You're the one That Messed It ALL UP

[Meegz]

So at Pier One, we get a lot of great customers but some bad ones. I had two ladies almost wanting to disfigure my face because the setup wasn't to their liking. I informed them that some other customers said the same thing but I was just a lowly employee that just did what I was told (in a nice way). They said that it was stupid and igonorant and whatever else they said that I would do something to the store. They weren't getting that I have nothing to do with corporation. Anyone else have the same trouble?:(

[WHShit]

Well, my company, WHShit, likes to reset the shops all the time. When I first came to work in the company, we had head-height shelving. Then we changed to overhead shelving, which is very high and sometimes (especially with magazines) it is difficult for short people (like myself...I am 5'3) to reach. Many a customer complained to me about this. Funny too....customers who were a slight bit taller than me used to ask me to reach a magazine or book for them...lol.:confused:

Since working here, we have also rearranged the shelves 3 times. They like to completely move everything. So, where there used to be stationary, now there are greeting cards, ect.

I have only been here for 2 1/2 years now, so that is more than once a year that they have rearranged the shop. It is confusing to customers and to staff...not to mention annoying trying to move all of it around when there is no staff and lots of work to do.

Since the last move I have had sooo many people come to me complaining about the new layout. What can I do about it? Nothing! I always tell them that if they have a complaint, I can give them the number or address to Head Office, but they never take that advice. They just go on and on to me or my co-workers about how displeased they are. I wish they would realize that it is not going to do any good!

[friendofjimmyk]

Well,I don't work in a store but the company I work for does have policies and sometimes our members think that the policies suck and of course, it's all my fault. Then there are the ones that bitch at me but then say, "Oh, I know it's not your fault, I just need to vent, sorry." Yeah, great, thanks a bunch!

[pbmods]

I had a customer complain to me once about a policy, and when I asked if he'd like our corporate number so he can talk to somebody who can actually DO something about it, his response was, "I'm too busy; I don't have time to call!"

Though I have not (to date) actually said this, I am always thinking, "So if it's not important enough to YOU to do anything about it, what makes you think I'M going to?"

Next customer who brings this up, though....

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Yeah, idiots used to come into Kinko's all the time and want to complain to me, even after I'd told them they needed to either fill out a comment card or speak to the manager.

They used to do it at one of the TV stations I worked at, too. I was a lowly master control operator, and before we got an answering service, the phone would ring back in the control room, which was really, really distracing. 19 out of 20 times it was a whackjob of some flavor or another complaining about the programming, or the advertising, or the quality, or whatever. Like the program director runs it by me first before he sets up the programming schedule, right?

I've been bitched at because the President said something that pissed people off (after a newstory).

And if that weren't bad enough, I've seen them complain about same to OUR JANITOR.

It gets better yet. One woman called me up to bitch about a DIFFERENT STATION. Read on:

Idiot: I want to complain about something I saw on 60 Minutes.
Me: Ma'am, we dont' air 60 Minutes. You need to call WLTX, this is WOLO.
Idiot: I know, but they aren't answering their phone.
Me::wtf:

[chainedbarista]

god help us when a seasonal drink is pulled or a regular/semi regular one is discontinued; the masses go wild...:eek:

yes, we pulled it, knowing that the fanboys and fangirls would foam at the mouth upon hearing it, because we're such bastards.

there's nothing we love more than getting bitched at because drink/item/add on a, b, or c is discontinued for whatever reason.

[Dreamstalker]

I admit to being addicted to Gingerbread Lattes when they're available. However, I don't go all huffy when they're discontinued. I just buy a bottle of the syrup and make them myself.

I'm hooked on Japanese food/candy, so I deal with that regularly (something I love getting discontinued for whatever reason); Pretz, Pocky, etc have seasonal flavors. No longer available? No biggie, I find something else :D That's a great way to get people to try tons of flavors, although I can't help but wonder if anyone has complained to Glico about salted prawn Pretz not being available in the winter (it was the Summer 2005 flavor).

I did get yelled at once upon replying "no" when asked if JRR Tolkein was going to be signing books (when the "movie" editions of the trilogy were released--new covers is all) :rolleyes: I told her that if she wanted to bitch out our promotions manager, go right ahead (what I would have done to be a fly on the wall when and if that ever happened; she took no crap from anyone).

[hsigrunt]

I had to register just to reply to this....I was briefly on the last forum before the most recent crash :)

JRR Tolkien is dead dude.

That's all I had to say, carry on.

[MadMike]

Let's see... I've been bitched at because of prices going up, store policy, product selection, and one time I caught hell from some nasty, bitchy old woman because her brand of soap was discontinued. It was discontinued twice, actually. First, the company stopped carrying it, because of supposed poor sales. Apparently enough people complained that it got brought back, but then a few weeks later, the manufacturer discontinued it. But I'm getting off the subject here...

