Beyond Belief: Out of Stock

[HawaiianShirts]

Yesterday was mostly a good day. I sold several computers to really nice people who listened to what I had to say and at least considered it before making their decisions. But there were two customers...

This week, my store is running some pretty good sales. We got most of the sale stuff last week, but one shipment ran late. It's coming in today. Customers were usually understanding of this situation and had no problem coming in later in the week to get what they want.

Then there was the foreign student couple. I'm fairly sure they're going to the university here in town. Accent sounds like Eastern Europe. They came in, looked around for a few minutes, and found me. Pointing to a picture in the weekly ad, Girl Student tells me she wants to buy a sale laptop.
Me: I'm sorry. I'm sold out. We sold the last two yesterday night, and we sold the display this morning.
GS: What?
Me: I'm sold out.
(Now she's stunned. She doesn't say another word. She just stares at me.)
Boyfriend: You don't have any?
Me: I did, but they have all been sold.
BF: You have more in back?
Me: No. We're sold out. (Checking inventory just to be sure what I'm about to tell him is accurate) But I have several more coming in on tomorrow afternoon's delivery truck.
BF: But, we need this computer.
Me: I have several others similar to it, if you'd like to look at those. Otherwise, you'll have to come back tomorrow afternoon. I'll have more then.
BF: Oh. Okay. We come back tomorrow.
They turn to leave, and, as they're stepping out of the department, I see Boyfriend put his arm around Girl Student's shoulders. I think nothing of it. Moments later, the department supervisor came up to me and asked if I had talked to that couple that just left. When I told him I had, he asked, "What did you say to them? She was crying!" :cry:

Crying. Tears and sobbing. Over waiting one more day to get her computer. I can sympathize with the inconvenience, but I don't think it's worth crying over.

Skip ahead two hours.

A lady comes in wearing a freshly pressed business suit. Guess she thought it made her look more important. She glanced at the row of display laptops and asked me, "Where are your 17-inch laptops."
Me: I'm sold out at the moment.
Business Woman: (Trying to look down her nose at me, which is difficult because I'm about 6 inches taller) What?
Me: I usually carry them. Two different models, in fact. But I'm sold out right now.
BW: Don't lie to me!
Me: :confused: Seriously. I usually have them, just not right now. The manufacturer is in the middle of replacing some older models with newer ones. We sold out of the old ones early last week. We had four of the new models come in late last week, but those sold out as well. We're expecting more tomorrow.
BW: Ha! You think you can fool me? Don't play games. Where are your 17-inch laptops?!
Me: (Flatly) On a truck. It's probably just pulling out of the warehouse in California where our shipments come from.
BW: Listen, you. I don't know what kind of trick you're trying to pull. All I want to know is where your 17-inch laptops are, and you're giving me the run-around. Either you have them, or you don't. Don't give me these lines about "just not right now." Now tell me truthfully: Where? Are? They?
Me: On a truck. In California. They'll be here tomorrow.
BW: (Harumphs) Oh! I don't believe this. I'm leaving. If I come back next week and you don't have those 17-inch laptops, I'll have your job!

She was just annoying. Right at that moment, though, I had some other customer poke his head out of the networking aisle and ask, "What the hell was that all about?" A nice conversation with him, both of us mocking Business Woman, got me calmed down quickly.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I'll have your job!

Yeah. I find a nice reponse to this is "Honey, you don't WANT my job."

[Comp_geek]

I'll have your job

*takes name tag off and uniform shirt (i wear another shirt underneath); hand it to the customer* "There you go, now, WHERE THE HELL ARE YOUR 17" LAPTOPS? And don't give me the run around. I DEMAND TO HAVE ONE NOW!!!!!!!!!":devil: :devil:

[Jack T. Chance]

That's enough to make one feel like Dr. Evil, i.e. "Why must I be surrounded by frickin' idiots?" ;)

If it had been me, that 2nd woman might've gotten a response something like this:

Me: "I'm sorry, ma'am. Just hang on a moment while I reach into my Bag of Unlimited Holding, which just happens to be slightly psychic so that it contains every item you could ever possibly want, and retrieve that computer for you! Oh... wait... that's right... I'm afraid I can't actually do that after all, because that Bag of Holding only exists in the FANTASY world of the Dungeons & Dragons game! So, in that case... Door's to your left!" ;)

[kerrisan]

BW: Listen, you. I don't know what kind of trick you're trying to pull. All I want to know is where your 17-inch laptops are, and you're giving me the run-around.
Right, because you woke up that morning and said, "I think that if anybody comes in wanting a 17" laptop, I'll tell them WE DON'T HAVE ANY! HAHAHAHAHAHA! Perfect!"

