I throw myself to the mercy of CS

[fma_fanatic]

I beg mercy, for last night, I was a sucky customer.

You see, I preorder my books from Borders because it's easier for me to get the reminder e-mail, print it up and take it in. Then I can just pay and go on my way.

But last night, was the exception. You see, I got my e-mail that 3 books were in. Cool, I thought, because I'd been waiting for them. SO even remembered me preordering it, and I still had the order slip in my purse.

So down to the store I go after work, e-mail and if need be, order slip in hand. I present the e-mail to the bookseller at the register who looks for the items. They're not there. Hmm..okay. She calls a manager. She looks at the e-mail, looks at the shelf, then shrugs and walks away. I stand there, thinking maybe she's going to find out where my items are. After 10 minutes of waiting, nothing. The clerk calls the manager, who comes up and proceeds to tell me that none of the books are out (umm..okay, so what are those three on the New Book table? I must be losing my mind), and that I can't possibly have preordered them, since they aren't on the shelf behind the registers (so then I must have faked no only the e-mail BUT the order slip as well, right?).

I pointed out to her the books on the new table. She then turned around and said to me in a very nasty tone of voice, "So if there were there, why didn't you pick them up and leave already." Now, I've just gotten off work, had to stay late because a manual I needed didn't show up until 4:45 pm, and I had to print and bind it myself. I'm hungry, tired and just want to go home and relax.

I told the manager she could take her books and put them where the sun don't shine..and left. Ironically today, SO called and said that I got the confirmation postcards that my books were in.

Forgive me, CSers..I'll go beat myself with a wet noodle.

[One-Fang]

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

I don't think too many people mind if you react to extremely bad service with such a response. Sure, there's a more mature way, but anyone can see why anybody would want to say what you did in that situation.

Next time you have a book on preorder and they say it's in, walk in, locate said book on the shelf or new books table, pick up a copy, and walk out. Heck, the manager thinks that what you should've done! :)

[Broomjockey]

If you had gotten the email, and the confirmation cards showed up the next day, correct me if I'm wrong, but mail usually takes more than one day to travel, so your books should have been ready when you went there. The manager was a farkin' mule, and needs to learn to keep her mouth shut. You maybe over-reacted, but some kind of dramatic response was called for.

[lordlundar]

Mercy? MERCY!? Muahahahahahaha!:devil:
j/k

In all honesty, After being snapped at like that, I'd probably park my ass down within site until I got my books and an apology. You'd be suprised how fast they'd do it just to get rid of me.

[Kiwi]

I dont think you were sucky

I think the employee/s were sucky. People, expecting polite helpful service is NOT being sucky. You are allowed to have a backbone when you are the customer. Yelling and screaming and demanding the impossible is being sucky. Treating the employee like the gum on the bottom of your shoe is sucky.

If someone said "why didnt you leave already", Id be passing on that comment to someone higher up...that employee needs her additude adjusted so much she would have to have a lube job done afterwards.

[Binky]

nope...don't think you were sucky at all....tho I would have gone and said...IF my books are not in...then WHY did I get an e-mail stating they were??? Answer me that?

What you did was the right thing, you waited to see if the books where there. One of the things I hated..HATED when working in retail was when someone would order something in, or ask us to hold something for them..and they would never return/come in to collect the item(s) and it would end up sitting there for ages just rotting...and I couldn't just give them to anohter customer who wanted them..."because the real owner may come in to get them!!"..IT'S BEEN 3 MONTHS !!!!!!!!!!! THEIR NOT COMING IN!!!!!!

I would have pointed that out...that all you were doing was collecting something you ordered and thought you were being helpful by actully collecting them..rather than letting them sit their to collect dust....:angel:

[ladodger34]

I agree that you weren't being sucky. You received an e-mail stating that the books were in. Most people assume that if you receive confirmation that the books are in (phone call, e-mail, postcard, etc) that they are you know, actually in.

