Tweet
I wasn't sure where to put this one. It wasn't a sucky customer, it wasn't a momentary brain glitch... where do the eccentric, harmless, and vaguely amusing customer stories go?
Anyway...
I service coin-operate equipment. At the time of this story, I was doing an major overhaul of a crane. That is, if you're not familiar with the term, one of those machines with stuffed animals in it
http://images.wikia.com/video151/ima..._Clip_The_Claw
Anyway, I had stuff scattered all over the place, and was busy ignoring people with the usual pointless "Oh, that's how you win them!" "If I give you a dollar, will you just give me one of them?" and "Free animals!" comments, when this lady came over in an ethnic outfit.
Now, this isn't uncommon; the area where this crane was has seen a number of people converted to a certain religion and as they've done so, they've adopted dress common to the geographical area this religion comes from. By and large, they're a retail drone's dream customer: the true converts are friendly. The ones who have converted for social reasons avoid you. And the posers don't try anything in retail areas. Like I said, dream customers.
So this lady, a bit on the elderly side, comes over to the wide-open crane with stuff scattered all over, and says to me "Ba ba bo?"
Huh?
Nope, no clue what she meant. There were no sheep in the machine. I may not be terribly familiar with her culture, but I didn't recall this being a ritualistic greeting or phrase that sounded like that. So I said the only thing I could, given the circumstances:
"Excuse me?"
All she did was repeat "Ba ba bo?"
I think the blank look I gave her told here that we were having a communications problem here. So she reached into the crane-- normally something I discourage, but by now it was obvious that what we had here was not a true convert, nor a social convert, nor even a poser, but a genuine born-into-this-culture recent immigrant. With an accent that I was totally unfamiliar with. And as she probably came from a culture with smaller personal space than mine, I didn't react when she grabbed one of the stuffed animals and said "Bo? O gul?"
OK, how do you answer that one? I've got no clue why she's asking that. I mean, is she asking for cultural reasons? When you're not familiar with the culture, that's a really risky one to try to guess at. Is it for some weird personal quirk? Hell, there was even the outside possibility that this was early signs of oncoming senility-- a possibility that I really, really didn't want to go anywhere near. But ultimately, there was a bigger question: That raccoon has no pants on, so why can't she see that it's neither boy nor girl?
(Or if she was asking if it was suitable for boys or girls... sorry, you know your grandkids better than I do. And I really don't know what their parents think is suitable, either.)
So I gave the only answer I could. "I dunno."
She put the raccoon back into the machine and left. And I scratched my head and carried on.
Anyway...
I service coin-operate equipment. At the time of this story, I was doing an major overhaul of a crane. That is, if you're not familiar with the term, one of those machines with stuffed animals in it
http://images.wikia.com/video151/ima..._Clip_The_Claw
Anyway, I had stuff scattered all over the place, and was busy ignoring people with the usual pointless "Oh, that's how you win them!" "If I give you a dollar, will you just give me one of them?" and "Free animals!" comments, when this lady came over in an ethnic outfit.
Now, this isn't uncommon; the area where this crane was has seen a number of people converted to a certain religion and as they've done so, they've adopted dress common to the geographical area this religion comes from. By and large, they're a retail drone's dream customer: the true converts are friendly. The ones who have converted for social reasons avoid you. And the posers don't try anything in retail areas. Like I said, dream customers.
So this lady, a bit on the elderly side, comes over to the wide-open crane with stuff scattered all over, and says to me "Ba ba bo?"
Huh?
Nope, no clue what she meant. There were no sheep in the machine. I may not be terribly familiar with her culture, but I didn't recall this being a ritualistic greeting or phrase that sounded like that. So I said the only thing I could, given the circumstances:
"Excuse me?"
All she did was repeat "Ba ba bo?"
I think the blank look I gave her told here that we were having a communications problem here. So she reached into the crane-- normally something I discourage, but by now it was obvious that what we had here was not a true convert, nor a social convert, nor even a poser, but a genuine born-into-this-culture recent immigrant. With an accent that I was totally unfamiliar with. And as she probably came from a culture with smaller personal space than mine, I didn't react when she grabbed one of the stuffed animals and said "Bo? O gul?"
OK, how do you answer that one? I've got no clue why she's asking that. I mean, is she asking for cultural reasons? When you're not familiar with the culture, that's a really risky one to try to guess at. Is it for some weird personal quirk? Hell, there was even the outside possibility that this was early signs of oncoming senility-- a possibility that I really, really didn't want to go anywhere near. But ultimately, there was a bigger question: That raccoon has no pants on, so why can't she see that it's neither boy nor girl?
(Or if she was asking if it was suitable for boys or girls... sorry, you know your grandkids better than I do. And I really don't know what their parents think is suitable, either.)
So I gave the only answer I could. "I dunno."
She put the raccoon back into the machine and left. And I scratched my head and carried on.