I had just returned from a vacation, only to discover that the people who were supposed to maintain my aisle while I was gone did a piss-poor job of it, and that's actually being generous. We're talking empty shelves and full bays. It's supposed to be the other way around, people! :mad: Worse yet, a lot of the stuff that had been ordered in my absence were extreme slow-movers, and should not have been ordered. I think some of it was still there when I quit the following year.

My one friend, who had been on vacation with me, and was about the only other person I trusted with my aisle, worked day shift and was nice enough to start on my aisle once he was done with his (they had FUBARed his as well.) Still, there was a lot to do when I got in, and I was scrambling around like a madman trying to get it somewhat presentable while I was there.

That's when the old bitch showed up. I was stocking a shelf close to the end of the aisle, when she just stood there and glared at me. Not so much seeing her as much as I felt her evil presence, I turned around to see what she wanted, and before I could say anything, she said in a nasty, snotty tone, "Who orders this aisle?"

I was about to explain that normally I did, but I had been away, and it hadn't been taken care of, but she started again. "I buy such-and-such brand of soap here all the time, and now I can't find it! Where is it?"

Normally I don't take pleasure in telling someone their item was discontinued, but I could barely contain the shitty grin that time. As soon as I gave her the bad news, she sputtered and stomped off.

I wonder if she tried to complain to the manager, or even corporate. Like I said, the manufacturer discontinued it, so there wasn't a whole lot anyone could do.

[Rapscallion]

I had someone the other day in customer services - a member of the public demanding to know why her local shop could no longer get a certain brand of deodorant. She's allergic to all mainstream brands, which is something we come across regularly in our line of work, since we cater to such problems. However, I looked it up and the following conversation took place:

"Looks like the company discontinued the set."

"That's what my local shop told me, but I thought I'd better make sure."

? "Er, fair enough..."

"So, you don't have any in stock?"

"No." Things like this tend to go on clearance in the next catalogue, and clearance items go out of stock very quickly.

"Do any of the shops you supply?"

"I have no way of knowing."

"Why?"

For Freya's sake... "I can tell you who bought it recently before it went out of stock."

"Do they do mail order? I must have this!"

"I'll give you their phone numbers. From there, you're on your own."

Rapscallion

[Primer]

OT:

So at Pier One, we get a lot of great customers but some bad ones.

Did management ever find their pet cobras? (When I was a kid, Pier One always had signs in the basket section about not having seen their pet cobra for weeks)


JRR Tolkien is dead dude.


Tolkien is dead, but the screen writer should still be kicking. BTW, if anybody happens to know him, please tell him Anne246 is doing well, and can be reached through me. (Yeah, I know him, but have lost touch with him.:()

Back to your regularly scheduled thread...

[Gurndigarn]

I had someone the other day in customer services - a member of the public demanding to know why her local shop could no longer get a certain brand of deodorant. She's allergic to all mainstream brands, which is something we come across regularly in our line of work, since we cater to such problems. However, I looked it up and the following conversation took place:

"Do they do mail order? I must have this!"

Rapscallion

I can actually understand the desire... my wife has a similar problem, so most of our household toiletries come from health food stores... and I was bummed when Nature's Gate stopped producing their shampoos. Still, it's not like she's not likely to find other deoderants that fit the bill, since she should know where to look.

[dispatch]

can you ask the captain to slow the ship down? all this rocking is really annoying!

:quote:god help us when a seasonal drink is pulled or a regular/semi regular one is discontinued; the masses go wild... :/quote:

when I worked at a supermarket cheese balls and funjions were discontinued for about 6 months due to a problem at the factory, the looks and comments I got were enough to make me want to stop asking "did you find everything ok?

[Argabarga]

Acts of Congress are apparently my fault, see also the new pseudoephederine law... do they complain to thier senator? Their representatives? THe ones who VOTED for it? nope, it's all my fault, Pharmacy Techs run the world don'tcha know.....

[powerboy]

When I worked at walmart, I had the same problems. It would always be my fault, if a customer walks by a bunch of carts, and doesn't grab one. It would be my fault, if the store didn't have something in stock. I stopped listening to customers, after my first day. And I worked there for 9 months.

[AFpheonix]

Acts of Congress are apparently my fault, see also the new pseudoephederine law... do they complain to thier senator? Their representatives? THe ones who VOTED for it? nope, it's all my fault, Pharmacy Techs run the world don'tcha know.....

At least they can still get it without a doctor's note there. Gah, the people that give me Stinky Poop Eye look when I tell them that, and they do the old, "Well, when did THIS happen?" as if I'm making up crap so I don't have to like, make money or something. :rolleyes:

Had the same fun when CIBA had a backorder on their Clear Care line. I don't know anything about contact lenses, all I knew was that we didn't have the stuff, and none of the stores around me had it either. Lord knows, I called.