This could have been a simple mistake. The system sent the confirmation by accident or whatever else. Who knows what the problem could have been. I'm pretty level headed, but I would have still been miffed by this just because it cost me a bit of time. It's frustrating when these kinds of things happen. A simple apology generally gets me over my frustrations and I'm on my way.

To make matters worse, it seems like the manager kind of fibbed to you in saying that the books weren't released yet. You called her on it and she got pissy. She should have said "My mistake. I thought the books weren't released yet. We didn't have your order here behind the counter, but please take your books from the table. Once again, I apologize for this entire mess".

I also agree with Kiwi. I rarely complain about stuff and I generally let stuff slide. In this case, I think you should go ahead and file a complaint. Somewhere along the line, a mistake was made. It was a rather easy mistake to fix and it didn't happen. Rather than fixing the problem, she made it worse.

[Sunsetsky]

I can't blame you for being mad. I wouldn't have been happy myself. She could've been more respectful towards you and actually came back to tell you what was going on instead of the employee having to call her back out. I'm sure if you just taken off with those books on the table and walked off then security would've came after you.

[Ree]

I think you behaved very badly.

Yes, the staff screwed up by not having your books ready, and telling a fib to cover up that fact, but if any of the members came on here and posted this story from the side of the employee, everyone would be agreeing with them and asking, "Well, if the customer saw them on the table, why didn't he just buy them?"
Or:
"I don't blame you for not holding his books. Lots of customers never bother to come back for their stuff and we end up holding on to it forever."
Or:
"If a customer told me to shove the books where the sun don't shine, I'd be shoving them all right, but up his butt, not mine."

Perspective is a funny thing, isn't it?

[Kiwi]

I see your point Ree, but Im thinking perhaps, her "put this where the sun dont shine" statement would not have been provoked if she hadnt been told to basically get lost or that she was a liar.

Personally I wont threaten someone because if I want to go so far as complain, I want to know that I have behaved in a calm and resonable manner. I think in this case, both people made mistakes, however the lesser evil, at least in my reading of the situation was committed by fma.

[AFpheonix]

I second Kiwi. If we came back with that story and posted verbatim what we said to the customer to provoke that response, then we could expect a response from many members to the effect of "well actually, you were a sucky employee."
Could she have worded her anger better? Of course, but honestly, those employees did not perform even remotely decent customer service. All the manager had to say was "I don't have a record of your preorder, but it does look like we have copies of those books in on the new release table. Would you like to purchase those?"

Not hard.

[Brighid45]

It sounds to me like you've got a case of two people, both at the end of a long and tiring day, who ran out of patience and politeness. It happens. Separate miseries sometimes intersect that way.

Maybe it would be worth going back to the store and talking with the manager. This is a misunderstanding that could easily be cleared up with some tact and a willingness on both sides to live and let live. Just a thought.

[Ree]

If we came back with that story and posted verbatim what we said to the customer to provoke that response, then we could expect a response from many members to the effect of "well actually, you were a sucky employee." I would like to think that, and I'm sure there would be some type of response along that line, but more often than not, there would also be some type of validation given to the employee with the defense that the customer was behaving so badly, and had no business telling the clerk to shove the books and storming out.

[Primer]

I beg mercy, for last night, I was a sucky customer.

You see, I preorder my books from Borders because it's easier for me to get the reminder e-mail, print it up and take it in. Then I can just pay and go on my way.

I read this much and thought the end of the story was going to be that you had actually ordered from Barnes & Nobles, but went to Borders insisting that Borders had sent you the notices that the books were in.

I do not think you were sucky in the way you acted. I used to work in a book store, and was in charge of special orders. I don't know how many times I had to fix the messes that other emplyees made, including taking orders for books that were out of print, or would not be published for another 8 months and promising we would get them in within a week.

But you better believe that if I made the call to the customer that the book was in, that it was in my hot little hands, had the customer's name on it, and was being held for them at the special orders counter.

I would rather have had a customer pick the books up from me, or at least tell me they found the book elsewhere, rather than have come in, pick one up off the shelf and never let me know I could release the copy I was holding.

gaaah...and I though I had blocked out most if the memories of that job. I may have to post more later about them.