im a loyal customer you owe me

[queenbb]

i had this customer come in today (monday) to pick up his car. hes been there before, and unfortunatly for me he seems to always get me to check out.

he does have quite a few cars that he has serviced with us, and the few times that i have seen him hes usually impatient and upset for what ever reason.

saturday he came in, i greeted him as he was walking in the door, the friend that he was with thanked me for greeting him, i then told him that either i or my co worker will be with him as soon as we could get to him.

so i dont quite know why he was picking up the car today, i didnt notice it on sunday, and since there was nothing going on (our compressor broke we couldnt do anything) i probably would have noticed it, seeing as i would need to drive it in at night.

so today he comes in i go to check him out, he gets mad at me almost instantly because he didnt get credit back on the tires (he tried to pull this with me last time too) i look over the paper work, and notice that the tires were listed at 5/32nds of an inch, which are not even close to being prorated. i inform him of that fact, he then tells me that one of the tires had a gash in it and that it was suppose to be put in for a road hazard claim. i appoligize for the oversight, and tell him that i would need to inspect the tire in order to give him credit torward the tire.

at this point he gets even angrier and wants to speak to the manager, i tell himhe had already left at that point, tell tells me that he didnt want to speak to the auto manager but the main store manager. so i try to contact the manager on duty who for some reason did not answer. i see one of the guys that acts as manager on duty so i flag him down and try my best to explain to him, meanwhile the customer starts to follow me and talking over me flashing his military id card showing that hes an officer. i explain my position that i can not allow the adjustment because they are all inspected and i could loose my job over such an adjustment.

at this point the customer starts to back off alittle bit, and says that i am probably the most helpful person he has dealt with in the auto center, and that he wouldnt want me to loose my job over this incident and that he was sorry for putting me through all of this un due stress. he then starts to place blame on all my other co workers.

he decides that he doesnt want to wait any longer, and that he will pay for the tires and talk to the manger about the adjustment tomorrow. i gave him no promises about if it would happen or not.

the whole time hes talking in circles about how hes a good customer, officer in the military, how he had no problem with me, that he wouldnt want me to be stessed about this.

now by this point the line of customers have started to get longer and longer and i had already spent about 30-45 mins helping this guy. they milled around as i told them i would be with them as soon as possible, and they could see that i was having some major issues with this guy. they were very good natured about it.

i printed out his paper work, i then asked him to review the warranty details on the tires (both milage and road hazard) he then informs me that he is beyond such warranties and that he should get the adjustments anyway.

i finally came to a deal with the guy, after much discussion, he wanted me to call him withe adjustment, and i told him that i might not beable to do such a thing as i am not the one who will beable to approve it, but i would give the message to my manager. i told him that i would pull his tires aside so they didnt get taken to the recycle by accident, so i could research the issue, and that i wouldnt be in on tuesday, or thursday (the days he wanted to come in to talk to the manager) he would come in on weds.

he walked out the door still applogizing for his behavior, and that he didnt want to get me in trouble ect ect.

20 mins later, he calls me to again appoligize for his behavior, saying he didnt want me to stress over him, or anything else related to him.


ok now you guys are probably thinking that aww what a nice guy he apoligizes. this is probably not the case.

like i said he has done this before, and all of the previous managers probably made alowences for him because, hes a forceful and intimidateing person. i am not that easy to force or intimidate most of the time and im wise to him. he knows this so he starts to change his tune, and tries to play apon my ego, and emotional state. im not gonna let this happen either. when i have seen him he is always threatening to take his cars some where else.

we have a new manager, im gonna tell him not to allow the adjustment unless they are truly valid. because this guy will come back do the same thing, and all the while treatening to take his buisness else where, and this point im hoping he does.

[Kiwi]

You know i have every respect for people who put themselves on the line of duty everyday.... until they start flashing their ID around thinking it makes them special.
There is NO draft, they have choosen to go into the armed forces, and while yes they dedicate themselves to the bettermeant of society so do doctors and teachers and charity workers. Does it make you a good person, sure, does it mean you deserve special treatment... no freaking way.
Entitlement really tears my nightie!

[ruffledbirdy]

Actually I am joining the Air Force, and I am reallllllly certain that I was told what he was doing was a strict no no.

Very strict no no.

I'll double check if you want me too, but you should really get in touch with his chain of command and let them know. Such behavior reflects badly on the armed services. All those people in line now have a negative impression of the military. I know that while I am out in public, that if asked I can tell people I am enlisting (something I am proud about) but that I have to maintain a higher level of politeness (no swearing, no nasty behavior, no arrogance, no bossing people around, that kind of thing).

I'll double check with my recruiter and future CO (I already know where I am going... I am so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111oneoneelevinity)

[MadRocketScientist]

I'll save ruffled the trouble, While out of uniform, you can be any kind of ass that you want, but if you are in uniform, or in any other way advertising your membership in the military (and waving a DOD ID is advertising), you are expected to display a higher standard of professionalism.

Getting his name and tracking down his chain of command would not be a bad idea, nor would it be unheard of for a business to write a polite letter expressing concern over the members behavior (I've seen what happens when these arrive, and the resulting ass-chewing is frightening).

