Paint Issues

[paintboy]

I have worked for a local paint store for about 10 years now. Over that time I have had many SCs. A few come to mind as I look through these forums.

Spilled Paint
A woman and her young daughter (around 5yrs old) came into the store on day to purchase paint for the daughter’s room. After looking at all the colors, the woman bought a quart. They went out to the car and the child dropped the quart, it opened and spilled paint all over our parking lot. The woman came back in and demanded that we give her free quart because HER DAUGHTER spilled the paint she bought in our parking lot.

Dented Cans
We have a screw type clamp on our shakers to keep the cans in place. Occasionally the can gets dented when the clamp is tightened. This has no effect on the color or quality of the paint. One day I had a woman get upset that her can was dented. I explained how it happened and that it was no big deal. Unfortunately I was wrong and it was a huge deal. She demanded to speak with the manager. While explaining that I was very rude and ruined her paint, I squeezed the can and the dent popped out. My manager asked her what dent she was referring to. She grabbed the can and walked out.

[HawaiianShirts]

Dented Can Lady was probably just out looking for a discount. "You're rude. You dented my can. You ruined my paint. Now I want you to be extra nice and give it to me for free because it's not really ruined." Something like that. I get them all the time complaining that the cardboard box their computer comes in has a scrape on the corner.

Spilled Paint Lady actually sounds vaguely familiar. I saw someone at the grocery store (long time ago now) telling a cashier that he deserved a free jug of milk because the one he just bought was now spilled all over the parking lot. He told the cashier that he'd put it on top of his car, started to drive away, then watched it fall and crash. He actually reasoned that it was the store's fault because it happened on their property.

[Birdie]

Oh I love things like this. In the store I work in, if a cardboard box has a little bit of a rip or a crush in it, people demand discount. I simply head into the back and grab another one that's in perfect condition and wait for the non-SC's who'd be more than happy to pay the same price as anyone else despite the pretty packaging being a little damaged. I'm always nice enough to show the non-SC customers that the product is fine inside and that it's simply aesthetic damage to its packaging too.

[bainsidhe]

Or how about the people leaving deteargent or papertowels under their cart in the parking lot and don't remember until they get home. The come back, realize their items are no longer there, then come inside and demand to be reimbursed. Worse, we will always reimburse them

[Evil Queen]

Or how about the people leaving deteargent or papertowels under their cart in the parking lot and don't remember until they get home. The come back, realize their items are no longer there, then come inside and demand to be reimbursed. Worse, we will always reimburse them

Something kinda similar happened to The SO a while back. He had bought some bacon and hot dogs with the groceries. Well... when we got home, we couldn't find the bacon and hot dogs so he called the store. They were nice enough to hang onto the bag (since he'd already paid for it) and wait the 10 minutes it took for him to get there. Unfortunately, when he returned home a second time, we discovered that we didn't have this special glue we purchased to fix the air mattress either.

We chalked that one up as a loss and didn't bother the store anymore.

But here is the kicker; I was telling a guest about it (I'd known him for a good while at this point and he'd told me most of his life story, stories from when he was younger that his wife doesn't even know) and he told me that that was a very popular scam back in the 60s and 70s. You would canvas the parking lot for recipts and take the recipt into the store with an excuse "Hi, I bought this but when I got home, discovered I didn't have <product>". Supposedly, he went for months doing this without getting caught and without anyone finding out it was a scam. They got a shitload of very pricy items too. Just tell them that you "forgot a bag" and it'll generally be given back with little to no fuss....

Made me glad I didn't work as a cashier (ever) but did explain why Shrink was a big thing when I was a baker at Smith's.

[ArcticChicken]

Made me glad I didn't work as a cashier (ever) but did explain why Shrink was a big thing when I was a baker at Smith's.

That's why we mostly don't give stuff to folks unless someone's found the bag.

[Dark Psion]

Only two? You're not trying hard enough.

Why we wait on ONE person at a time at the Paint Desk: I was new at this Paint thing and was trying to wait on several customer, none of which were willing to wait their turn, when I hear a cry from the checkout.

I didn't hammer the lid back on a quart of paint and when Dawn picked it up to check the price,....

To this day whe we see each other, she will tell me she found another blue spot somewhere.

The Purple Stain: The last guy I let tell me "I can get it!" carried four gallons of purple paint to the checkout and dropped all of them!

I not only had a 5ft wide purple blob to deal with, but lots of SCs who kept walking right into the paint despite my warning signs, mop bucket, trash can, brooms, scoop shovel, kitty litter,.......

