Pissy customer who complained in the garage office

[snugglegirl05]

This incident happened yesterday at work while the first shift were clocking out to go home including me. The first shift clocks out at 2:30 p.m. The second shift clocks in at 1:30 p.m. Some of the second shift employees were outside the garage office.

Several of us were inside the garage office where the time-clock is when a pissed of customer walked in.

Apparently he was not happy that all of the doors to the stairwells located on the first level of that garage are locked.

Why?

Because according to a second shift employee who was outside the garage office he wanted to walk up one of the stairwells *I asked one of the second shift employees why the pissy customer acted that way after clocking out and leaving the garage office*. The customer got pissed and loudly said "The door is locked!! Why is the door locked!! How am I supposed to walk up the stairwell!???" The second shift employee directed the pissy customer to where the elevators were, which was on the other side of the garage. So the pissy customer took the elevator up to where his car was parked, drove down to the first level, and parked in front of the garage office.

He was already in the office complaining to the garage manager when I walked in.

The garage manager was explaining to him why the doors are locked, but the pissy customer was not satisfied.

So he told the garage manager the following.

I park in this garage, but I have to walk several blocks to the building where I work. I could park somewhere else if I wanted to.
Do you know that there are many cars that are not properly parked in this garage, yet I do not see any violation on these cars. What are you going to do about this?

The garage manager explained that we do our best to ticket every car, but that is not always possible. He did not address the part of his parking somewhere else. One thing that the garage manager did not tell the pissy customer is that there is only one employee cleaning this garage during the day, and that there are 14 levels in this garage. But the pissy customer still was not satisfied with his answer.

So he continued telling him about 1) the improperly parked cars, 2) the fact that he continues seeing these improperly parking cars yet not violation has been issued, and 3) again what is he going to do about that?

The garage manager just repeated what he already told him.

So the pissy customer demanded the phone number to the property management company that owns the garage. The garage manager wrote down the phone number and gave it to him. I left the garage office after that, and asked one of the second shift employees what happened to cause the pissy customer to act that way. According to him the property management company requested that every stairwell door on the first level to be locked. From what I have heard from other employees, there have been problems regarding homeless people and what they do in the stairwells on the first level.

I could tell by the pissy customer's body language when he left the garage office that he was still pissed.

[dalesys]

OK. We'll unlock the stairwell doors and you won't only be pissed, your shoozen will be beshatten.

[Gilhelmi]

Do the doors automatically unlock if the fire alarm goes off?

Because if they do not allow emergency exiting (depending on local laws) that would be a very serious issue.

[TheSHAD0W]

One thing that the garage manager did not tell the pissy customer is that there is only one employee cleaning this garage during the day, and that there are 14 levels in this garage.

I doubt pissy customer would've shown any sympathy for that. Also, PC might've yelled at corporate to hire more people; I suppose it's possible that might've resulted in more hours, but it's more likely corporate would've been annoyed at garage manager for using an excuse like that.

[wolfie]

If these stairwells are like others in commercial buildings, they have panic bars on the doors so that you can open them from the direction someone using the stairwell as a fire exit would be going, but they're locked if you're trying to go the other way.

Typical in an office building is that on the floors you can get into the stairwell but not out of it, and in the lobby you can get out but not in. This is to keep undesirables from using the stairwells to gain access to the offices - but if you're partway down the stairs and they become unusable you're SOL.

[EvilEmpryss]

Do the doors automatically unlock if the fire alarm goes off?
Because if they do not allow emergency exiting (depending on local laws) that would be a very serious issue.

No one should be running up the stairs if the garage is on fire. It's only the first floor doors that are locked (as per the story), so if the doors open out for people coming down the stairs to exit, then they're perfectly fine to be locked to keep people from going in.

[Gilhelmi]

No one should be running up the stairs if the garage is on fire. It's only the first floor doors that are locked (as per the story), so if the doors open out for people coming down the stairs to exit, then they're perfectly fine to be locked to keep people from going in.

Ah, OK that makes good since. Thank you