I dunno, I always assume that people have just had a bad day before they came across me. But still: check your attitude at the door, people!

[Phone Jockey]

Wonder if the 2nd woman was an attorney. Reminds me of an attorney I worked for. Yeesh.

[Bugg]

[QUOTE=HawaiianShirts]BW: Ha! You think you can fool me? Don't play games. [/ QUOTE]


Was she some kind of cheesy superhero?

[chainedbarista]

maybe more like an evil genius, sans genius.

out of stock, hmm. i wonder what THAT means...?

[Becks]

If the world did in fact come to an end when a store was briefly out of stock on something, none of us would be alive right now.

:shuddering: What a thought.

Anyhoo, why do people act like that? If something's out of stock, come back at a later time...get a rain check...go to another store...shop online. Losers.

[ShockQueen]

If it had been me, that 2nd woman might've gotten a response something like this:

Me: "I'm sorry, ma'am. Just hang on a moment while I reach into my Bag of Unlimited Holding, which just happens to be slightly psychic so that it contains every item you could ever possibly want, and retrieve that computer for you! Oh... wait... that's right... I'm afraid I can't actually do that after all, because that Bag of Holding only exists in the FANTASY world of the Dungeons & Dragons game! So, in that case... Door's to your left!" ;)

Jack=Gord reincarnated! Love it! :super:

[Tria]

afraid I can't actually do that after all, because that Bag of Holding only exists in the FANTASY world of the Dungeons & Dragons game!

Actually in the real world, we just call it a purse.

[karma_gypsy]

She's probably not used to people saying 'no' to her, in this case, "not right now." Sounds like she couldn't comprehend what you were sayin, she's hearing the "right now" part, just not the "not" part. A typical case of selective hearing, possibly.

[Jack T. Chance]

Actually in the real world, we just call it a purse.Not true. Bags of Holding do not exist in the real world, as they are a MAGICAL item. The opening of the bag is actually a portal to another dimension, a dimension that is much larger than the interior of the bag itself. In that regard, it's rather like the TARDIS in Doctor Who (http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho). For that reason, a Bag of Holding can hold items many times its size, as long as they can fit through the opening of the bag. A bag the size of a pillowcase could, therefore, hold a 50' long siege ladder with no problem at all! :D

Also, since the items in the bag are in another dimension, their weight does not affect the weight of the bag. Thus, a D&D character can tote around 2,000 pounds of loot, and all he ACTUALLY has to carry on his person is the weight of the Bag of Holding itself, which is usually only about a pound or so! :D

For us RPG junkies, the Bag of Holding is one of the most massively useful ideas anyone ever had. Too bad they don't exist in real life! ;)

[Knightmare]

I'll have your job!

Yeah. I find a nice reponse to this is "Honey, you don't WANT my job."


Or, what I wish I could say: "Take my job. Then I wouldn't have to deal with jerks/arseholes/beyotches like you."

[Jet]

You sound like you know my pain Hawaiian. We've had a severly low stock of notebooks ourselves. We ended up getting tons in last night. Well I had a lady call today and said "I need you to hold this laptop". Well normally we don't, I explain this and the magical "someone else" comes up who says of course...that I can. I told her I'd check how many. We end up having 22 of this particular sale notebook, I tell her and preceed to let her know with that many there is no need for me to hold said product. She then yells about how I'm not doing my job and how I won't hold this product for her for the evening. Reguardless, she'll come in tonight won't find one with her name on it but will see about 20 of the notebooks she so frantically wanted me to hold.

[AmericanZero8503]

If the world did in fact come to an end when a store was briefly out of stock on something, none of us would be alive right now.

:shuddering: What a thought.