The Bump: Had a guy buy 4 gallons of paint, but he was back about 15 minutes latter. He hit a bump in the road and all four gallons poped their lids all over his SUV. He tried to claim we did not seal them, but I cannot see 4 gallons going from the paint desk, to checkout, being checked out, carried out and put in his car without one "unsecured" lid comming free.

OCD Lady: We had one customer that we finally figured out must have had OCD. She would buy paint, and bring it back the next day because the color was not right. We would fix it and the next day she would be back again and again. After several times of her buying paint and coming back all week, we eventually had to ban her from paint sales.

Quote people: One of my least favorites are people who ask for a quote on paint and then come back later and want the Semi-Gloss at the Flat price. They allways use the same script and the boss almost allways gives into them, which is probably why people keep using this scam on us.

Fix my paint people: Yeah right! You could not be bothered to actually buy paint from us, but when the "other" company messes up your color, now you don't want to drive all that way back to them. I allways tell them the computer only works on our paint, which is mostly true. I'd like to tell them exactly what they can do with the "other" companies paint.

Daylight: Or why we don't take phone orders. Person called in and wanted 3 gallons of a color "Daylight" No problem, had it mixed and ready in no time. But when she showed up, "This isn't my color!" It turns out that the color was not named Daylight, the person who originally bought it wrote that on the lid because the room it was going had lots of windows and was full of...... well, you know.

Just about Everyone Else:
I want this color! But don't bother to tell me if it is Inside or Outside, Flat, Satin or Gloss, or even Gallon or Quart. I especially love the phone calls like this from "people in a hurry"

No, I will not pick your color, that is your job. No I do not know what "Charcoal Grey" is, since the person whom you are buying for did not actually come with you to get this color, I cannot read their mind. She probably wanted "Charcoal Gray" anyway.

Oh you want the same paint you got before, but you did not bring the old can with you, and you don't remember the name, or the gloss or if it was for inside or outside.

I have had a few of these people bring in the can, and it was not even our paint.

[protege]

Dented Can Lady was probably just out looking for a discount. "You're rude. You dented my can. You ruined my paint. Now I want you to be extra nice and give it to me for free because it's not really ruined."

Somewhat along those lines...one of my paper-route customers complained about the newspaper I'd dropped in his door. Seems there was a flaw on it. I took a look at it, and the flaw? There was a small ink blot near the fold on the cover page. An ink blot that was on *all* the papers I had, probably because it happened somewhere in the presses. I explained that to the guy, and he still wanted a discount on a 25-cent paper. Needless to say, that cheap bastard didn't get it.

I should mention that this is the same guy who threw a tantrum (we're talking screaming, throwing things, yelling at his family, etc.) when the price went up a whopping 5 cents later that year. Soon after that, I dropped him from the route--he simply wasn't worth dealing with any longer.

[Rivulatus]

LOL dented can lady reminds me of a phone call I got a few weeks back.
Customer bought a new computer off me and wanted some extras installed which I got our technician to do. The next day I get the phone call.
"I bought a computer off you yesterday, but I'm going to bring it back in tomorrow for a refund because it's all scuffed"
Now we had a former employee who was running a scam where he would cosmetically damage stock - it would get sold and of course be returned. We would then mark the stock down and he would buy it cheap. He got caught and was promptly fired. I suspected that this might have been what happened here, so I was inclined to believe the customer at first. I asked the customer to hold so I could look into it.
I asked the tech who did the work if he noticed any scuffing on the computer - nope. Not only that, but the customer returned before the tech had finished, and so he repacked it in front of the customer.
I got back on the line to the customer - "Can you describe the scuffing in detail, because M says when he did the work on it yesterday he didn't notice anything."
"No the computer is ok, the box is scuffed".
WTF?
"The box?"
"Yeah it's all scuffed, this must be old stock or something that you sold us, so I want a refund."
"well no, we don't give refunds if the only fault is marks on the packaging. And I can assure you that it is not old stock, that model was only released 2 weeks ago."
"oh so you won't give us a refund then?"
"no"
"and it's definitely not old stock?"
"we only got this model in 2 weeks ago"
"ok then, bye"

[Bramblerose]

One day I had a woman get upset that her can was dented.

THis is because Everyone Knows that dented cans = botulism, and Everyone Knows that millions of people die Every Day from Botulism-tainted paint! The horrors! SOmeone might think you didn't care that your sucky customer might DIE

(oh darn).

[candyshopgirl]

I had a girl buy a tea(in a glass bottle) and walk out of the store and then drop it in the lobby,5 ft from the store.
I felt bad but....
We pay .97 per tea and we charge 1.92 so we only make .95 off each tea.Customers can't grasp the idea that we lose money if we replace it just because they are stupid.