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Finally posting this, nearly a week after it happened.
Stinky Guy, the smelly sack of crap who tied me up for almost 4 hours a couple Saturdays ago came back in this past Saturday.
Prior to this, I was already not in the best of moods. I came in with a mild headache that just got MUCH worse in the first hour I was there (I was working a 5PM-close shift). It got to the point where I coughed and it felt like my head was going to split in two on the spot. Had to excuse myself from the sales floor to get some tylenol from the first aid cabinet out back. Also took the opportunity to drink a bunch of water, since I was also VERY thirsty (which had led to the cough, and probabyl contributed to the headache as well).
As I came back to the floor (from the back to the fron to fhte building), I spotted Stinky Guy. He was talking to Al - our sales manager. Rather than go up there and let him see me, I did an abrupt about-face and retreated to the back end of the department. There was no one else there at the moment, so it wasn't as if I was neglecting other customers.
Judy, my department lead, approached.
Judy: I'm going to lunch.
Me (aghast): NO! Do you SEE who's here?! You can't leave me alone with that guy!!!
Judy: Yeah well I have to go to lunch! Don't worry, Al's taking care of him. While I'm gone, see if you can take down old signs [as in old sale prices that were expiring that night].
Me: Fine....I'll start back here.
Not even a minute later, Alice (Ops manager) paged me up front, then stuck me with Stinky Guy. She told me that Al told her to do it, and Al had specifically promised me after the last time that I would NOT be the one to deal with him the next time.
Three full hours later, just as the store is closing, he left and I was free of him.
Highlights of this visit, so I dont' have to retell the full 3 hours here:
•Nearly incessant whining about how tough life is for him now because he "lost his license." I lost coutn of how many times he told me this, as if any of it really mattered or was in any way relevent to the situation at hand. And yet, despite allegedly losing his license, he still drove here.....
•About a 15 minute bitching fest about hwo the DVD blanks he bought the last time were no good and he was out $30. Much of this time was swhere he'd ask me how it was possible that a disc could be bad, me giving him several possible explanations, and him saying "Yeah but it makes no sense, Dave! How could that happen?!"
•At least 30 minutes agonizing over which KVM switch to buy: USB or PS/2. The USB one was about $10 more than the PS/2 version, and all he realyl needed was the ability to switch monitors, not a keyboard or mouse. Despite my repeated recommendation that he get the PS/2 switch, he get's the USB switch.
•Another hour spent agonizing further over a $100 webcam and a $60 "Dazzle DVD recorder" device (basically a USB digital video bridge. I actually own an earlier version of that that used FireWire). Two devices that I knew he did not need or even realyl understand. He was under the mistaken impression that a webcam could be used as a general purpose video/still picture camera. He ended up buying both, despite me all but saying "Don't buy these."
•The reason I tried to talk him out of the webcam and Dazzle device was because throughout the entire 3 hour period, he was moaning abotu how much all this was going to cost him and how much I was making him spend!!! No sir, I am not making you spend ANYTHING. Aside from suggesting you buy Norton Internet Security, I only got you what YOU YOURSELF ASKED ME FOR! He even made a quasi-complaint to Al that I was makign him spend too much. Moreover, I did not want to see him back to return these items that I knew he didn't need and wouldn't understand.
•Virtually non-stop bitching abotu how "unfair" it is that you still have to go online and actually download Vista drivers for certain devices. He called it a "rip-off" apparently because he feels internet access should be free.
•At one point he actually asked me how he could tap into other people's wireless internet connections, because he doesn't want to get an account with an ISP. "That's illegal" went in one ear and out the other, then he just repeated the question.
•Demanded that I download the Vista drivers for the webcam and the Dazzle device. Because at this point I was thoroughly sick of him and wanted him gone, I agreed to do this, but only after he decided to buy a flash drive that IO could load them on (an adventure in and of itself).
FINALLY, after three hours, he had everythign he wanted and started to pay. He ended up buying a latop AND a desktop comptuer (after having returned to another store the one he bought the first time around), plus a total of 13 attachement items. He paid for the laptop and 4 of the other tiems first, then went away! I very nearly exploded after that, since i thought he'd taken off without buying more than half the stuff he had me get for him, including the stuff we'd spent hours discussing. But it turned out that it just ook him an abnormally long time to load a laptop and ONE bag of merchandise in his car. He did come back in and buy the rest, so int eh end, I made a fairly decent sale off of him, but it was SO not worth the time and brain cells that were wassted in doing do.
Afterwards, the cashier who rang him out burst out laughing, claiming that Stinky Guy was "very funny" and the way he talked was "a riot."
After nearly blowing up on the cashier (I restrained myself) I told him "hey, if you think he's so funny, YOU can help him the next time he comes in!! Trust me, you will NOT find it so funny after that!!!!!"
Cashier: Yes I will.
At some point during this ordeal, I told Al "you owe me" for sticking me on Stinky Guy after telling me he would not do that. Well, after the store closed, I saw Al approaching out of the corner of my eye. Since I was still irritated and we were still hopelessly behind because of allt he time SG wasted, I didnt' bother looking up until he was right next to me.
Me: yes?
Al: This is for not losing your cool with that guy. Get yourself a nice lunch tomorrow or something. *palms over a $10!!*
Now for the record, I have never lost my cool on a customer, but I took the money anyway.
Oh, and as before, since he came in on a Saturday, he totalyl disrupted the weekend Ad Prep, so Al, Judy, and myself were there until 11PM putting up price changes, and we still werent' donew when we finally left. Had SG not shown up, we probabyl would have been out of there no later than 10PM AND had everything complete.