[queenbb]

i too respect our men and women in uniform, my dad served in the navy for 24 years. i wanted to join my self, and yes what he did was wrong.

to make things worse he is an officer so what ever branch he belongs too (he flashed it so quick i didnt see, and when i checked him out i didnt think to look) the expectations are way higher. your whole family is to abide by this code of conduct.

i dont know if i will track down his chain of command, at this point i just dont want to deal with some more red tape as military stuff is concerned. but im seriously thinking about it.

i did call and talk to a co-worker (since the manager was busy) to forewarn him about the situation, the co-worker knows about the guy since he has dealt with him before and agrees with me warning the new manager because if he sets his foot down, the cycle will slowly or completely stop.

this guy must know that his bullying will not be tolerated by me and apparently the rest of them are sick of him too.

unfortunatlly for our shop, we have been considered the most likely to be conned so to speak, and i dont want that to happen any longer as we are trying to rebuild the shop after bad managment, lack of employees, and increasingly angry loyal customers.

[chainedbarista]

being married to a service member and having been one myself, i have respect and admiration for my fellow soldiers/sailors/marines/airmen, but when they push this for personal gain, i lose that respect completely. it's not meant to be used as a 'card' for personal benefit, and they know this.

if you have his information on file (his unit phone number) and he continues to be an ass, you can file a complaint against him; units don't look kindly on members who misrepresent the service in any form and he will get a reminder of this and why it's unacceptable to abuse his 'position' in this way.

a jerk is still a jerk, regardless of where they work, after all.

[queenbb]

i dont have his unit information on file its not exactly imoportant info.

[SCSlave]

It pisses me off to no end when military men/women come barging in "I"m in the military! Give me what I want! Give me free shit!" and scream and berate the poor employee. I see it all the time. I actually had one guy call me a communist because we don't have any military discounts. It's not up to me if we have discounts for them or not. And just because we don't does NOT mean we're communists. It means we're cheap. hahaha

[chainedbarista]

ah, too bad; that might curb his stupity. as bad as some officers can be, their spouses and the spouses of low ranking enlisted tend to act especially bad.

i guess they're too impressed with their mrs. *title* whomevershitsaturd to realise that it doesn't mean squat in real life.

[ArenaBoy]

My grandpa who was in the Army had a saying for these types: "Anyone in uniform who goes around parading their military status as a way to get what they want is worthless in my eyes." I come from a military family (Grandpas on both parents sides served in the Army and Navy, I have 3 cousins who were ex-Marines.) and I was basically taught nothing but to respect.

[queenbb]

i also am military family, almost every one except a few were in the navy or army. i was taught to respect that, and honor them and i do. my boyfriend as well was a military family as well.

most of my contact with them was on base where they behaved, and the marines i knew who were off base were their normal self types i just knew they were marines they never brandished their rank, but i never really interacted with some one who was an officer off base, if i did they never said anything till this point.


i guess i was lucky till now

and yes the wifes are bad too, and like i said they are also expected to behave properly

[Andara Bledin]

and yes the wifes are bad too, and like i said they are also expected to behave properly

My mom's family were air force. My uncle was the athletic type, and so when they'd have things like baseball games on the base, the officer's wives would be insufferably smug about how their kids were just better because they were the children of officers and not lowly enlisteds.

^-.-^

[queenbb]

yah, i dont know why they think they are better than enlisteds.

my mom was looking for a place to have her 20th high school reunion, and since this is a military town, she suggested the eclub, everyone said well wouldnt the oclub be better. my mom told them nope cause its alot different so she takes them to the o club, which was at this time before a remodel i guess, looked horrid, didnt have any of the emenitys that they wanted, she takes them to the eclub and they fall in love with the place. she tells them now adays the enlisted men are treated alot better than they were before.

they settled on the eclub by the way, they all thought it was cool that they could have it on base.

as far as my sc. he did not call today or show up for that matter. i talked to my boss about it and he said that there is no way he would warranty the tires because there was nothing wrong with them even the gash that was there (the one i didnt see was about 2 inches long but did not penatrate the tire at all)

so i will wait to see what happens friday after my day off

[Soulstealer]

Where I come from everyone is drafted for a period of time, it means nothing. The best you can hope for is the reduced bus ticket and maybe some places here and there are nice and will give you a discount since you're paid crap (ask if it's not posted if they say 'no' too bad). Once you're out of the military no one cares.
I guess in a country where the military is optional it might be a big deal but here saying that will get you laughed at and probably thrown out of the store on account of stupid.

[queenbb]

in highschool i had a teacher who served in the israli army, they make service mandatory i hear, we would say that we couldnt imagine her in the army.

i wonder if the kids in school know that about her now, shes the principal.

we definatly respected her because of it. she didnt take shit from anyone, and even ended up failing me because some one stole her grade book and since i couldnt reproduce the work that i had done in the class (i had a b when it was stolen) she wouldnt even let me slide because my car had a flood and all my paper work was ruined. she laughed about it when i called the school and talked to her about some issues i had when i was takeing a spanish class for the adult school. she remembered me and fondly i guess. and even remembered the bit about the car flood and said she was sorry about not letting me get the grade i had before.