Thursday, April 12, 2007

Urban Day Right to Rude Day

I had one of the worst days I've had in a while at work yesterday.  I'm trying to practice the frame of mind the psychologist is telling me in order to not take things so personally when I have hard-to-handle customers.  Yes, we've diverted from the fact that I don't eat much to trying to deal with difficult people.  I think this was actually somewhat helpful because I probably would have had an even worse day if I hadn't taken it into account.

Where do I begin?

It all started out with an older couple who wanted to buy a floor model of one of our cribs that was on clearance.  I don't know if they had called in to put it on hold or if they had come in, but regardless, someone apparently told them it'd be taken down the night before, so it'd be ready when they came to pay for it.  Well, it wasn't taken apart when they came in yesterday morning, and guess who was none the wiser about it?  That would be me.  I was all by myself, and I had no note left to indicate that anyone had planned on buying a floor model crib that morning.

Needless to say, they were a bit pissed off because it wasn't all ready to go.  I wrote up paperwork for them to take down to the registers anyway, and I told them it'd be about 20 minutes to take it apart and bring it down.  To me that was a realistic assessment because it wasn't that big of a crib.  It would have taken that amount of time if curveballs hadn't been thrown in the middle of it.

I called one of our guys up to help me take it apart and carry it out.  We were in the middle of taking it apart when one of our managers called him downstairs to help carry in these fixtures we got in.  They apparently told him that the people with the crib could wait.  The couple was standing right next to her when this happened, and she let it be known that it was her crib, and she was pissed.  I was getting upset myself because I knew they were already mad and didn't want anymore delays.

Olga had come in while I was dealing with this and tried helping me out, but I found that I needed pliers in order to get some bolts off, so she went downstairs to get me a pair.  While I was waiting, I decided to mess with it to see if I could get any of the bolts off myself.  The lady came up behind me while I was doing this.  Oh, lord, now what?
"I'm giving you five more minutes or I'm taking this back!  I'm really pissed off right now!  Don't you have people to take these apart?!?"
"Well, I had a guy helping me out with it, but they called him downstairs," I calmly replied.
"I know!  I was down there!  I want to speak to your manager!  Is there a manager on duty right now?!?"
"Yes.  She's downstairs with the guys."  I told her the name, and she stormed off and went downstairs.  Fine.  Just get out of my hair.

After getting the pair of pliers from Olga, our guy came back up so the customers wouldn't get anymore irritated.  We got it all packaged in the box, and while we were taping it up, the guy came up.  For the love of God, leave us alone please!
"Are you guys about finished with that?  My wife is pissed off, and we need to get this downstairs now or she's gonna take it back."
Does it look like we're putzing around at the moment?

So finally after a half hour of me dealing with their pissing and moaning, they took the crib, but it wasn't without putting in their two cents:
"You tell your manager that this is the worst customer service I have ever gotten!"
*sigh*
Well, what can you do?  I did my part, but it wasn't enough.  What else can I say?

Not even an hour after I dealt with these customers did I get yet another set of nasty people.  I had a mother and daughter tag team.  They wanted to buy a crib, combo, hutch, and bed rails.  Now, the hutch and bed rails always have to be special ordered, and that generally takes 8-10 weeks to come in.  The mother wasn't having it:
"What?!?  She's due in two weeks!  The lady told me you guys had all these in stock!"
I hate to say it, but you don't need the hutch or bed rails when the baby's born.  And on top of that, why are you shopping for furniture when she's due in two weeks?  How is this my problem?  "We don't keep the hutches or bed rails in stock.  They always have to be special ordered."
"Well, I want to buy your floor model then."
"I can't sell you the floor model, ma'am."
"You need to ask someone so I can buy your floor model."
Are you deaf?  Clean the wax out of your ears! "I can't sell you the floor model.  I'm not allowed to do that because this is something we regularly carry, and it's not discontinued."  Basically, I'd lose my job or be pretty close to it if I sold it to you, and truth be told, you're not worth it!
She was disgusted with me at that point, and there was no hiding it.  Not that she was trying to hide it anyway.

They started to check out our new Shermag furniture (extremely overpriced), so I ask, "Do you want me to give you some time to make a decision?"
"No!  She knows what she wants," the mother yells.
Then the daughter decides to chime in:  "Just go check those out, ok?!?"
Geez...wanna chill out there, Bobby Knight?

I checked in the back to see if we had the crib and combo, and thankfully we did, so I reluctantly went back over to tell them.  They decided they wanted to get those and special order the hutch and the bed rails, so I led them over to the desk.
As I was writing out the paperwork, the mother said, "I need you to do me a favor."  Oh, crap...
"Um, ok," was all I could say.
"I need you to call the company and have them ship my hutch and bed rails ASAP.  We're having family over when the baby is born, and they'll want to see the room, and we can't wait 8-10 weeks."
What in the hell?  "I can't do that."
"Yes, you can."
I'm glad you seem to know my job so well.
"Where does your furniture get shipped out from," she asked.
"It gets shipped from our Burlington warehouse, and they're filled on a first come, first serve basis," I tried to firmly state.
"Put me at the top of the list."
I laughed out loud.  I couldn't help it.
"Put me at the top of the list," she repeated.  "You sound like a very persuasive person."
And you know me to determine that?
"Pretend you're the boss and get me at the top of that list.  Whatever they need to do to get it shipped to me as soon as possible.  They can UPS it."
Yeah, they'll UPS furniture.  You're dreaming.

This woman wasn't going to take "no" for an answer, so I had to resort to "I'll try."
"No, not this eh-eh-eh I'll try.  No.  You do it."
Ok, don't push my buttons, lady, because you're already pissing me off.

It didn't stop there though.  Oh, no.  They wanted to take the crib and the combo...in her daughter's Honda Pilot.  Bahahaha!  Are you kidding?
Her daughter was on the phone, but I was still filling out the paperwork when I heard her ask, "Do you think the crib and half dresser will fit in my Honda Pilot?"
I wasn't looking at her, but I assumed she was asking me (as I get that question quite frequently), so I began to answer as I looked up at her, "Well, maybe--"
"I wasn't talking to you!"
Whoa!  I could think of some nicer ways you could have put that and gotten your point across without making yourself look like a bitch.

Finally, after an agonizing 20-30 minutes with these people, they went downstairs.  Our guy decided he wasn't going to waste his time taking both pieces down because he knew they wouldn't fit (even though they wouldn't take my word for it), so he only took down the combo.  I guess that barely fit in the car.  Now you can see I'm not as much of an idiot as you thought I was.

I could write books on all the horrible customer experiences I've had.  I think I just did...

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