Working for the White Rabbit

[Ironclad Alibi]

Thanks, but beer is for weirdos.

Let's not upset the beer drinkers. After all, they're not drinking the vodka the rest of us want.

[wolfie]

What about goon bags? They do them in vodka flavour

What is a goon bag? Also, how can they do something in vodka flavour? Vodka is like most of the "reality TV" shows - it has absolutely no taste.

[dakhur]

UPDATE: All our koalas come home to roost

Thanks to the lightening on Saturday, we've processed over 67 electronics returns. I am sick of reminding people that electrics+lightening=boom! Half of them looked at me like I was revealing sacred truth! The amount of befuddled expressions of "oh yeah" that I saw yesterday were enough to make me need a triple scotch by lunch!


And yesterday was a doozy!

1) New 2IC starts.
2) Boss has day off.
3) 4 members of staff call in! Including the guy who was supposed to show me how to do the two machines he had left to repair (now almost 2 months old!), so we were down to the 2IC, one experienced salesman, and a brand new girl.
4) The cashier called out.

And the coup de grace:

The guy was supposed to show me how to install a new screen on a new type of laptop. It's a tricky little job, not hard but needs careful handling. The screen showed, but I had to fly solo because he didn't show.

What's really over-clocking my thrusters is that we also had a machine needing a new video cable. The cables arrived last thing Friday, literally as I was walking off the loading dock. So, I put them in a bag and into my in-tray for first thing Monday when I had fresh eyes.

Came in Monday, they've vanished, nowhere to be found. An on my whiteboard is a hangman. The implication is obvious.

I'm taking the tech bay apart to try and find those cables this morning. If I can't, I'll call around the local computer supply stores and see if anyone has one they'll sell me so i can get this out today.


Goon bags:

Also known as casks. It's those 5lt bags of wine, usually silver bags with one way dispenser valves on them. Invented in Australia in the 70's. You can now get them for vodka as well, not especially tasty. Unfortunately, they don't seem to sell flagons of vodka in Australia.


Today will be more fun. At last call yesterday, there will be only me, the new 2IC, the new girl, photo lab, and one of the salesmen. Boss still has day off, since he worked 12 days straight. He can't legally return to the store until tomorrow.

Today shall prove to be interesting I think.

[Jester]

...the entire town of Nunavut...

Nunavut is not a town, but a vast territory in Canada.

Thanks, but beer is for weirdos.

Blasphemy!

That, or I'm a weirdo.

Upon further review, it's probably both.

Let's not upset the beer drinkers. After all, they're not drinking the vodka the rest of us want.

Vodka is great....when surrounded by a Bloody Mary.

Otherwise, it's basically furniture polish.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Thanks, but beer is for weirdos.

I knew there was a reason I checked out this thread. "Beer" and "weirdo" are everything but my name.

[dakhur]

UPDATE:

The sales guys took advantage of no boss by getting me to do their computer setups all day. I shall have to alter that. And the new 2IC is very ok with me cleaning all the downloded stuff off our server and locking it down. That way the sales team can't come in and download their music and movies on our bandwidth.

[wolfie]

What's really over-clocking my thrusters is that we also had a machine needing a new video cable. The cables arrived last thing Friday, literally as I was walking off the loading dock. So, I put them in a bag and into my in-tray for first thing Monday when I had fresh eyes.

Came in Monday, they've vanished, nowhere to be found. An on my whiteboard is a hangman. The implication is obvious.

Not all that obvious - I can't figure it out. What is the implication?

[Orgaloth]

The rep that wanted the tech job took the cables to get the op into trouble.

[Jetfire]

Fireheart..... this is the outer-edge of the known world here! The concept of people wanting to read voluntarily and not at gunpoint is almost unknown in this outer suburb of the barcoo.

Imagine, if you dare, that the entire town of Nunavut has been uplifted and replanted as a western suburb of Perth -- a city where, when the plane lands, you put your watch back 3 hours and your mind back 30 years.

And now imagine that the citizens of the mythical town of Nunavut can now access electricity, and phones, and Maccas, and booze, and can get enough computers for everyone in the village!

And I'm running the repair/tech support/customer service bay for them.

And I'm running very low on Vodka.

As mentioned, Nunavut is a territory in Canada.. Biggest territory in Canada ( 2million km squared *checks* Dang, about 600,000 kmsq smaller than Western Australia) but smallest population ( 32,000 people). Otherwise everything fits, but all the sled dogs might be annoyed at the heat from the transplant. Don't want to annoy the doggies.

