The Demands of Mrs Night. (long)

[GingerBiscuit]

This will be a long-running, requently updated saga. Mrs Night (not her real name) is one of our regular SC's and an ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE to deal with, over the phone or in person.
She's never rude or agressive, just very, VERY difficult.

Todays Mrs Night story:

Me: Brainy, Geeky, Hot.
MN: Mrs Night
SM: Store Manager.
AM: Assistant Manager
In brackets are my thoughts and reactions.

The phone rings. It's awkward to get to, you have to sort of squidge yourself in a small space to answer it.
So I answer, with my standard greeting.
Me: Hello, This is *store**city*, How can I help?
MN: This is Mrs Night
(at which point I have to suppress a groan. MN has been plauging us for years, since before I started working there)
MN: I want to buy some stuff, my daughter will be in later to pick it up.

And then she gives me her shopping list. Yes, she rings up three or four times a week to DO HER SHOPPING FOR HER. Can't she just give her daughter her list if she;ll be in later? As if I don't have anything better to do than her shopping. It's not like she disabled and can't do it herself, either.

Then we get to the yoghurt. Oh god, her and her f***ing yoghurt.
MN: What yoghurts do you have?
Me: I'm not sure off the top of my head, but I can see quite a few strawberry, so plain and one or two lemon.
MN: No vanilla?
Me: No, the vanilla spot is empty.
MN: Are you sure no vanilla:
Me: Definately no vanilla. We'll get some more in tomorrow. Chilled and frozen delivery is thursday.
MN: YES! I know. Could you CHECK on the vanilla for me?
M: Sure (I strangle a sigh, clamber out of the small space, bruising my shin in the process, and check. No vanilla)
Me: No vanilla, sorry.
MN:Oh. What OTHER yoghurt brands do you have?
Me: We have Little Swallow and Alpro Soya.
MN: I don't want to soya desserts.
Me: Not the desserts. the soya YOGHURT, in the fridge. Comes in plain and flavoured.
MN: I don't want the desserts. I know you do another yoghurt...
Me: Yes, the soya yoghurt in the fridge.
MN: Not the desserts?
Me: No.
MN: What flavours?
Me: Urrrmmm... I'll go check.

On my way back after checking (been on this phone 5-10 minutes now) my AM stops me and asks me to go to the bank before her lunch-break, or we'll be short staffed.
Me: Sure, in a sec, I'm on the phone with Mrs Night.
She rolls her eyes.
AM: [B]OH.[/B]

Long story short, I am ordered by Mrs Night to get her yoghurts of the shelf 'before anyone else gets them' and put them in the chiller for when her daughter gets there.
I do so then go to the bank, and finish off HER shopping for her when I get back.
SM agrees with me that she;s a nightmare, and I grump to some other staff members about the assumption I have nothing better to do on delivery day than run around with her shopping list.

She calls at least twice a week, if not more, and is even worse in person.

[technical.angel]

And you can't tell this person "no"?

[air914]

Questions....

1) Does your store offer this "shopping for someone" as a service?
2) Does this customer spend some ungodly amount of money in your store?
3) Do you really have the staff and the time to do this?
4) You said she's not disabled - so is she just rich and lazy?
5) Why can't you tell her no, you don't have the number of staff you need to do her shopping for her and it's not a free service that you offer - and let her be some other store's problem?

[strawbabies]

I'll bet if I called my local Publix and demanded they get my groceries together for me, they'd very nicely tell me to stuff it.

[wagegoth]

Really, just say, "NO."

Explain that you don't have staff to do her shopping, and that you have to go now, as you have customers waiting.

Puh-leez. As long as you let her get away with it, it's only going to get worse.

[GingerBiscuit]

Management says no we can't tell her no. The one time someone did, she kicked up a stink. WHile we don't offer it as a service as such, we will do it on occaision if people can't get about easily. But she really pushes it.
I wish I could tell her no. But I can't. And when I say years, I mean years. Manager says at least five, and if anyone should tell her- politely- to stop it, it should be him.

[Polenicus]

Yeah, this is bizarre. I can't think of a single grocery store, from the Mom & Pop outfits to the Huge megachains, that would do this sort of thing for free for someone who's not handicapped or disabled in any way. She's not even doing the shopping, she's sending her daughter, who I doubt is disabled either.