Anyhoo, why do people act like that? If something's out of stock, come back at a later time...get a rain check...go to another store...shop online. Losers.

Like today our picture delievery was late. HEAVEN FORBID. This lady just couldn't understand that her pictures weren't in, and I didn't know when they'd be in.

CS:"But they told me today"
ME:"Well I don't know when they're coming in"
CS:"But they said 2:30"
ME:"Sorry the delivery is running late"
CS:"My pictures aren't here"

Do CS's actually listen or does their hearing go out at, "NO"?

Here is a message for THEY, stop making me look bad. I'm assuming THEY is the store manager at EVERYWHERE ELSE.

[AFpheonix]

Jack, perhaps you haven't heard of the TARDIS pants from someone else's stupid shoplifter? ;)
And I swear that some of these soccer moms have Purses or Holding, judging by the amount of crap that they have to dig out just to get a freaking insurance card :p

Right now we're having a terrible time getting sudafed in. Warehouse is only carrying the 30mg strength and a claritin-D generic now, and have neither in stock. Our other supplier is not shipping anything to us for whatever reason. (I can get allegra-D and Zyrtec D from them, but not Claritin D. WTF?) So oh, the whining and gnashing of teeth since July 1st when sudafed products went prescription only....
Heaven forbid that they just get a script for the 30mg sudafed for now and take it in tandem with whatever other product combo that they want, or use the phenylephrine version, or take a trip up to Vancouver. Jeebus.

[gundam40]

Make sure the laptops are "sold out" next week when that business lady comes back :D

[pbmods]

Customers get upset at a hard 'no' because they are frustrated because they have just lost control of the situation. It's a pretty difficult place to be when you planned your day (sometimes planning around what you would do with what you bought at that particular store), got ready and drove to the location to do business.

Then you get there, and the item isn't there, *and there's nothing you can do about it!*

That's a hard truth to swallow because now you have to reschedule your entire day, plus you already have more work to do tomorrow (or whenever). Your plans (and more!) just completely fell apart right there because that guy with the name tag said, 'no'.

Easiest way to calm down an upset customer? "Well, Ma'am, we don't have any here right now, but what I can do for you is call our other location and see if they have any. Then they can either hold one for you, or we can have them ship one to our store so you can pick it up at your convenience. Which would you like us to do, Ma'am?"

Guaranteed, this will calm her down, hopefully enough to be able to think rationally again.

[JuniorMintz]

"Because the guy with the nametag says no?"

As if "nametag" people are somehow inferior to the rest of the world? It's ok to be told no by a guy in a suit, but not the guy with the Circuit City shirt and nametag?

I think we've all been in the service industry long enough to know how to handle situations like this. In fact, 95% of the time a simple "I'm sorry, we're out but we'll have more tomorrow" (which, by the way, *is* a helpful thing to say) works fine, assuming you're talking to a normal person.

Unfortunately, we do not often write about normal people on "Customers Suck".

If being out of a certain laptop is something that is so inconvenient that you now are forced to reschedule your *entire* day (damn that lazy NameTag Guy!), then you should accept responsibility for your own lack of planning and quit blaming the guy behind the counter who isn't allowed to defend himself properly until he punches out.

Because really, who wants to buy a 17 inch laptop that was pulled out of NameTag Guy's ass, anyway?

[Tria]

For us RPG junkies, the Bag of Holding is one of the most massively useful ideas anyone ever had. Too bad they don't exist in real life! ;)

Ever open it up and leave it on the floor in a doorway while waiting for a baddie to come through? *Whistles innocently* Just like a cartoon hole.

