2009-08-31 ... 5:48 p.m.

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Crabby customers is the new trend

Peggy brought up the point today that customers have been much less pleasant lately than normal. I have to agree with her. I'm not sure if it's the hot weather, or a financial bite that most people are dealing with but she's right, people are testy lately.

I worked in returns today, and one of my first customers brought in an old water heater. He claimed to have called GE about it, but they gave him no SKU number for us to ring it up. He was screaming at me because he was supposed to come in with it LAST NIGHT and the replacement was supposed to be up in returns, but it wasn't.

And of course, it was my fault. Luckily, one of the HCs was standing behind me, and she just took over. She told him she was there to help him, but she couldn't do anything for him until he stopped yelling. She said that at least three times before he calmed down.

He insisted that a new one be brought up front IMMEDIATELY (like he was the only customer in the store) and the plumbing guys were doing the best they could, but when you have to get a fork lift to get it off the overhead, it takes more than three minutes. Jeebus.

We finally got him taken care of and out the door. Then it really got busy, and I looked at my watch and it was 7 minutes until my 5th hour at work. According to Depot law, you have to punch out before that 5th hour mark or suffer the wrath of the ASMs. I try to abide by the rules, because I really don't like getting yelled at.

I had a man who brought in a receipt, and three blinds.. the cheap kind, that are plastic, and just roll up and down. OK, maybe they are shades. He brought NO packagin in with them, so I questioned where it was. He told me the blinds were all on the receipt, and I needed to just refund him his money.

Something just did not feel quite right. One of the floor and wall people happened to be in the front at the time, and I asked him if he would get me the numbers for them. One of them was 10 feet long.. the guy said, "Yeah, that's the one that's 96 inches".

The last time I looked, ten feet was 120 inches. Our guy went back to get the SKU number, and I took other customers while he was waiting. I KNEW this guy was cheating. I think the blinds (shades) were old, he bought new ones to replace them, and brought the old ones in. My suspicions were confirmed when our guy brought up the numbers, and NONE of them were on his receipt. So he could only get store credit, bummer. People are always upset that they can't just walk in with shit and no receipt and get cash for it.

We had a neophyte (neener) working in returns today, so I was giving her little tips to try to make things easier for her. Just before I left, a female came in with a bunch of work lights... eight or nine of them, at $84 apiece. One had a box. The rest were all in a large box, with no attempt at packaging or anything. She gave the story that "her boyfriend" bought them, and he didn't give her the receipt. So after finding them on the shelf, she brought back one in a box.

Needless to say, she didn't get the $608 refund that was due her. The HC had been there, and I asked her to hang around because I knew she would need manager's approval for that, and I really wanted to see the end of it. The manager refused to refund her, and marked her driver's license number in the computer so that she won't be able to return them anywhere else. Hee!

Even our newbie said she "felt" something was wrong with the refund... I agreed, and told her to go with her instincts. By then it was time for me to leave, and I did that gratefully!

On the home front, nothing is new. I went to bed early last night, but I'm still a bit tired due to the dogs getting me up early. I forgot how good late night TV can be and I stayed up a bit too long. Oops. I'm sure I can catch up this week.

Thankfully, this Monday is over.

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Kiss Me!

1 comments so far

bluesleepy - 2009-09-01 03:49:48
Neophyte -- WHOA. That's like a ten dollar word right there!!!
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