I've been inconvenienced! Give me free stuff!

[LadyAndreca]

It was so quiet all last week (minor irritations, but nothing that qualified for a SC) that I knew when I finally got one, it would be a doozy. I was not disappointed.

A woman, maybe in her 50s, waited paitently in line for her turn at the service counter. She sets a pristine-looking box for a faucet-mounted water filter on the counter, and the exchange goes something like this...

Me: What can I do for you today?
SC: *very primly* I'm going to need a manager for this one.
Me: Of course, let me know the problem and I'll call her right over. (I HATE it when a transaction starts that way, but at least she's being polite-ish.)
SC: I bought an obviously returned item that had been put back on the shelf, and I want to talk to a manager about it.
Me: No problem. *pages the team lead*
TL: *arrives* What can I do for you?

The SC starts on a complicated, intense-but-not-shouting rant about how she bought this item and it was open and she didn't notice until she was helping her son unpack in his brand new NYC apartment (an hour north of here). She opens the box and dumps on the counter wet filter/mounting hardware in a plastic baggie, and the mount itself flashing a 'change filter' light, and says that's how she bought it. (Yet there were no water marks on the box...hmm...)

SC: And so I brought it back to be replaced. He thinks that he should get his money back and a free replacement for the inconvenience.
Me, TL:
TL: I'm sorry for the inconvenience, ma'am, and I'll be happy to replace it for you, but I can't do that.
SC: *starts getting louder* My son doesn't have a water filter now! He has to drink tap water for a week until I can get the new one back to him! He should get his money back for his inconvenience.
TL: Why didn't you return it at a closer store? It would have saved you the drive.
SC: There isn't one near there!
TL: Oh, that makes sense. Well, we can definately give you a refund or replace your defective item for you, but we can't do both.
SC: I want to talk to the store manager!
TL: Certainly. *pages the store manager*

The conversation repeats, almost word for word (with twice the volume on the SC's part).

SC: I want to speak to YOUR manager.
SM: I am the store manager.
TL: You asked for the store manager, this is him. There's no one above him.
SC: *splutters* You don't have very good customer service! I should get a refund, a discount, SOMETHING for my inconvenience!
SM: I'm sorry, Ma'am, but the company doesn't have a policy regarding this. Every time an item needs to be returned, it's an inconvience for our guests. We can offer a refund, or a replacement.
SC: I AM NOT LEAVING THIS STORE WITHOUT A REPLACEMENT FILTER!!! AND I'M NEVER SHOPPING IN THIS STORE AGAIN!!!
TL: LadyAndreca, do an item location on it for her. And give her guest relations number.
Me: *quietly hands over the paper she printed out right after the TL showed up* And here's the number for guest relations, Ma'am, if you'd like to call with a complaint.
SC: MY SON WILL DEFINATELY CALL THEM!!! *stomps off to get her filter*

Me, TL, SM:
SM: Her son? Oh no! Seriously, why couldn't she do it?
Me, TL:

When the SC came back, she was gloating about getting the last one. She made me open it, prove it was all sealed, and had me put it back just so so her son wouldn't notice it had been opened. (Except it was kind of open...whatever, SC's don't use logic.) And then she watched while I wrote "DEFECTIVE" in giant black letters on the old box.

SC: Well. I'm glad at least one person around here knows how to treat a customer. *stalks out of the store*
Me:
TL: *walks over* You are SUCH a suckup.
Me: Eh, whatever. Beats getting screamed at more. Next guest please!

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I dunno, even if I didn't have to drive an hour, if I went to the store to buy something I needed, got home ready to intall it and opened it up and it was in that condition, I'd be pretty pissed off, too. I wouldn't be nasty to the clerk, but if I had to make two trips, I would be pretty pissed off at having my time and my gas wasted for something like that.

I've had that happen. Some stores put defective crap back on the shelves. Which is one of many reason I usually avoid Walmart.

On the other hand, it's also quite possible that she was pulling a fast one.

[digilight]

I dunno, even if I didn't have to drive an hour, if I went to the store to buy something I needed, got home ready to intall it and opened it up and it was in that condition, I'd be pretty pissed off, too. I wouldn't be nasty to the clerk, but if I had to make two trips, I would be pretty pissed off at having my time and my gas wasted for something like that.

I've had that happen. Some stores put defective crap back on the shelves. Which is one of many reason I usually avoid Walmart.

On the other hand, it's also quite possible that she was pulling a fast one.

I call crook, simply for the fact that the used filter would still give off water for quit some time after being taken off. If someone else put it in the box then there would have been water marks. If she/her son took it off and put it in a ziplock first, then there would be marks.

Also if this box had allready been sold once, come back and been sold a 2nd time you would probably notice a little more wear on it.

She sets a pristine-looking box for a faucet-mounted water filter on the counter

......

She opens the box and dumps on the counter wet filter/mounting hardware in a plastic baggie, and the mount itself flashing a 'change filter' light, and says that's how she bought it. (Yet there were no water marks on the box...hmm...)

[Becks]

What's wrong with tap water? I drink it all the time (quite possibly the only person in NJ to do so...) and I'm perfectly fine.