Oh and they already can access all the booze they want. And from GK's posts, phones too somehow. Electricity is probably still optional.

[dakhur]

Special snowflake customers and silly salesmen -- and Harvey the sprite turns up!

Still settling in to the new job, but already the weird stuff is happening.


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Special snowflake customer:


A lady brought her computer in last Saturday because she went to turn it on, there was a loud 'POP' and it smelled of electrics.

So far, so good. Obviously the system blew at the power switch. So, crack the case, pull the HDD, save the data, and send the machine back for assessment.

If it was that simple, I wouldn't mention it . . . . .

The customer calls just after I get in Monday, wanting to know what's happening. I explain I'm looking at it and will save the data, then send it back. She freaks, doesn't want people seeing her private and confidential stuff, etc. I'm beginning to wonder what she's got on there, but go into my 'madam, I'm a professional, I have better things to do than steal your identity' routine. She finally okays the rescue and I go ahead.

Then come Wednesday, I get a call from the claim people. The details I've given them don't match what they have. With them on the phone, we go through serial numbers, etc and reach a ghastly conclusion -- this was a machine that supposedly was salvaged 6 months ago! It was repaired and returned, instead of being scrapped. But the repair crew had charged the claim mob for a new machine.

For those following at home, that's fraud.

So now I have a customer demanding a AIO computer that's a certain size but has certain stuff and will only accept a few brands as replacements. It's a little like going to K-mart and demanding hand-made leather shoes because your BATA scouts have broken heels.

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Silly salesman 1:

'Hey Dakhur, can you reset this? Customer will be back in an hour to pick up.' (tries to escape)

(shuts door before he gets out) I'll have it done by 5pm. You call the customer and arrange a later time! You can see I've got 4 jobs on the bench! (resists urge to roll up newspaper and smack over nose)

(salesman slinks away to contact customer and arrange more reasonable pickup time)


Silly salesman 2:

(comes to doorway) 'Hey Dakhur, there's a customer on line 3' (tries to run away)

(Dakhur darts out and bails him up by the printers) 'And why aren't you taking a message? There's message pads beside every phone and a message box on the tech bay door. You were told; take a message and I'll contact them.'

(salesman tries to duck away) 'But I told them you'd speak to them.'

(Dakhur mentally fits him for shock collar) 'Then pick up the phone and take the message and tell them I will call them back. That's the procedure now, and you know it.' (salesman does as told)


Silly salesman 3:

(customer appears at tech bay desk. Dakhur comes out and smiles brightly) 'What can I do for you?'

customer - 'One of the sales guys said you can help me with this.' (hands over large, heavy, bulky laptop that's about 15 years old) 'He said you can put in a new drive and install windows on it.'

(Dakhur looks at machine in dismay) 'Sir, this machine is too old. It probably won't accept the new drive, it certainly would have trouble with the new windows.'

customer - 'But they said it would work!' (waves copy of Office) 'They sold me this but it won't install. I need you to make it work, he promised I could use it.'

(Dakhur gets that sinking feeling)

I'm sure you all can imagine how the rest of that last one went. The laptop was running Win95, with 256 RAM and a 500mg HDD. He refused to consider a new machine because the old one still worked and insisted that I try and upgrade it so it would use the latest software. Took 30 minutes of my time and got no-where.

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On a lighter note:

Harvey, the sprite who's been attached to me for about 8 years now has turned up. He's been playing with the speaker systems and the security scanners. One day my ipod suddenly retuned itself so that it started playing over the demo sound systems, something that simply can't happen by accident.

Then late on Friday afternoon, he started sending off the scanners. No-one would be in the store or anywhere near them, but they'd go off.

The good bit is that the cashier finds it amusing, and when I told her about Harvey, she laughed and said he was as good an explanation as any other. So now she chuckles and scolds Harvey when it happens as well.

------

And Sunday I get to go in and recable the tech bay. It hasn't been reset in the 10 years since it was first done and there's spare stuff and obselete cables all over. It's supposed to be my day off, but there's no way I can get it done on a work day, so Sunday it is. I'll close the bay, crank up the ipod, and spend 6 hours sorting it all out.

