day. Of course, being in retail one has to deal with a "customer is always right" attitude and you must work in a beaurocracy. These are my thoughts and what really goes through my mind in a given situation.

    It's a common practice nowadays to instruct your employees in the finer points of serving the customer. While this is a very good endeavor, I sometimes think that it goes a little too far. I've been managing in retail for over a decade now and this has spanned a few companies. With each company I have had to give lessons on how to recognize "The Lost Look".

    From a management standpoint it would seem to follow that if a customer is looking confusedly at either items on a shelf or at the signs in the aisle that there is a possibility that this person is in a bit of distress. Of course this little bit of common sense, as any manager knows, is always lacking in about half of the employees in any given establishment at any given time. It is so bad, in fact, that I have found myself having to mimic "The Lost Look" on many an occasion just to teach someone new to retail how to recognize it. No matter how many times I teach it, I can still walk around the corner and see one of my people walk straight past a person with this exact look. This is, of course, enough to make you want to scream.

    The employee isn't always at fault, of course. After all, they are often focused on a job and the customers are fully capable of asking for assistance. Many jokes are made about men who won't ask for directions...well, there is a core group of people who are known fondly to me as "The I Don't Want To Be A Bother" customers. This type of customer has a distinct inability to interrupt an employee if they even seem to be doing something resembling work. They will use "The Lost Look" in order to get help. Instead of a five minute shopping trip, this type of customer is suddenly in the store for half an hour before they catch one of the 50% of employees in an establishment that actually use common sense and know "The Lost Look".

    The moral of this story for a customer is that if you don't know where it is, ask someone who spends 20-40 hours per week in the store for help because they have a better idea where you're going than you do. If you're an employee, actually pay attention to the customers, after all...they ARE your paycheck.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use & Privacy Policy

  I accept