[Jack T. Chance]

Jack, perhaps you haven't heard of the TARDIS pants from someone else's stupid shoplifter?
And I swear that some of these soccer moms have Purses or Holding, judging by the amount of crap that they have to dig out just to get a freaking insurance cardTARDIS PANTS? Now THAT'S a riot!!! :roll:

And I hear ya with the Purses of Holding. I used to have customers like that a long time ago when I worked at a movie theater during high school. I'd go to clean an auditorium after a show and be like "How in dog's name did they sneak in 2 humongous bags of microwave popcorn, already popped?!?" :confused:Right now we're having a terrible time getting sudafed in. Warehouse is only carrying the 30mg strength and a claritin-D generic now, and have neither in stock. Our other supplier is not shipping anything to us for whatever reason. (I can get allegra-D and Zyrtec D from them, but not Claritin D. WTF?) So oh, the whining and gnashing of teeth since July 1st when sudafed products went prescription only....
Heaven forbid that they just get a script for the 30mg sudafed for now and take it in tandem with whatever other product combo that they want, or use the phenylephrine version, or take a trip up to Vancouver. Jeebus.
Today 01:58 AMI'm getting sick of all this crap with the Sudafed products. It's causing me a lot of inconvenience anytime I need to get some Claritin D to fight off my hay fever. :mad:Ever open it up and leave it on the floor in a doorway while waiting for a baddie to come through? *Whistles innocently* Just like a cartoon hole.LOL!!!

Actually, I play D&D via the fantastic computer game Neverwinter Nights, but the programmers don't seem to have thought of that one. :shrug:

They also forgot to program in the good ol' Portable Hole item, which is EXACTLY like a cartoon hole! ;-)

[Gurndigarn]

Customers get upset at a hard 'no' because they are frustrated because they have just lost control of the situation. It's a pretty difficult place to be when you planned your day (sometimes planning around what you would do with what you bought at that particular store), got ready and drove to the location to do business.

Then you get there, and the item isn't there, *and there's nothing you can do about it!*

That's a hard truth to swallow because now you have to reschedule your entire day

Ah, yes. The "How can I have sex without any dice?" syndrome.

[Jester]

What is amusing about this whole thread to me is, when you work in a restaurant/bar like I do, they always have the same response.

"Why don't you go down to the supermarket and buy steak/ketchup/diet coke/whatever it is that you are out of that I want to badly?"

And they never seem to get the fact that this joke was not funny the first time OR the thousand times I've heard it since.

One old guy was almost amusing in his denial.

OG: "What kind of soup do you have?"
ME: "Today we have The One Soup We Had That Day."
OG: "No vegetable soup?"
ME: "No. Today we only have The One Soup We Had That Day. No vegetable soup, I'm afraid."
OG: "Don't you have any in a can in the back you can open up and heat up for me?"
ME: :confused: "Um, no sir. We ONLY have The One Soup We Had That Day. I know for a fact that they have no cans of vegetable soup in the kitchen today." I knew this because (a) I work there, (b) I know what is going on in my kitchen, and (c) I am not an idiot.
OG: "Well, I really don't like The One Soup We Had That Day. Are you sure there are no cans of anything else back there, like maybe vegetable soup?"
Me: "Quite sure, sir."

To his credit, he was polite about the whole thing, but REALLY....if I say we are out of it, we are out of it. And I am not going to jog down to the local mart to buy something for you just because you had your heart set on it. And the kitchen is not hiding stuff from you. And we can't just whip stuff up out of the blue.

Vent....complete.

[Mighty Girl]

Either you have them, or you don't.

Either I'm slow, or something is amiss, but didn't you answer this at the very beginning of your conversation? Tell the wench she left her hearing aid at home and you'll go fetch some flash cards....

And crying b/c a laptop is out of stock?? :eek:
I'd hate to see her response to a real catastrophe.

[Enjis]

For gosh sake! Most sales people work either on commission, or have sales goals to make! Don't the customers think if we had an item we'd be VERY happy to sell it to them??

Why in the nine hells whould I say I was out of something if I wasn't??
Believe me, I look long and hard for any item my guests want...and offer to look on the computer at other locations, just in case. I WANT to sell more items!!

"Are you sure you're out?"
Yes, darn it, I'm sure! I WANT to sell you this item...but I don't have any....no one does!!"
Sheesh!!:(

[Reyneth]

Right, because you woke up that morning and said, "I think that if anybody comes in wanting a 17" laptop, I'll tell them WE DON'T HAVE ANY! HAHAHAHAHAHA! Perfect!"

I dunno, I always assume that people have just had a bad day before they came across me. But still: check your attitude at the door, people!