Most stores would be happy to check to see if they have something, like yogurt or whatever, but if someone asked them to run around the store grabbing things and putting them aside in chiller space usually used for something else, the most polite answer I can see them giving is 'Well, I'm afraid we can't set aside items for customers. However, we've got plenty, I'm sure there will be some left when you get in.'

I suspect she started this by asking for 1 or 2 items to be set aside for her so they wouldn't be gone, and gradually scaled it up. Which is manipulative and evil. I'd ask your managers for permission to stop doing that.

[air914]

If your manager is the one saying you can't say "no", then your MANAGER should be the one to run around and gather her groceries for her....... at least that's the way I think it should be

[GingerBiscuit]

Oh, yeah, I wish it could be that way.
To be fair, he IS more hands-on than most managers and often will collect up her stuff- when he's the one that asnwers the phone. WHoever gets the phone gets her. I reckon she'll stick like a limpet to us till she finally pops her clogs.

[wagegoth]

air914 kind of beat me to it:

My suggestion is that the next time Mrs. Night calls, hand the phone to the manager and walk/jog away quickly to the other side of the store/cooler/stockroom to take care of some "emergency" stocking.

[mattm04]

We have a lady like that at my store. She will call up dairy, ask them to set aside some products for her sun/daughter/cousin or whoever picks them up. She then hangs up waits a minute calls up grocery, tells clerk what she needs. If it is Peanut Butter we need to "open the jar and wipe off any PB that got on the seal." Store MGR will not allow this anymore for legal reasons, per the DM. Grocery clerk has to explain this each time, she will still whines about it. We don't want her to sue us because she claims it was open when she got it and had some bug or something like that in it. She will hang up wait a minute call Bakery, ask for the Dept. Lead. If dept lead is not in (it is because she left for the day or had that day off) she will usually tell the clerk what she needs, 99.999 percent of the time it is the same thing. Clerk tells her it will be ready. Any questions? No. Good, Bye. Five to ten mins. later she will call back ask for bakeshop Lead, repeat they she left for the day. She will than begin to panic that it will not be ready, tell her it will and when lead will be in. She then repeats the 2nd or 3rd call thing to every dept she has called. On the day her sun/daughter/cousin will pick it up begin frantically calling at 5AM, before the store is even open gets the appropriate message saying so. When the store opens at 6AM begins to call each dept several times to male sure we did not forget about her. Sometimes she will call so much that the MGR will tell the affected depts. to not answer the phone, let it ring to Customer Service, CS will park call and ignore it. When/if it rings back then put her through. After she picks it up she will usually call each dept to complain about it, the package looked different, the yogurt was cold, etc, etc.

with her if you don't keep control of the call you will be spending 10-20 mins on this lady. Supposedly her mother did everything for her so she expects the same in her old age.

[strawbabies]

with her if you don't keep control of the call you will be spending 10-20 mins on this lady. Supposedly her mother did everything for her so she expects the same in her old age.

I'll bet her mother died a very miserable person.

[JenCdn]

We had a customer like that years ago when I worked in a gas bar/convenience store. It was hard to decline her request for some strange reason I can't think of now but, I do remember that we'd have fun with the situation. We had two phones - one in the backroom and one out at the cash register. If anyone ever picked up in the back, we'd ask her to hold, please. Then we'd get the attention of the next available staff member "Hey Joe, phone's for you!"
This customer was an older lady who would always send a taxi to pick up her ordered items. The worst part about it was similar to the original post, she would ask us to go check that we did, infact, have the item she wanted in stock. Instead of giving us the list and letting us call her back she'd make us go check, come back to the phone and then ask about another item's availability. This could take up to 20 minutes sometimes.

[Rapscallion]

I'll bet her mother died a very miserable person.

I don't think many people die happy. I'd imagine quite a few go out with expressions of surprise, a number with curiosity about those entrancing strange shapes and funny noises from those interesting mushrooms, and I'd wager good money that many will be demanding a refund.

Rapscallion

[CancelMyService]

I'd be asking management when I'd expect to see the bonus in my check for being a personal shopper. When I'd get the expected "there isn't any" reply, I'd get the chance to paraphase from my favorite movie and say "You know why? Because personal shopping ain't my fuckin' business!"

Would I get fired? Probably. Better that than be on someone's beck and call.