For me, anyway.

[Catwoman2965]

What's wrong with tap water? I drink it all the time (quite possibly the only person in NJ to do so...) and I'm perfectly fine.


For me, anyway.

I don't, since my NJ water tastes nasty, but i buy jgallon jugs; to make my coffee with, and drink. However, i do cook with it, and i'm still here, alive and well. Is her son incapable of going out and buying some water to tide him over until he gets his new filter? How old is he? 5? hahahahahaha

[Shironu-Akaineko]

I drink from a well.
I live in C********.
My SCs drink from the Town's aqueduc.
They live in G****.

Do the math.

[Noelegy]

I've had that happen. Some stores put defective crap back on the shelves. Which is one of many reason I usually avoid Walmart.

Which makes me wonder in turn...why are the haircolor kits at WM almost always broken into? Something that happens in stocking, or SCs trying to help themselves? I color my hair fairly regularly (prematurely gray) and it seems that the boxes are almost always bashed to heck or torn into. It's hard to find an intact one.

[Kogarashi]

Which makes me wonder in turn...why are the haircolor kits at WM almost always broken into? Something that happens in stocking, or SCs trying to help themselves? I color my hair fairly regularly (prematurely gray) and it seems that the boxes are almost always bashed to heck or torn into. It's hard to find an intact one.

Because if the product itself is completely intact, regardless of packaging, it goes back on the shelf to sell. And not all of the Customer Service associates bother to check inside packaging when they go to put it in the return bins, so sometimes a decent-looking package will have items missing or something like a rock in it instead. Add to that the fact that the returns associates are somewhat anal about what can actually be sent back to the suppliers and what has to go back on the shelves.... Yeah, it's annoying, but I haven't had enough trouble yet to deter me from shopping there.

Though speaking of returns, it was annoying back when I was a toy associate and found a loose product in my department. It was completely missing its packaging, and I couldn't find any others like it, so I tossed it in the back room's return bin (where the products will actually be sent to the supplier; the service desk return bins are for products the customers have returned that need to go back to their departments). I put a return slip on the item and everything, but since I had no UPC number and the product wasn't obviously defective in any way, Returns made me put it back in my department. Except it didn't have a home. So that thing floated around my department for a while until someone took it home with them (I think).

[ditchdj]

I'd love to see my buddy, who owns a DJ service, come across these morons that think that service is a right, NOT a priviledge. He'll tell them straight up that he can deny service to anyone for any reason, EVEN race (he's refused ethnic gigs as well as some gay gigs). And I see nothing wrong with that since if I choose to do business with someone and they dont want do business with me for any reason they choose then that's fine; then I just look for someone else to do business with. No big deal. They wont get my money and someone else will.

[Gawdzillers]

Because if the product itself is completely intact, regardless of packaging, it goes back on the shelf to sell.

Though speaking of returns, it was annoying back when I was a toy associate and found a loose product in my department. It was completely missing its packaging, and I couldn't find any others like it, so I tossed it in the back room's return bin (where the products will actually be sent to the supplier; the service desk return bins are for products the customers have returned that need to go back to their departments). I put a return slip on the item and everything, but since I had no UPC number and the product wasn't obviously defective in any way, Returns made me put it back in my department. Except it didn't have a home. So that thing floated around my department for a while until someone took it home with them (I think).

1. True. I bought a slinky whose box looked like it had been set upon by a mad slinky-hater with a chainsaw, but the toy itself was fine. A little tarnished, but fine.
I tangled it impossibly and my mom bent it all out of shape trying to untangle it that same day.

2. Aww. The Story Of The Bum Toy (double entendre not intended, but still funny).

[BookstoreEscapee]

I can't stand it when people start out with "I need a manager for my oh so important issue" and refuse to tell me what they need. Then half the time I call the manager, they ask what I need, and all I can say is the customer is insisting they need a manager and they won't tell me why. Then the manager comes all the way up and the problem turns out to be a simple return or something else that I could have handled myself.

I once had a customer who was so adamant about speaking to the manager and NOT telling me why I made sure they heard me on the phone telling the manager "I don't know, she won't tell me"

[uknz76]

Me: What can I do for you today?
SC: *very primly* I'm going to need a manager for this one.

I always love this.
My job title at the moment is ASM, but none of our staff have anything on our badges except our names.
Whenever a customer asks for the manager I smile and say "That's me". At least half of the time I get accused of lying, because my badge doesn't say so.
My badge doesn't say I'm 6'4", and a Libra (but I am).
When they ask for a more senior manager if I'm in a good mood I'll call the SM who is younger than me and a little blonde girl. On more than one ocassion we've been abused for wasting the customers time with 'silly games'.
I've had a couple of phone calls complaing to the manager about it as well. My SM and I always enjoy telling these stuck up idiots that they were dealing with us, and they can forget the discount/return/whatever they wanted to speak to us about in the first place.

[Rolling Star]

Oh, poor baby. Her son has to drink TAP water? Think about the people in other countries who don't have any water at all. >_> That woman needs to get a grip and relax.