But it will only take a second...

[cinnamaniac]

Oh boy, another one of the know it alls. Lucky me!

*guy comes up to register*

Me: "Hello, do you have a Club Card?"
SC: "Uh, yeah, here you go."
Me: *scans it* "It says customer not on file. Did you get this card at this store branch?"
SC: "Um.. no. Why should that matter?"
Me: "Oh because if you didn't get this at this store branch or if the card is merely bent/damaged it usually says customer not on file. I just wanted to make sure that was the reason it said that. I can activate it for you, it will only take a second."
SC: *huffs* "Um...that doesn't make any sense. The card is for this store."
Me: "Yeah, but since you applied at a different branch, it says customer not on file for this branch until it's activated. Hold on, it will only take a second."
SC: "Well, it doesn't do it at any other stores!"
Me: "I'm sorry, but it does that here. Activation will only take a second."
SC: "But it's worked at every other store."
Me: "I realize that, but here it must be activated and it will only take a second."
SC: "..but the other stores do not require it."
Me: "this one does. one moment" *walks over to get card activated*
SC: "Well, it SHOULDN'T!" *card is activated by the time he finishes this line*

All that talk and the card could have been activated right then and there. I just don't get some people, they act like I do this on purpose. Why would I want to make my job harder by not accepting your club card on purpose? Moron.

[Becks]

The customer WAS sucky about it, but I have to agree with him. That doesn't make sense.

[CanadaGirl]

The liquor store I work at has club cards, and once your data is inputted in the computer system, the card is valid at any of the stores that carry this name or the "Depot" name. Having a card that needs to be activated again, just because the customer is at a different branch, is annoying to the customer and a waste of time really.

[DesignFox]

I agree, but instead of arguing it's just easier to give that puzzled look...exclaim "wow, that's weird" and let the person behind the counter do their job...rather than being all angry about it. Not to mention that being compliant takes a whole lot less time than being argumentative....

[cheese]

Our store does that too. They get points from their shopping with the loyalty card which when they have enough, they can take money straight off their bill. However when they haven't used a card at a store before or not been there in the last 3 mon ths their card isn't on the system and they can't use it to take money off the bill (although they stil get points from that days shopping). Once they've swiped their card at our store it will get automatically added on to our stores system overnight.

I can see exactly why this makes sense; most customers only use what - one, maybe two or three stores on a regular basis? And its a national chain with over 500 stores. To have every customers data stored on file at each store is a huge unnecessary expense. Unlike you though,I've not had anyone be sucky about this yet, they all seem perfectly happy to just take off the money next time.

[Lace Neil Singer]

^Yeah, that. After I tell them then explain to them the situation, everyone seems perfectly content. I had someone today say they had loads of points that they wanted off for Christmas, so what did they have to do to get the card active here. I told them that coming in here within five months does that. Simple.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

The customer WAS sucky about it, but I have to agree with him. That doesn't make sense.

Granted that with today's era of instant communications between computers one would think that a card that is active at one branch would likewise be at another. My BJ's card certainly is.

However if I were to go to a store that didn't know my number and would activate it in a few seconds I'd have just shrugged, let the person do their job and been done with it without the drama and high blood pressure.

It's weird, but the customer was sucky about it.

Mongo

[karma_gypsy]

I can see exactly why this makes sense; most customers only use what - one, maybe two or three stores on a regular basis? And its a national chain with over 500 stores. To have every customers data stored on file at each store is a huge unnecessary expense. Unlike you though,I've not had anyone be sucky about this yet, they all seem perfectly happy to just take off the money next time.

Talk about having some serious computing power even - to keep all customer data stored so all branches could use it. It's best if they stayed separate, what would happen if the system failed? That would be a lotta lost/corrupted data, or a lot of time spent sorting it all out.

Plus, it only take a second to activate the card, simple, he spent more time arguing than it did to activate the card. Maybe he was arguing for the sake of arguing.