[KatherineB]

Oh, you've got Harvey! I (also?) have a sprite I believe to be called Harvey who mucks about with electronic devices (draining the battery, turning things on and off, playing with the radio reception, etc) who hasn't been seen since I moved house. Explains a lot...

[Jester]

Hi. My name's Harvey. Any messages for me?

[dakhur]

Refits and the fallout of a bad salesman.

The computer department of the White Rabbit store has been having a refit this week.

Now, other stores where I've worked and this has happened, teams of gangers were brought in and within two days, it all looks good. Not this mob. They didn't even close the department, just refitted around the customers, sparkies and all. The place has looked like a bomb has hit it for the last week.

------------------------

A few weeks ago, a customer was having trouble getting his Outlook to work. The YISM who answered the phone had him uninstall the program. Naturally, this meant it completely stopped working. Then they sold him a copy of Outlook13 and install that on top of his older versions. That solved nothing and the system got buggier by the moment.

Eventually, the customer brought the machine in. I had a look at it, tsked politely, and commented that the best idea would be to save his data and do a factory reset, then install his new programs into the new system. The guy agreed, and after he'd used it for a weekend to get as much done as he could, he brought it back.

Here's where it goes bad . . . .

When we sign a job in, we state LOUDLY AND MANY TIMES that although we make all efforts to save a customers data, there are no guarantees. We also state that we'll only save data from obvious areas of the drive, so we won't go looking for obscure folders scattered throughout the drive.

I set up a data backup, it tolddled off overnight and copied to the customer supplied portable HDD, then set the reset running. By the next day, the machine was putting along happily, the new software was installed, the customer was happy, and I handed the lot back with the warm glow of a satisfied customer.

He came back Friday. Threw the machine at me and demanded I find his work files. 10 minutes looking and none of them were on the drive. The backup had saved some stuff, but not others. No idea why. I told him to go to one of the local recovery specialist places that might be able to recover it for him. He is NOT a happy camper, and it's all because a lazy salesman had him uninstall a program over the phone.

It's enough to make you cry into your scotch.

[dakhur]

Being quick and firm means I hate men . . . . .

Customer had a machine that's 18mths out of warranty. One of the sales guys said he could bring it in and I would look at it.

Sadly, when he came in I had just been reamed over by the boss, to the extent I was walking funny, and therefore possibly not my usual cheerful self.

However, I was polite and friendly. I listened to the problem, made several suggestions, came to an arrangement with the customer, and he left reasonably happy. We had to reset the computer, but I saved his stuff to a chip before hand.

The age of the machine meant it took longer than expected, and I was only halfway through the next morning when he turned up, demanding to know what was happening. I was with another customer, so I was slightly curt with him, saying I hadn't finished yet and would call when it was done.

That's when he went nuts, yelling that I obviously hated men, that I was rude and arrogant, that I had been rude to him, etc, etc.

The other customer stood to one side, watching in horror. I just waited until he ran out of steam, then firmly informed him that the machine would be ready later that afternoon, that I still had to install drivers just so it could connect to the net and begin updating. After a final yell that I'd better call and that I needed to adjust my attitude, he left.

In the stunned silence that followed, the poor customer I had been dealing with said "what the hell was that?"

I replied "The standard Friday morning special snowflake. We get about two a week. Now, where were we?"

[dakhur]

You sold me this computer, so you need to give me my money!

Not a bad week all up, aside from one customer, who didn't seem to get the hang of warranty repairs.

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When we sell a computer, we actively push something called 'product care' - PC. When a customer purchases this, for 1, 3, or 5 years, it means that their machine is covered if it breaks down and needs to be sent away for repair. It's worth the money and a fairly fast process (takes about 10 days).

However, some people refuse to take it up. So that means they have the single year of standard company warranty coverage and then it starts being money.

This customer didn't buy PC. His machine has had problems in the past, and he's sent it away himself as it's a warranty job. This time though, he brought it in for us to send, something I have my suspicions about given what's happened.

This machine has been in and out of the repair bay for 2 months. In one case, it was sent away, repaired, sent back, given back to the customer, and returned for repair 48 hours later. It is, in technical terms, a lemon.

When he brought it in, he spoke to Chris, the senior sales guy, who promised to look at it first, save his data if possible, and then pass it on to me and I'd send it. Which is fine as far as it goes, but when I see a machine in the system with the note "Chris is dealing with it", I leave it alone and get on with other work.

