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  • You reap what you sow

    I have recently registered in the forums, so forgive my long initial postings—I think all that pent up frustration is finding its way out now.

    A recurring them I have noticed in these forums is an annoyance with spineless managers. I suppose there are some out there who truly see nothing wrong with the behaviors exhibited by SCs and are more than happy to fulfill their demands to keep them happy. Thankfully, the managers I have met and worked with at my company are not like that at all, and when they do give into an SCs inane demands they do it simply to get them out of the store.

    My logic on giving into demands is this: I will not stand for gross abuse of the system. If, for example, you want to return an unopened high-ticket item with no receipt and balk when I tell you the most I would do is store credit, I'm not going to be inclined to budge on my stance. However, if you tell me your opened high ticket item is not working and directly ask me if you can exchange it with no mention of wanting money back, I'll be more inclined to let you go through with it.

    Where I usually tend to let customers have their way is when it comes to my failed attempts to enforce mundane policies. Yeah, the limit on the sale item may be 3, but since you've bitched about it for five minutes, just take six and get the hell out. Should I stick to my guns like I know I would have every right to, the SC will either 1.) leave or 2.) call corporate to complain and end up getting their way regardless. So even though I feel like a tool for caving into these demands, I just tell myself I did it so I could get back to work without any more hassle.

    Which leads me to my main story:

    About a month ago, we had a sale on Coke 12 packs at 5/$11. We are a drugstore so our stores are not very big when compared with a Wal-Mart or Target. Even still, at 5/$11, we anticipated a large demand, so we literally had hundreds of 12-packs delivered every other day throughout the week. We tried to enforce the limits as best we could: if we just got a delivery in, we let people take up to ten. If our supplies started to dwindle, we’d more strictly enforce the limit of 5. So, of course, there had to be those asswipes out there that just had to find a way around the system. A husband would come up with 5 12packs, with his wife right behind him with 5 more. “Sorry, limit of 5. We have to have enough for everyone.”

    “I know, I’m getting five and my wife is getting five.”
    “Sorry, it’s five per household.”
    “Well, I’ll just walk out the door and come back in” *wink, wink*
    “No, sorry it doesn’t work like that.”
    “You might as well give us all 10, because I’ll just come back later tonight and buy more anyway.”
    *Sigh*

    See where I start to cave? At least he didn’t try to deny the woman was, in fact, his wife or try to claim his 6-year old was buying 5, too, and that he was just paying for them.

    So, anyway, we start to run out of product eventually. Then people want rain checks. I suppose we could have said “no” and explained that due to the immense popularity of the sale, it was a one-time deal while quantities lasted. It wasn’t like we messed up and didn’t order any, we just could not keep up with the demand. It’s not my fault you waited until two days before the end of the sale and walked into the store expecting a veritable bounty of 12 pack sodas. Of course, denying rain checks on these grounds invariably leads to the usual complaints: but it’s in your ad; it’s not my problem you ran out; why didn’t you plan ahead if you knew everyone was buying; and my favorite “So what you gonna do about it?” said with arms thrown out to the side for added effect when this person was told by me we had no more of what he wanted. So, we cave and write out rain checks.

    But then people start scamming with the rain checks. They want double the limit, or they need two extra ones for “their sister and brother”, or they go all the stores and collect multiple rain checks. So, as I am writing out a rain check for an older gentleman, he matter-of-factly informs me he wants 10 of them. I reply that I’m sorry, but I can only write him one for 5. Then the complaining starts. The “other guy at the other store” told him he could get ten, and what’s the big deal if he gets over the limit—if we had the product in stock, he’d just make multiple trips anyway and we’d be none the wiser. Fine, here’s a rain check for 10—get the hell out.

    So, the following week we bumped up our order in anticipation of the rain check customers. The honest and reasonable ones came in with their rain checks for 5 and were on their way. Then of course, there were plenty who walked out with 10 of them, and a few who had gotten multiple rain checks from 3 or 4 stores and left with 15 to 20 12-packs, as if they were preparing for some kind of nuclear winter where Coke and Sprite would be their only means of sustenance.

    And of course, who comes back as well? None other than that old fossil who I let get double the limit. He walks over to an empty shelf and an empty display.