I KNOW! Because it is just so much easier and much more fun to argue with the customer that we don't have something rather than selling it to them in 3 minutes and bringing all that money into the store, making our managers happy! sheesh. :rolleyes:

[Seanette]

Ever open it up and leave it on the floor in a doorway while waiting for a baddie to come through? *Whistles innocently* Just like a cartoon hole.
*GREAT* idea, and I think I'll borrow it sometime, if that's OK with you. :D

I remember one time, with DH as DM and a friend of ours and I each running two characters (friend had the magic-user and fighter, I had the cleric and rogue). We'd encountered a pirate colony of 41 we needed to get out of the way. Magic-user had flight capacity, so we loaded the rest of the party into our Bag of Holding, then the magic-user flew around dumping fireballs and such to thin out the opposition (Web and Burning Hands was a fun combo we came up with in that one, too).

That was nearly as good as the vampire situation where magic-user turned himself into a water elemental and started raining on the vampire, then cleric threw Bless Water on him. :D

[stormtreader]

Actually, I play D&D via the fantastic computer game Neverwinter Nights
Totally off topic, but this is a truely awesome game :D
OK, nothing to see here now, move along ;)

[HawaiianShirts]

Easiest way to calm down an upset customer? "Well, Ma'am, we don't have any here right now, but what I can do for you is call our other location and see if they have any. Then they can either hold one for you, or we can have them ship one to our store so you can pick it up at your convenience. Which would you like us to do, Ma'am?"

Sometimes that works. Most of the time, though, when I try that, I get two whines:
"But I need it NOW! I can't wait for you to transfer it here or ship it to me."
-or-
"But those other stores are too far away!" (Granted, a 40-minute freeway drive to either the north store or the south store can be a long drive, but if you REALLY want it...)

She hasn't come back for her laptop yet, by the way. Or, if she did, I missed her. In any case, those 17"-ers came in right on time.

[Jack T. Chance]

Sometimes that works. Most of the time, though, when I try that, I get two whines:
"But I need it NOW! I can't wait for you to transfer it here or ship it to me."
-or-
"But those other stores are too far away!" (Granted, a 40-minute freeway drive to either the north store or the south store can be a long drive, but if you REALLY want it...)

She hasn't come back for her laptop yet, by the way. Or, if she did, I missed her. In any case, those 17"-ers came in right on time.It's probably one of these 2 possibilities, because these are the 2 most likely to happen: She found and bought her precious laptop somewhere else, hopefully at a much higher price, but most likely while complaining to them about how unfair it is that your store didn't have it... like they want to hear her endless bitching and moaning! :rolleyes:
She'll come back next week, or the week after that, or the month after that... you know, after they've sold out again... then bitch and moan about you being out of stock again! This will, of course, be your cue to say "I told you so", i.e. "You should have come back the next day, when we actually received a shipment of them in, like I asked you to do!" ;)That's my story and I'm stickin' to it! :devil:

[pbmods]

Another idea I had - present an upsell as an alternative.

"Well, we are out of 17" laptops right now, but let me save you some time here. We can go ahead and look at the 19" laptops right now so we can find out what specs you're looking for, and then what I can do is special order you a 17-incher with the same features today."

I figure then the customer will pick out a laptop that she just absolutely loves, and then rather than wait for the order to come in, she'll just buy the 19" laptop....

The key selling point here will definitely be playing on the customer's sense of urgency. Use phrases like, "Right now", "Today", "Real quick", etc.

Incidentally, the four factors used by salespeople to maintain impulse:
- Fear of Loss (EXTREMELY effective; "This offer is only good through me today." "We only have one left in stock." "Normally, this costs $50, but if you buy it now, I'll give it to you for $39.50." etc.)
- The Jones effect (from 'keeping up with the Joneses'; "This item is really popular among [customer's profession or hobby]." "Funny; I've worked with about a dozen customers who [significant trait or characteristic of customer that relates to product] that bought this same item." etc.)
- Sense of Urgency (Different from fear of loss, keeps the customer thinking in terms of right now and right away; phrases such as "Right now", "Today", "This'll just take 10 seconds", etc.)
- Indifference (the customer wants to think that you have his interests, rather than, say, a commission, at heart; "It's no big deal." "You probably wouldn't be interested in this, but...", shrugging shoulders, etc.)