Chris forgot about it, and I had to deal with a previously mentioned nightmare customer, so it went out of my head for a week. When I got back to it and mentioned it, Chris tried to claim he'd told me about it and how dare I not have sent it away! I pointed out the note in the system and he waved it off. So I hustled it through the process, got it away, and thought nothing more about it.

Until last Tuesday, when the owner called, berated me for the time the machine had been away, insinuated we had ulterior motives in not fixing the machine (no, I don't get that either), and demanding a refund, even though the machine was getting close to a year old.

I went into placating mode, aplogising like mad for the delay, offering various freebies, etc. Nothing worked, he wanted his money back. I shifted up a gear, pointed out that we'd not charged him for the data save even though we usually do, that this was the 3rd repair, that the machine was the manufactorers issue not ours, that we'd been pushing the job forward, etc.

Nope, nothing was good enough. He wanted his money and he wanted it tomorrow, or he'd personally sue me and the company. He'd spoken to the ACCC, we owed him, he legally could demand everything, etc, etc. You get the idea.

I upped the ante again. I couldn't authorise a refund, but I could speak to my boss and see if we could arrange a new machine, putting forward the number of repairs he'd had, the annoyance it had called, etc. I was going out on a limb with this, but I could smell this job going sour.

Nope, still not good enough, and I needed to tell him NOW that he could come in and get a refund or he'd be calling a solicitor and our legal department. To recap -- he knows I can't okay anything like this, but he's pushing to try and get me to. And it sounds like he's got me on a speaker phone as well, which later strikes me as odd.

Finally, I run through what I can offer: We can look at offering a reasonable new machine. We can get his repaired machine and offer a years PC, offer software cheap, offer some upgrades. No go, he wanted cold hard cash.

I asked what sort of new machine he wanted to buy rather than what he had, and he said that he wanted to go with a Mac. Ah-ha! Our store doesn't sell them, something about the universe imploding if we have Apples, Windows, and Android machines in the same shop, but one of the city stores does! Perhaps we can arrange for a replacement Mac?

No, absolutely not! He wants nothing to do with us! He wants his money, and I'm going to say he can have it and he's coming in to get it tomorrow at 10am or we'll be sued for all eternity! The ACCC has said we screwed up and we're entirely at fault!

At this point, I admit defeat. I know we've had SOME responsibility towards the issues, since we took some time getting the machine away for repair, but he's doing my head in. I tell him that I can't agree to anything and that I'll need to run it through my boss before speaking with him again. The owner agrees to give me until 10am the next day and hands up. I immediately make copious notes about what happened and get on to the warranty company about arranging a refund. All of this has taken 40 minutes.

No go. They'll repair the machine, but won't okay a refund, despite the fact the machine it a lemon. I spent another hour on the phone speaking with everyone I could, all to no avail. My boss had left for the day due to being very ill, and the 2IC was away sick, so I had no-one to speak to. I got on with all the other jobs I had and mulled over what to do before the customer rang the next day. I emailed information to the warranty company so they were up-to-date, but they refused to commit themselves to anything.

By the end of the day I was freaking out in a big way, and quite determined the boss would fire me the moment he found out what was happening. Chris saw I was stressed and I told him was was happening and that the customer refused every solution I'd come up with and I had until 10am to find $1000 to give to the customer.

Unknown to me, Chris called the 2IC and explained the state I was in and the situation. Next morning, the 2IC came in, asked for an update, listened calmly, then told me I'd done everything according to policy and to stop worrying, he'd deal with the customer when they called. He also reviewed the case notes I'd left and told me that he agreed the customer was just being a twit.

Next day, both the boss and the 2IC came and told me it was all ok, and that the customer had accepted their offer of a Mac shipped in from another store. When I pointed out that I'd made the same offer and he'd refused outright and threatened legal stuff, the boss told me that he'd pointed out to the customer that we'd already gone above and beyond what I was expected to do (data saves, trying to save the machine, etc) and how dare he threaten me when I'd tried everything to be helpful.

So the customer is getting his Mac and we'll get a refurb. And with any luck, I'll never have to deal with him again.

I would like to point out that I don't normally get rattled by customers, after 25 years in retail you get somewhat used to threats. But I can't tell you how much venom was in this guys tone when he was having a go at me. He got in under my skin, something that hasn't happened in a long time.

On the plus side, I had some very nice and grateful customers for the rest of the week, so that's helped get me back on track.

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