I'm pretty sure the word "cockadoody" is in your vocabulary

[TheWolfEmperor]

A woman called sometime in the beginning of my shift. She asked for a toy to be held until Thursday. I told her we don't usually hold items past 24 hours but she asked to be put through to the toy department.

An hour later she called back. The associate she spoke with put the toy on hold and brought it to the service desk.

"Is it going to be there until Thursday?" she asked.

"If the associate told you so then yes it will be," I said.

Another hour later she calls again.

"Is that toy I held behind the service desk?"

"Yes ma'am. It's at the service desk."

"Will it be there until Thursday?"

"Yes ma'am, they're holding it for you until Thursday."

"How will they know its for me?"

"There's a note on it ma'am."

She hangs up. Deep in my heart of hearts, I knew this wouldn't be the last time I heard from her. I was both disappointed and not disappointed at the same time.

"Is my toy at the service desk?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Is it going to be there on Thursday?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Okay..."

Before I went on my meal break, I told the assistant manager, "I really hope that toy is there when she shows up on Thursday or I have a feeling I'm going to wind up in this woman's house, bound and gagged, with my legs broken."

[notalwaysright]

Start making a tally on the hold slip of how many times she calls to waste your time. Not for any reason, just for fun.

The funny (or not) thing is that at the fabric store holds were also 24 hours. Now, in some cases a manager could decide to hold for longer and they needed to sign the hold slip. Uh... Well towards the end of my glorious time there, some of the managers didn't exactly like each other. So a hold that was overly long (one was like 2 weeks?!) would get put back on the shelf, and nobody would claim responsibility. Not great, since sometimes we'd sell that item and the customer would be unhappy. It's not even their fault, if they were told it would be on hold and it wasn't.

[TheWolfEmperor]

Gotta love games of live chess between management.

Well it turns out jewelry has also been holding items for customers, even though our layaway only happens in the holiday months.

It makes me wonder why I bother even paying attention to the training videos they make us watch. :P

[evilhomer]

I get it, you can't just put your whole life on hold to get to a store. But if something is obviously this important to the person, then they should find someway, somehow to get there, or have someone do it for them.

[Pixelated]

At some point I would be oh so tempted to respond: "Toy? I'm sorry, ma'am, I don't know what you're talking about. There's no toy on hold here."

Just for the entertainment value of hearing her totally wig out.

[TheWolfEmperor]

At some point I would be oh so tempted to respond: "Toy? I'm sorry, ma'am, I don't know what you're talking about. There's no toy on hold here."

Just for the entertainment value of hearing her totally wig out.

If I wasn't so sure I'd wind up in her refrigerator, I'd totally go for it.

[RealUnimportant]

Fun thing is they’re probably spending more time checking up on the hold than would be required to just get to the store & collect it now. Or, not to do you out of a sale, but could they not just order it off Amazon?

[TheWolfEmperor]

I'm not even sure what the actual toy was. You can order just about anything online though so it's possible. I just didn't get the impression that this woman has much use for a computer beyond sending tips to the FBI that there are communist spies hiding in the snow. (Topical weather shot)

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I get it, you can't just put your whole life on hold to get to a store. But if something is obviously this important to the person, then they should find someway, somehow to get there, or have someone do it for them.

Buy online, pick up in store. The item is automagically held for you because you paid for it.

[Kit-Ginevra]

Yes madam we have your toy set aside for you.It's at the service desk.
The 3-speed Venomous Vibe in bright pink isn't it?

[TheWolfEmperor]

Yes madam we have your toy set aside for you.It's at the service desk.
The 3-speed Venomous Vibe in bright pink isn't it?

If we carried that in store I would never complain again.

[greek_jester]

Buy online, pick up in store. The item is automagically held for you because you paid for it.

You'd think that, but I did it once and they sold my item. They weren't going to be getting any more in for 3 weeks. Since this was a birthday present due in just under 2 weeks this wasn't acceptable and I asked for my money back, which they tried to refuse. That is, until I pointed out that as I had paid for the item it was legally mine, so they had committed theft and dealing in stolen goods by selling it on. Amazingly I got my refund.

I then bought the item from Amazon, and the cost of it plus guaranteed next day delivery cost me slightly less than in store. I did it on my phone in front of them, just to rub it in.

[Shyla]

Buy online, pick up in store. The item is automagically held for you because you paid for it.

Not really. I tried that at Lowes. It said I had 5 days to pick it up. I got there in 3 days and they shrugged and said someone wanted it so we sold it. I thought that was why I had paid online, to mark it sold. But they didn’t even apologize.

[notalwaysright]

I do buy online pick up in store all the time, never had an issue. At the fabric store items would not get put away (who'd have the time for that??) even if they hadn't been picked up for 7 days. If it hit the week mark a manager would call the customer and ask if they still wanted it.

One issue was SOME people (*cough*old-school manager who I actually liked *cough*) would not use the handheld to do a pull order. They'd print out the order and check the item number manually. This was fine until they didn't check the number properly and ended up pulling an item very similar but not exactly what the customer ordered. For example, customer wanted some jewelry finding like a 5 mm clasp, and the manager didn't look close enough so she pulled a 7 mm clasp. Or other employees sometimes didn't staple the order slip onto the bag like they were supposed to, so there'd be a random item in the hold area. Still, I never had to tell a customer "oops, your item is gone" maybe it took a minute to find, but other than that, I loved doing pickups.

[TheWolfEmperor]

Whelp, I'm still here and I didn't hear back from her. So I guess she found her toy.