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I shop here all the time!

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  • I shop here all the time!

    The end of a busy day in an electronics store, it's approximately 10 minutes to closing time and we're getting ready close up until the SC arrives and kicks up a fuss, probably because he's nothing else better to do on a nice evening.

    He wanders in and sets his eyes upon a laptop computer at around £700, spent around five minutes looking, touching, picking it up before shouting me over to find out a little more information about it, if we had them in stock, which we did. Then the question came. "See I didn't have the intention of paying £700 tonight so what sort of discount can I have?" I love this question, we make almost nothing on certain laptops and I know this one was no exception, having been told not to do any discount, I calmly explained to the gentleman that "unfortunately I can't discount the price any further" and his response was the typical response too - "I shop here all the time, I've spent thousands in here over the years."

    Again, I feel like I'll become a broken record, I cannot discount the laptop. "This is silly, I am sure you can knock me money off the laptop, I used to work the retail sector and I know you make hundreds on these things." When people decide they're correct and yet have no idea how the computer hardware market works, it grates at me. I remained calm and explained that in the last few years the specifications of laptops have gone up and prices have dropped, he was having none of it. By this point it was less than 5 minutes until we had to close. "I don't like your attitude, is there a manager I can speak to?" Calmly, because I am quite a timid person, I led him to a manager, the SC suddenly had an attitude change, shaking hands with the manager and attempting to be friendly, of course, the manager had seen this all before - he wasn't stupid.

    "Your staff are refusing me discount, surely there's something you can do being a manager, I'd like some discount on a laptop that's £700." My manager knew this was why he had chose to spoke to him, and as calm as I did, he explained why he wasn't going to give him discount. Again, the SC let his faux-friendly attitude slip and he became angry and argued in the same way he did with my manager, a stand-off of silence occurred for a minute or so (now past closing time, he was the only customer still in the store) and the manager sighed "you can have 5% off the price, and this is not because of your customer loyalty, it's because I want to go home."

    I did believe the SC would accept this and let us head on home but this wasn't the case. "£35 isn't much is it? I mean, I was thinking more in the region of £600" My first thought was even the staff wouldn't get discount as lenient as that, and the manager knew it too. "You'll have to take it or leave it, I won't change my mind. £35 off and nothing more." Raising his voice again, the SC remained stood in front of us both, before claiming "I'm not leaving until I get this laptop for £600!" amongst other claims of "being a loyal customer", "shopping here all the time", "I'm not going anywhere!" and that "your member of staff treated me rudely and I deserve better than this."

    My manager is normally a mild-mannered guy, quite nice and friendly - even I was surprised at his outburst. "I'm not being funny but you're wasting my time, and that of my staff who want to go home, we have been closed for over five minutes and I have offered you more than enough discount to say that I could sell the rest of the laptops I have in stock at full price to anyone else when we open tomorrow, in fact, I'll do that and I want you out of the store now, you had your chance, I was prepared to offer you money simply to get you out of here - now I just want to go home. Leave the store, or do I have to call in the security?"

    The Red-faced-SC struggled for words, before finally grasping together a few words. "Right... well! I've got £600 ready to spend and you won't be getting it! I'll take my money to a competitor who would be more than happy to give me discount! You don't have to call security, I'll show myself out!" Storming toward the exit, we opened the shutter for him and he had quite a painful and embarrassing wait until he could actually get outside of the store, tapping a foot and fuming in anger.

    As I said, some people must have nothing better to do on a nice evening other than kick up a fuss. Needless to say, I got home late and it left me with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. The word discount in general now triggers anger.

  • #2
    Ha!

    What a fool, it's not just his attitude but his timing as well.

    Waiting till very end of the day is stupid, people want to go home and they already made their sales for the .day. Even half-a-hour earlier would had worked better.

    But worse is his seasonal timing.

    If he was buying just before school started there would be all sorts of back-to-school bargains, and right after school opens the stores want to get rid of the remains of that sales stock so there is hope there too.

    Now he needs to wait for the post-Christmas season if he wants a deal. It is my plan anyway.

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