At least with the backorder on levothyroxine, I can switch people over to Levoxyl or Synthroid and it still costs about the same, so people haven't been whining too much about that.

[Dreamstalker]

JRR Tolkien is dead dude.
That's basically what I told her, but she got that shrewd attitude SCs sometimes get when they think they're being smarter than you. Her comeback?

"Well, he must still be writing or there wouldn't be a new edition out!"

:headscratch: :banghead: :cry:

[XCashier]

Well, my company, WHShit, likes to reset the shops all the time....I have had sooo many people come to me complaining about the new layout.
I used to have the same problem at the fabric store. The manager would reset the entire store, every week, never put any signs on the tables or gave us any sort of planagram to let us know which tables held which fabrics. The customers would get POed at us because we didn't know where anything was, and it made us look stupid and incompetent to have to go through the entire store to find the fabric they needed.

I even asked the manager why she did that. She just looked at me blankly, as if I were speaking Klingon. I never found out why she did it. I ended up having to leave after they cut my hours down to nothing, and the fabric store went out of business a few months later.

[South Texan]

They used to do it at one of the TV stations Iworked at, too. I was a lowly master control operator, and before we got an answering service, the phone would ring back in the control room, which was really, really distracing. 19 out of 20 times it was a whackjob of some flavor or another complaining about the programming, or the advertising, or the quality, or whatever. Like the program director runs it by me first before he sets up the programming schedule, right?

I've been bitched at because the President said something that pissed people off (after a newstory).
My station used to get calls DEMANDING that we go into the studio and tell some soap opera character to behave herself and stop doing whatever she was doing to some other character. Sometimes we would get calls wanting to speak with the actual characters of the shows or demanding that we connect them to the some character's house or ficticious job location.

Trying to explain the difference between reality and fiction to these people - or how the shows were taped in LA or New York and not in our studio - was futile.

[friendofjimmyk]

I've worked at several restaurants in my time and most of the time, I worked at them long enough to have them make changes to their menus at least once while I was there...that was hell...trying to explain to someone that we don't make said item anymore...then having them assume that we still carried the ingredients...most of the time, we did, but they don't account the prep time that went into the obscure item they are ordering...or the fact that it we may have some of the ingredients still, but not all of them, thereby compromising it's flavor just to make it for you - then trying to explain to them if the flavor is compromised it won't taste the same and then they would make us comp the item at the end anyway...

I've also had customers at restaurants demand to get their meal free because the meal they came to the restaurant to have was not available. :confused: One restaurant I worked at had separate menus for lunch and dinner. There was a couple that came in - often - that knew this but always tried to order off the lunch menu at dinner time. A couple managers actually comped some of their meals for this fact because they were angry they couldn't get lunch at dinner!

[Ryu]

reminds me of the friends episode where some woman thought joey was actually her character and couldnt wrap her head around him not being the doctor

[hsigrunt]

That's basically what I told her, but she got that shrewd attitude SCs sometimes get when they think they're being smarter than you. Her comeback?

"Well, he must still be writing or there wouldn't be a new edition out!"

:headscratch: :banghead: :cry:

amazing.....well, you could always answer 'no really! He was killed off in the last book and his publicist handles all the book signings.' When she asks for the publicist just point someone out at random.

[AFpheonix]

That's basically what I told her, but she got that shrewd attitude SCs sometimes get when they think they're being smarter than you. Her comeback?

"Well, he must still be writing or there wouldn't be a new edition out!"

:headscratch: :banghead: :cry:

Wow, you're right! He must be hanging out with all the contributers to the Bible, they're all still alive since there's new translations and new versions out all the time, huh?

[Dips]

I got to deal with this today. Guy bought the Mac version six years ago and his original six-year-old disks died and he never created backups. He also can't buy the update because we discontinued the Mac version. We did offer him a substantial discount if he wants to convert to the latest Windows version.

He didn't want to do that, not because he doesn't have Windows, but because, apparently we owe him something for discontinuing the Mac version. Therefore he expects the Windows version for free.

Also, apparently, the fact that he never even TRIED to buy a newer Mac version in the past six years isn't relevant. He deserves something because it wouldn't have been available if he had tried. [Some of my customers have very interesting logic.]

When he got nowhere with that argument, he demanded to know why we decided to dicontinue the Mac version. I gave him the official (and true) answer which is, "Sales didn't justify the high costs of continuing to develop it."

Or, to express it differently, "There's not enough money in developing updates if people only purchase them every six years or whenever their disks happen to die." :D [I kind of wish I'd put it that way, but I LIKE having a job.]