Everywhere Else

[Lace Neil Singer]

Does anyone here know of the mythical store "Everywhere Else"? You know, the one that gives unlimited refunds, lowers prices and lets customers do what they like? We usually hear of it after a customer, who forgot to use a money off coupon, is refused a fuel refund and comes out with "But everywhere else does it!" Or if they want to change £100 of twenties into tens, or get £50 worth of pound coins.

[minkysmom]

This one time this lady told me 'wal-mart' does it, and I worked in a boutique. I had to spell out the difference between Wal-Mart products and mine.

[RealUnimportant]

I'm pretty sure "the other place" has closed, probably due to SC abuse - what other reason could there be for these people not going there in the first place?

[An Haddock]

Reminds me of a story from Acts of Gord:

Kid comes in to sell a video game. Gord offers $20.

"but another place offered me $40"
"Oh, well then I encourage you to take the offer from this other hypothetical business."

[taxguykarl]

Does anyone here know of the mythical store "Everywhere Else"?

Rings a bell...I think "they" work there.

[notalwaysright]

Oh, everywhere else where there are never any lines and nobody has to wait even for a second? I mean, my store must be the only place people have even seen a line by the way they complain.

[icmedia]

I LOVE it when I quote a customer a price on a device (something that I have exactly zero control over) and they say, "XXXXXX Wireless would give it to me for free!"

A. No, they wouldn't-I know for a fact that it's the same or more there
B. OK, then go there-and pick me up a few while you're at it!

Also, I get a lot of "So-and-so said they'd pay off ALL of my ETFs if I cancel...so what are you going to do the keep me here?"

A. No, they definitely won't do that
B. Since you haven't bought anything from me in years, and only grace me with your wonderful presence when you want to bitch about something, please go.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

This one time this lady told me 'wal-mart' does it, and I worked in a boutique. I had to spell out the difference between Wal-Mart products and mine.

I got this all the time at "Gamestore". Wal-mart is worth gajillions of dollars, we're not. Not to mention the reason they can sell games so cheap is because they can make it up with profit margins on chinese made clothes, bed linens, toys and so on and so forth.

We only sell games and electronics. We've got nowhere else to pull margin from.

After that spiel some got it.

Most still didn't.

[Teefies2]

I LOVE it when I quote a customer a price on a device (something that I have exactly zero control over) and they say, "XXXXXX Wireless would give it to me for free!"

A. No, they wouldn't-I know for a fact that it's the same or more there
B. OK, then go there-and pick me up a few while you're at it!

OMG this! I have waited a few days to post this because it made me so

Monday, I was the MOD for the night, was filling in at the pharmacy because the tech that was scheduled had her baby Sunday (2 weeks early, nothing we could have planned for). This female comes up to the consultation window and wants to know where our contacts are.

me: We only sell those online
her: No I don't want prescription contacts, NON prescription ones!
me: We don't carry contacts in the store. And we don't carry non prescription ones at all
her: I NEEEEED them! Where are the contacts?
me: We only sell contacts online
her: <scoffs> Well IF you sold them, where would they be?
me: We don't sell them in the store

She flounces off. I go back to filling prescriptions. Ten minutes later, I get called up to the front register. Guess who it is???

She has a price check on an item. Oh and when I get back from that, she has a question. I say why don't I try the question now before I get your price check?
She flings a candy bar at me "What the HELL is so special about your candy that you are charging THIS amount?"

I dodge the flying candy bar and see that it is a clearance item. I say it's not THAT amount it's THIS (clearance) amount. She says well EVERYONE else charges X amount for that! I go into the song and dance about corporate sets the prices and I don't have any control over it, but let me get your price check for you.