    “Do you have any of those 12 packs of soda left?”
    “I’m sorry, sir, but we ran out.”
    “What? You were out last week when I came in and you’re STILL out? This is ridiculous I’ve had to make two trips up here.”

    Usually, I’m not a confrontational person and won’t point out how and why customers are idiots. But this guy irked me so bad, I just had to tell him what’s what. “Sir, I recall that I gave you a rain check last week and tried to enforce our limit, yet you insisted that I give you double that. You were not the only person I was forced to do that for, so that is why we have once again run out.” I promptly finished that explanation with an offer to personally call him when we got another order and put some product to the side for him, just so it could appear that I was being helpful and actually cared about his plight.

    Like I said, you reap what you sow.

  • #2
    Ugh, people like that really piss me off. They want more than their fair share, but you better not let anyone else have extra!

    Yet again, a textbook case of... Damned if ya do, damned if ya don't.


    Oh, and welcome to CS!

    Comment


    • #3
      I hate people who won't adhere to the limit on specials.

      Nekojin & I go through a lot of soda. Well, actually, Nekojin goes through a lot of soda.

      But even though there are two of us going through the line, we don't bother with splitting our order to get more. That's just not cool.

      ^-.-^
      Faith is about what you do. It's about aspiring to be better and nobler and kinder than you are. It's about making sacrifices for the good of others. - Dresden

      Comment


      • #4
        I also hate the "rules don't apply to me" people.
        I am often forced to do the same thing. A customer wants to use a coupon that expired 2 years ago and I'll tell them no. After they throw a fit and ask for my supervisor, I'll give in because I know my supervisor will give it to them.
        Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.

        Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.
        ~Oscar Wilde

        Comment


        • #5
          First of all, let me say welcome.

          Onwards...

          I have seen the sales like that. That's when I stock up on my Pepsi. I notice that the sign usually says, "Limit 1 offer". NEVER have I seen a sign that says, "Limit 1 offer PER HOUSEHOLD". If it's not posted, I don't think that you can arbitrarily say that. I, myself, might complain about that.

          Also, I think your "You reap what you sow" comment fits. But maybe not in the way you think. You admit to letting people get more than the (posted?) limit at certain times, and not at others. No wonder why people try to take advantage and get angry.

          I'm NOT intending to start anything with my opinons, just sharing them.
          Unseen but seeing
          oh dear, now they're masquerading as sane-KiaKat
          There isn't enough interpretive dance in the workplace these days-Irv
          3rd shift needs love, too
          RIP, mo bhrionglóid

          Comment


          • #6
            True, sometimes limits are not outright posted, though we do have a little disclaimer in the fine print that says we reserve the right to limit quantities. Usually, it's not a big deal, but when it's something we know that everyone is going to be buying, we try to limit how much one person gets just to be fair as possible to everyone.

            As far as letting people getting more than our stated limit--I was just illustrating that sometimes, in the end, it's not worth trying to enforce the more minute policies when sometime starts making a federal case out of it. I can apologize, try to make my case for why I'm trying to enforce the rules: if the customer accepts that, fine, but should they continue to argue and make a big deal, sometimes I just end up meeting them halfway just to keep the peace, especially if the matter doesn't necessarily constitute fraud or is an incredibly outrageous demand.

            I just found it ironic that one customer who wanted more than his fair share didn't get any later on because everyone else did the same thing he did. :-)

            Comment


            • #7
              and that is one of the many reasons why it is so difficult to be a manager...

              welcome to the boards!
              I will not shove “it” up my backside. I do not know what “it” is, but in my many years on this earth I have figured out that that particular port hole is best reserved for emergency exit only. -GK

              Comment


              • #8
                Should I stick to my guns like I know I would have every right to, the SC will either 1.) leave or 2.) call corporate to complain and end up getting their way regardless. So even though I feel like a tool for caving into these demands, I just tell myself I did it so I could get back to work without any more hassle.
                And since I suspect that you work at the same chain I do, it doesn't do any good when our CEO lambastes people who "hide behind policy" in his one weekly blurb about our "customer care crisis".

                That pop sale was great, though. I still have a stack o' pop on my kitchen floor

                Comment


                • #9
                  Quoth AFpheonix View Post
                  And since I suspect that you work at the same chain I do, it doesn't do any good when our CEO lambastes people who "hide behind policy" in his one weekly blurb about our "customer care crisis".
                  My thoughts exactly.

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