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Your not paying your bill doesn't mean I'm staying after hours

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  • Your not paying your bill doesn't mean I'm staying after hours

    Our store closes at 9. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. It became imperative at 8:50 p.m. that a customer be able to bathe her three kids, load them in the car, and come half an hour to the store to pay her bill and get her phone service turned back on. I was to wait for her. She's not only late on her bill, she's late enough that they've permanently disconnected her, but our customer service department said if she paid her bill she could get the service back on. She told them she'd be in Friday to pay it. This isn't Friday, it's the Wednesday before.

    So, she's calling me at the store at ten minutes till nine with her long story about how the ATM at the mall didn't work when she was in the day before, but as soon as her kids are cleaned up and in the car, she'll be in. Uh, we close at 9. Yes, she knows that. But she wants her phone to work for calls on Thanksgiving. The process, as I explained it to her, requires that I get Customer Care to release her number again so we can reactivate it, and Customer Care is gone for the day. Oh, she says, she wants a new phone number. Still, it has to be released, we reactivate, then change the number.

    She's lost her phone. Or someone stole it. Or destroyed it, depending on what point we're at in the conversation (frequently punctuated by her yelling to someone in the background, repeating the conversation). So, not only is it waiting to get the number released, but she needs a new SIM card and a phone. She doesn't think she should have to pay for a new phone, and can she use her phone from (another) carrier? Maybe.

    How much do I owe, she asks? $354.18. Plus the $10 for the SIM card and $26.50 for the number change. Oh, she says, you can find some way not to charge me for all that. (Not on your life, sister.) Again, the story about having to have time to get her kids clean and dressed and in the car and get there. She began to accuse me of not wanting to help her, to which I said, "If it had been earlier in the day, we would have had no problem. It's now two minutes to closing, and you have an hour's worth of bathing and travel till you get here. The mall will be closed, let alone our store closes at 9." She reallyreallyreally wants to have her phone working for the holiday.

    I have the good fortune to be in a kiosk directly beneath the loudspeakers for the mall. When she heard the announcement that the mall was closing for the day, she said, "Oh, I can hear that the mall is closing." I thought that was the end of it. "Well, I know there's a door right near your kiosk. You could let me in when I get there." No.

    Lady, I don't care whether you think I'm your best friend right now, I'm not going to stay here while your children get their baths and you drive half an hour from your home. Our store is closed. I can't do anything for you even if it was open, because Customer Care is closed. I need to go home, stop at the grocery store on the way to pick up some things for the family dinner tomorrow, and get some sleep before I drive two hours to my daughter's house. I do not care that you want your phone for Thanksgiving - you should have paid the bill when it was due. You didn't, and it is not for me to make your life easy because you changed your mind and decided you want to do all this two days earlier and at the last minute.

    I can't wait for Black Friday. That's when she's coming back.

  • #2
    Quoth 1756GR2 View Post
    I can't wait for Black Friday. That's when she's coming back.
    Don't worry, she will probably forget and call back a month later with the same sob story except it will be Christmas day that she wants to use the phone.
    Last edited by Crosshair; 11-24-2006, 06:08 PM. Reason: Spelling
    "Magic sometimes sounds like tape." - The Amazing Johnathan

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    • #3
      Quoth Crosshair View Post
      Don't worry, why will probably forget and call back a month later with the same sob story except it will be Christmas day that she wants to use the phone.
      Orrrrrrr...

      ...she will spend half the day at another store, belonging to another company, possibly for an unrelated product, wailing at them about how horrible they are for losing all her information, and not turning her phone back on for free.
      I have a map of the world. It's actual size.

      -- Steven Wright

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      • #4
        What?! I thought all you phone companies were actually divisions of the same huge corporation that owns every company in the world and you have instantaneous access to every account of every kind in the entire world.
        Labor boards have info on local laws for free
        HR believes the first person in the door
        Learn how to go over whackamole bosses' heads safely
        Document everything
        CS proves Dunning-Kruger effect

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        • #5
          I love it. Talk about a sense of entitlement. Good for you, standing up to her...the skank.
          The universe is mostly empty space, and so is your job. ~Dilbert

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          • #6
            Did she ever come back while you were there?

            Rapscallion

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            • #7
              I had a customer once ring up 10 minutes before we closed and asked if we had a dvd. I told her yes and she said she HAD to have it for a present and she would be in in about 45 minutes for it. I told her we closed in 10 minutes so no one would be there, that I was happy to stay 5 minutes late for her but after that I had to leave. She didn't get it, fully thought I should stay the extra 35 minutes after closing time just so she could come pick it up. After I got her to understand that I wasn't she said ok, just leave the DVD by our front door and she would slide the money under the door for it when she picked it up. I told her there was no way that was happening. So then she suggested I take it down the road to our local supermarket and leave it with them and that she'd go there, pay them for it, and they could give us the money tomorrow. Again I told her no. It took 10 minutes but I finally got her to understand she wasn't going to get the dvd.

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              • #8
                Quoth 1756GR2 View Post

                I can't wait for Black Friday. That's when she's coming back.



                Don't worry, she will probably forget and call back a month later with the same sob story except it will be Christmas day that she wants to use the phone.

                And then New Year's Day, too.

                Did this woman ever come back?

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