Why bother anymore?

[Knightmare]

Ok, you've all heard me talk about copyrighted colors, right? If not, here it is in a nutshell: Lowe's and other companies own the names and colors of paint in their store. You are not supposed to take an Olympic color and put it into an American Tradition color. Ok.. so that should be easy, ya think?

Nope. Almost every day I have customers come in and grab a color that is "perfect" for them, but they want it mixed up in the cheapest paint possible. The Signature line is our premium paint; those colors can only be made into Signature paints. When I tell the customer this, they get all huffy and mopey. Some agree and either tell me to go ahead and make the paint, or they find a color that closely matches the original color they wanted. Most customers, however, whine and complain about the cost. One customer said "You know, I can take this card to Home Depot, YOUR COMPETITON, and have them match it." My reply? "You sure can. I, however, cannot put that color into a different paint."

So what does the customer do? Complains to the MOD and they end up getting their way. So I say, why bother anymore? I mean, I honestly don't care if you take this certain color and put it into that certain paint. It may not look right because of the bases or amounts of solids, but hey, you get what you want! And I won't get into trouble anymore. Yes, I am been verbally repremanded for FOLLOWING COMPANY POLICY and not caving to a customer.

You see, at Lowe's we are "empowered" to do whatever it takes to please the customer. Even if we circumvent company policy. It's a Catch 22, "damned if you do, damned if you don't" type of thing. I get scolded for not giving into the customer, because that makes for an unhappy customer, and I get scolded for over-riding the system and giving the customer what they want.

So from now on, I'm just going to give the customer whatever the hell they want. Maybe then that will show the GM that I am a team player, one that can also bend to every whim of the all mighty customer, and perhaps, maybe, with some ass-kissing, get that promotion that I need and deserve.

Am I making too big of a deal out of this? Of course I am. But as a one-time retail store manager, and a long time retail flunky, I have been taught to protect company assets, and the assets of our corporate partners. It's not worth getting worked up over an insignificant issue like paint.

But next time I do that, and get a talking to by my zone manager, I will look at him and say: "I'm just doing whaty you told me to. Besides, the customer is happy, isn't he? And that's all that matters at Lowe's."

[Dark Psion]

True Value came up with a simple solution to the "I want this color in your cheepest paint", our cheepest paint only has a Tint Base.

No Pastel, Deep or Neutral bases and since we do not stock the middle quality line, that only leaves the good stuff.

The Value line really only has one good use, rent houses! You know you will paint again (most likely in less than a year) and it is High Hiding.

One trick I use sometimes, I will actually refer to the Value line as the "rent house" special (or "out house" special for the outside paint) and it will help some customers decide they want a better paint on their walls.

[wildcatgrrl]

Da Depot got around that with our collegiate color line by making the sample paint chips too small to color match without catching the white border between colors too, and F'ing it up. That said, we do pretty much color match anything, any brand, whatever. I did at Lowe's, too.

My favorite paint customers are the ones who ask if we carry Porter Paint, and when told no, ask where they can buy it. It's very difficult to say "at the Porter Paint store" without sounding like a total wiseass. But as far as I know, Porter doesn't sell their paint anywhere but their own stores. Sheesh.