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As I have mentioned before in the past few weeks on here, I am just swamped at work and have fallen behind.
I was busy trying to get caught up today when the phone rang and the girl from the front desk asked me what she should do about a return that she had.
We have a corporate warranty program where we will replace certain items for a full year if they prove defective.
This lady, (a 'regular'), had a dehumidifier that was a year old in April.
She said she had bought it before she needed it, so she hadn't had a full year of use out of it. She said she had only used it one season.
I said to the girl that she would have to call the company to see if they would cover the warranty. Naturally, I ended up having to handle the whole damn thing.
I called the company and explained the situation.
She said it was now a repair warranty, but if it proved to be a compressor problem, they would replace it rather than repair.
I explained that to the lady.
Not good enough.
She wanted a dehumidifier today.
She was really rather nasty about it.
"What am I supposed to do now? I neeed a dehumidifier." *whine*
I said, "The problem is, if I replace this unit, then the service guy looks at it, and it's a simple repair, we are stuck with a repaired unit. You've already had it for over a year, and the serial number is from December 2005.
We would not be able to sell that unit and we are out that money because the manufacturer will only offer a repair on it unless it's the compressor."
I told her my hands were tied and I had to call the service guy, but I would check and see if he could do a rush service call if he was in the area.
No dice. The guy was swamped with calls and wasn't in the area. The soonest he could get to it was Tuesday.
I called our Head Office to see if they could do anything to help me out.
I got the same message. I had to do as the manufacturer told me.
I went to the managers and asked them. Same story.
Whatever the company told me.
My point was, if the lady had to wait until Tuesday, and it was a simple thing to fix, fine - then we weren't out any money or stuck with a repaired unit we couldn't sell.
On the other hand, if she was without it until Tuesday, and it was determined that it was going to be scrapped, then I was going to have one pissed off lady on my hands.
They did suggest I get one of the clerks to have a look at it, though.
He did, and he was pretty sure it's a compressor problem. (He's pretty knowledgeable, so I am inclined to believe he was right.)
That was good, because then I could get this annoying woman off my back.
I instructed the cashier to do the exchange, but not to issue the automatic warranty slip at all for the new one, and to put a note on the receipt that it was being replaced under special circumstances.
I went back to the lady and told her what I was doing.
She said, "Well, I was thinking I might not get another one. I was looking at air conditioners, but since your store doesn't stand behind their product..."
I lost it a bit.
I said, "We stand behind our product. We have to follow the warranty conditions of the companies who make these products, though. Don't you think we would just love to hand over a new item to our customers? If we did that, though, the companies wouldn't give us our money, and we sure wouldn't stay in business long at that rate, now would we? I'd have all this defective or repaired stuff sitting in my warehouse and we couldn't sell it and that's not exactly smart, is it?'"
I didn't care.
It's not like I didn't know the lady. I used to work with her daughters years ago.
She ticked me off. she's so darned cheap anyway, and that wasn't the first time I had to deal with her rude and entitled attitude.
All total time wasted - 30 minutes between all the phone calls, sitting on hold on the phone and running around.
Time I really didn't have to waste.
I was busy trying to get caught up today when the phone rang and the girl from the front desk asked me what she should do about a return that she had.
We have a corporate warranty program where we will replace certain items for a full year if they prove defective.
This lady, (a 'regular'), had a dehumidifier that was a year old in April.
She said she had bought it before she needed it, so she hadn't had a full year of use out of it. She said she had only used it one season.
I said to the girl that she would have to call the company to see if they would cover the warranty. Naturally, I ended up having to handle the whole damn thing.
I called the company and explained the situation.
She said it was now a repair warranty, but if it proved to be a compressor problem, they would replace it rather than repair.
I explained that to the lady.
Not good enough.
She wanted a dehumidifier today.
She was really rather nasty about it.
"What am I supposed to do now? I neeed a dehumidifier." *whine*
I said, "The problem is, if I replace this unit, then the service guy looks at it, and it's a simple repair, we are stuck with a repaired unit. You've already had it for over a year, and the serial number is from December 2005.
We would not be able to sell that unit and we are out that money because the manufacturer will only offer a repair on it unless it's the compressor."
I told her my hands were tied and I had to call the service guy, but I would check and see if he could do a rush service call if he was in the area.
No dice. The guy was swamped with calls and wasn't in the area. The soonest he could get to it was Tuesday.
I called our Head Office to see if they could do anything to help me out.
I got the same message. I had to do as the manufacturer told me.
I went to the managers and asked them. Same story.
Whatever the company told me.
My point was, if the lady had to wait until Tuesday, and it was a simple thing to fix, fine - then we weren't out any money or stuck with a repaired unit we couldn't sell.
On the other hand, if she was without it until Tuesday, and it was determined that it was going to be scrapped, then I was going to have one pissed off lady on my hands.
They did suggest I get one of the clerks to have a look at it, though.
He did, and he was pretty sure it's a compressor problem. (He's pretty knowledgeable, so I am inclined to believe he was right.)
That was good, because then I could get this annoying woman off my back.
I instructed the cashier to do the exchange, but not to issue the automatic warranty slip at all for the new one, and to put a note on the receipt that it was being replaced under special circumstances.
I went back to the lady and told her what I was doing.
She said, "Well, I was thinking I might not get another one. I was looking at air conditioners, but since your store doesn't stand behind their product..."
I lost it a bit.
I said, "We stand behind our product. We have to follow the warranty conditions of the companies who make these products, though. Don't you think we would just love to hand over a new item to our customers? If we did that, though, the companies wouldn't give us our money, and we sure wouldn't stay in business long at that rate, now would we? I'd have all this defective or repaired stuff sitting in my warehouse and we couldn't sell it and that's not exactly smart, is it?'"
I didn't care.
It's not like I didn't know the lady. I used to work with her daughters years ago.
She ticked me off. she's so darned cheap anyway, and that wasn't the first time I had to deal with her rude and entitled attitude.
All total time wasted - 30 minutes between all the phone calls, sitting on hold on the phone and running around.
Time I really didn't have to waste.
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