Stinky Guy, the smelly sack of crap who tied me up for almost 4 hours a couple Saturdays ago came back in this past Saturday.
Prior to this, I was already not in the best of moods. I came in with a mild headache that just got MUCH worse in the first hour I was there (I was working a 5PM-close shift). It got to the point where I coughed and it felt like my head was going to split in two on the spot. Had to excuse myself from the sales floor to get some tylenol from the first aid cabinet out back. Also took the opportunity to drink a bunch of water, since I was also VERY thirsty (which had led to the cough, and probabyl contributed to the headache as well).
As I came back to the floor (from the back to the fron to fhte building), I spotted Stinky Guy. He was talking to Al - our sales manager. Rather than go up there and let him see me, I did an abrupt about-face and retreated to the back end of the department. There was no one else there at the moment, so it wasn't as if I was neglecting other customers.
Judy, my department lead, approached.
Judy: I'm going to lunch.
Me (aghast): NO! Do you SEE who's here?! You can't leave me alone with that guy!!!
Judy: Yeah well I have to go to lunch! Don't worry, Al's taking care of him. While I'm gone, see if you can take down old signs [as in old sale prices that were expiring that night].
Me: Fine....I'll start back here.
Not even a minute later, Alice (Ops manager) paged me up front, then stuck me with Stinky Guy. She told me that Al told her to do it, and Al had specifically promised me after the last time that I would NOT be the one to deal with him the next time.
Three full hours later, just as the store is closing, he left and I was free of him.
Highlights of this visit, so I dont' have to retell the full 3 hours here:
•Nearly incessant whining about how tough life is for him now because he "lost his license." I lost coutn of how many times he told me this, as if any of it really mattered or was in any way relevent to the situation at hand. And yet, despite allegedly losing his license, he still drove here.....
•About a 15 minute bitching fest about hwo the DVD blanks he bought the last time were no good and he was out $30. Much of this time was swhere he'd ask me how it was possible that a disc could be bad, me giving him several possible explanations, and him saying "Yeah but it makes no sense, Dave! How could that happen?!"
•At least 30 minutes agonizing over which KVM switch to buy: USB or PS/2. The USB one was about $10 more than the PS/2 version, and all he realyl needed was the ability to switch monitors, not a keyboard or mouse. Despite my repeated recommendation that he get the PS/2 switch, he get's the USB switch.
•Another hour spent agonizing further over a $100 webcam and a $60 "Dazzle DVD recorder" device (basically a USB digital video bridge. I actually own an earlier version of that that used FireWire). Two devices that I knew he did not need or even realyl understand. He was under the mistaken impression that a webcam could be used as a general purpose video/still picture camera. He ended up buying both, despite me all but saying "Don't buy these."
•The reason I tried to talk him out of the webcam and Dazzle device was because throughout the entire 3 hour period, he was moaning abotu how much all this was going to cost him and how much I was making him spend!!! No sir, I am not making you spend ANYTHING. Aside from suggesting you buy Norton Internet Security, I only got you what YOU YOURSELF ASKED ME FOR! He even made a quasi-complaint to Al that I was makign him spend too much. Moreover, I did not want to see him back to return these items that I knew he didn't need and wouldn't understand.
•Virtually non-stop bitching abotu how "unfair" it is that you still have to go online and actually download Vista drivers for certain devices. He called it a "rip-off" apparently because he feels internet access should be free.
•At one point he actually asked me how he could tap into other people's wireless internet connections, because he doesn't want to get an account with an ISP. "That's illegal" went in one ear and out the other, then he just repeated the question.
•Demanded that I download the Vista drivers for the webcam and the Dazzle device. Because at this point I was thoroughly sick of him and wanted him gone, I agreed to do this, but only after he decided to buy a flash drive that IO could load them on (an adventure in and of itself).
FINALLY, after three hours, he had everythign he wanted and started to pay. He ended up buying a latop AND a desktop comptuer (after having returned to another store the one he bought the first time around), plus a total of 13 attachement items. He paid for the laptop and 4 of the other tiems first, then went away! I very nearly exploded after that, since i thought he'd taken off without buying more than half the stuff he had me get for him, including the stuff we'd spent hours discussing. But it turned out that it just ook him an abnormally long time to load a laptop and ONE bag of merchandise in his car. He did come back in and buy the rest, so int eh end, I made a fairly decent sale off of him, but it was SO not worth the time and brain cells that were wassted in doing do.
Afterwards, the cashier who rang him out burst out laughing, claiming that Stinky Guy was "very funny" and the way he talked was "a riot."
After nearly blowing up on the cashier (I restrained myself) I told him "hey, if you think he's so funny, YOU can help him the next time he comes in!! Trust me, you will NOT find it so funny after that!!!!!"
Cashier: Yes I will.
At some point during this ordeal, I told Al "you owe me" for sticking me on Stinky Guy after telling me he would not do that. Well, after the store closed, I saw Al approaching out of the corner of my eye. Since I was still irritated and we were still hopelessly behind because of allt he time SG wasted, I didnt' bother looking up until he was right next to me.
Me: yes?
Al: This is for not losing your cool with that guy. Get yourself a nice lunch tomorrow or something. *palms over a $10!!*
Now for the record, I have never lost my cool on a customer, but I took the money anyway.
Oh, and as before, since he came in on a Saturday, he totalyl disrupted the weekend Ad Prep, so Al, Judy, and myself were there until 11PM putting up price changes, and we still werent' donew when we finally left. Had SG not shown up, we probabyl would have been out of there no later than 10PM AND had everything complete.
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