Paint, Paint, Paint, Paint, Paint, Paint

[Dark Psion]

Tell me, did any of you wake up this week and think "I need to paint something! NOW!!"??

Well, about half the people in hundred miles of me did. All week it has been paint, paint, paint. And with them have come some of my favorite Paint SCs.

Remember Me: And I think it was the same guy who did this to me last time. He comes in and "I got some paint a couple months ago and I need some more of that color."
OK and the color?
"The same as last time."
It took a bit, but I finally got him to understand that I need the name or the color to match.

Brain? Brain? What is Brain? If there is one truely anoying paint SC, it is the virgin painter. I swear some of them don't know which end of the brush goes in the can. You have to explain every thing, what the difference between flat and gloss? Why can't I put interior on the outside of my house? Primer, Primer? What is Primer?

Price Matcher: Oh no, not matching with another store, he wants to price match the 5 year paint with the 30 year paint! It's all the same paint, you guys just put different labels on it! And it's even better when they want Exterior paint.

This is Oklahoma, between the wind, rain, tornados, ice storms, heat waves and hail, most exterior paints don't stand a chance. All we sell is the 30 year exterior paint, anything cheeper and you are just wasting your time painting with it. But I had a guy this week that just kept asking where our cheeper exterior paint was. Is this it? No that is the Primer. Is this it? No that is Anti-rust paint. This? No that's a ladder.

He must have thought we were hiding it from him.

Repeat Customers: It is nice when they come back, but 3 times in an hour? She picks out a color, but she is back it was the wrong blue. Who ever she is painting for needs it darker. Then she is back again, this time she has an actual formula, would have been nice to have that to start with. The only good thing was that she was not shopping for herself, so she did not ask for a refund.

And other highlights;

One customer wanted to pour paint and primer into the same can because she didn't want to paint twice.

One customer wanted to mix bug killer in her paint so it would keep the bugs away.

One wanted me to mix a color into a caulking tube.

And one looked at me like I had just cured cancer when I told him that I could make the White Zone marking paint Blue for the handicapped spaces.

I guess some people are easy to impress.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

"Tell me, did any of you wake up this week and think "I need to paint something! NOW!!"??"

No, but I did get that urge about a year ago at 3am after several hours of serious drinking. (And in the light of a slightly hungover morning, my project didn't look half bad, amazingly.)

[JustADude]

One wanted me to mix a color into a caulking tube.

Not your line of work, but I can actually see where that one was coming from. I'd have loved to have colored caulk when we were re-tiling the bathroom back when I was 15 or so.

[icmedia]

I have a feeling that I personally know some of the people who come into your department.

The last time I held a "painting party" at my house (I supply the prepped rooms, paint, brushes and rollers, and all the beer you can drink...you help me paint), one friend wondered aloud why there was blue tape all over the place. A buddy's girlfriend actually thought she could take care of drips that made their way onto the carpet with toilet paper. No cleaning products involved- just dry toilet paper.

I need to get some new friends.

[hecubus]

One customer wanted to pour paint and primer into the same can because she didn't want to paint twice.

LOL!! This has got to be just about the dumbest thing I've ever heard! I suppose she also wanted you to mix two colors in the same can so she could paint stripes?

[cinema guy]

Do you sell Tartan paint?

[Broomjockey]

I want some pink camo paint! For pranks! *hunts down GK's route to work*

[Knightmare]

Gah! I hated that! A customer stampede to the paint desk. And always on a weekend, when you're alone with no help in sight.

I've had every one of those types of customers you listed. Fun, aren't they? My fave was the price matcher. Always wanting the cheapest paint, but expecting it to last a lifetime... or more!
"Why is this paint so much more expensive than that paint?" Well, duh.. the paint that's $10 a gallon is mostly water. (Well, most paints are, but try telling a customer exactly what's in a can of paint, they get the deer-in-headlights look, so you just say water.)

To the customer that wanted to mix paint and primer: There are exterior paints now that have both in the same can. I've had customers that wanted to do the same thing. After they asked if they could mix the paint with the primer, I'd look at them, suck some air thru my teeth and say "That wouldn't be good." Then I'd show them the paint that does do that, and they'd balk at the price. And then I'd have to show them, by doing math on paper, how it's actually a bit cheaper to buy the paint with primer already in it.

As for the colored caulk: there is a company out there that makes a caulk base you can add pigment to, just like paint. It looked pretty cool, but I'm glad we didn't carry that. All I needed were more headaches.

[Becks]

Random SC: Yeah, I want some polka dot paint, but not just ANY polka dot paint. Each polka dot has to be PLAID. And each plaid polka dot has to be different. And it has to be interior AND exterior. And it can't cost more than (insert ridiculously low amount here)!!!!