I get the price check and she gets her item for what she wanted and even tells me thanks. She then leaves. I go back to filling prescriptions in the pharmacy. Another 10 minutes go by, and I am again called to the front. Guess who it is????

her: I called two other of <my store locations> and they are not selling it for THAT price, it's X price
me: (realizing that the original price is 2forTHATprice, the 2 is missing on the tag) I apologize that ...
her: NOOOOOOOOOO YOU ARE NOT DOING YOUR JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU should have found this price IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This young woman (the cashier) found it for me. You call yourself a manager????? You dismissed me and my complaint!!!! I am calling corporate on you!!!! What's the number??
me: It's 1-800-<my store> I apologize that you felt mistreated (yadda yadda)

What I wanted to say?
Lady you saw me filling prescriptions in the pharmacy. I'm sorry you think your candy bar WHICH YOU DID NOT BUY is more important. I definately had put it on my list of things to look into, but meanwhile I'm going to help the customers who need their medicine so that they could, like, not DIE.

But I didn't

[RealUnimportant]

I'll never understand the "gotcha" mentality, nor the (lack of) reasoning that inspires these fools to ask "but what if you did?"

If we did this mythical thing, or carried this rare & exotic merchandise, then we'd have a suitable policy or display location; until that time, there is no reason for them to even be considered hypothetically. (I fancy that in this case, the SC fully expected to visit the indicated part of the store & discover that you were a lying liar; frustrated in this, they then wasted their day looking for the one thing in the store they could catch you out on.)

[Lace Neil Singer]

Get that with the price of fuel all the time. "But *other branch* has it at a cheaper price!"

Then go there, dickhead. Our prices are set by head office and as it happens, there are no other supermarket petrol stations in our area, which is why our price is higher than *other branch* which is competing with both a Blue Stripy and a Bumslapper.

[Mytical]

The "Everywhere else" is in the mythical back room, along with unlimited amounts of everything including hotel rooms, staffed by the "Other employees let me do x" employees.

[bunrotha]

*other branch* which is competing with both a Blue Stripy and a Bumslapper.

Fantastic alter egos for them! Now I feel a need to complete the set.
Sainsbugs was a radio 2 thing for a while.
Yellow coin logo
Not Just a Supermarket
Delayed Flowers
Geordie opening hours

Token attempt to stay on thread..
When customers phone up for support months after their contract expired, and "xxx competitor said I wouldn't have to pay a reinstatement fee!"
"Yep, well we do, because we get charged it. I suggest you take them up on that offer, and stop trying to play us off against them."

[David Strykker]

I'll never understand the "gotcha" mentality, nor the (lack of) reasoning that inspires these fools to ask "but what if you did?"

If we did this mythical thing, or carried this rare & exotic merchandise, then we'd have a suitable policy or display location; until that time, there is no reason for them to even be considered hypothetically.

"We'd put it next to the snowmobiles." (If you actually sell snowmobiles then substitute the name of some other item which your store would never ever stock.)

[HawaiianShirts]

Had a few of those when I did retail. I was talking to some guy about printers once, and he said he had just come from the Office Thing store down the street where they had a truly fantastic deal on a color laser printer. I actually said the words, "They have a [Color Laser Printer] with [Bundled Items] for [Amazing Low Price], and you didn't buy one then and there?!" He appeared to think about that for a moment, had me help him pick out some RAM and a DVD-R spindle, and rushed out saying that he was on his way back to Office Thing.

I've also had a customer like that in my current tech support job. He called in for a simple password reset, but when that was done, he had to complain. At least 15 minutes of him telling me that some other program with a similar function to the one I support was better because it had this feature and that feature and this feature and that feature and so on. I didn't know what to say to all that, so I didn't say anything. After an awkward pause, he thanked me for the password reset and hung up.

I'll never understand the "gotcha" mentality

I think they just want to feel important by proving someone wrong. When I worked for Major Electronics Retailer, some guy asked us if we sold "the laptop series that has a subwoofer speaker in it." I told him truthfully that I had never even heard of a laptop with a subwoofer.

A few minutes later, he flagged me down, lifted up one of our Toshiba display models, pointed to something on the bottom, and smugly said something like, "Oh yes you DO have a laptop with a subwoofer in it. SEEEEEEE?"

I don't know exactly what he was expecting me to do, but I got excited about it. I yelled to one of my co-workers, "Hey, Mike! This Toshiba has a SUBWOOFER in it! Check it out!" And while Mike and I were admiring this cool feature and trying to figure out how we could test its capabilities, the customer scoffed and left.