and not the good kind either.
The service desk pages for customer assistance in the furniture department. Against my better judgement, I drop what I'm doing and head over there.
An old woman shuffles on over to me and asks to buy a 24-inch wood swivel barstool. Says she needs it for her bathroom so she can sit on it as she styles her hair, such as it is.
I look up some further information on the barstool, and my scanner shows we have one on hand (the display)and none currently on order, but gives an ETA of July 17. A check of the planogram shows the barstool will be part of our assortment when the department is reset later this month. So I must assume more of this stool will eventually be coming, so I tell the old woman I can't sell her the display.
Shockingly, she is not okay with this. It is "ridiculous." I am "turning down a sale." She does not understand why I cannot sell her the display, even when I tell her it's because we need it for the new set. I call my manager and tell him the situation. Unsurprisingly, he tells me not to sell the display.
But rather than leave things drop there, I offer to check other stores and see if we can have the stool transferred in. As I'm doing this, one of the old woman's friends happens by and old lady gets her riled up and starting in on me. "I'm not having a good day shopping. I want to buy this stool here, but Irv won't sell it to me. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but don't stores sell stuff. Tell Irv to sell it to me!"
Meanwhile, my checking of other stores is showing that every store within 50 miles has a quantity of either zero or one on hand for this stool, and thus won't be able to transfer it in. So finally, I tell the woman to check with the service desk to see if they will issue her a raincheck. The sign for the stool specifically said no rainchecks, but as I was assuming the stool would be coming back in perhaps they would make an exception, but I couldn't promise anything. The woman finally seems satisfied and leaves. I go back to what I was doing.
Then the service desk pages me by name. "Hey Irv, did you tell a lady she could have a raincheck on a barstool?"
"No, I told her to check with you guys to see if you would."
"The sign she bought up here says no rainchecks. (old woman squawking can be heard in background)"
"Yes, but the scanner gave me an ETA of July 17 and it's going to be carried over into the new furniture reset, so I'm guessing it will eventually come back in. I'm just trying to get her off my back.
"Oh, okay (laugh). We'll see what we can do."
As I'm leaving for the day, the service desk lady grabs me and tells me the old lady with the barstool drove her nuts as well. She also tells me the woman originally tried to purchase the barstool by taking the sale sign off the shelf and taking it to the checkout. Fortunately, she had checked out by the service desk and was told she couldn't buy the barstool that way, which lead to the page that started this. Had she gone through the n00b's lane or the terminally aggressively dumb cashier's lane, they probably would've rung her out and called me to do the carryout.
Service desk lady tells me the woman promised to call or stop in every day until she got her barstool, and says "Looks like maybe you've got a little stalker now!" Yeah, great, nice to know there's so much to look forward to in life.
The service desk pages for customer assistance in the furniture department. Against my better judgement, I drop what I'm doing and head over there.
An old woman shuffles on over to me and asks to buy a 24-inch wood swivel barstool. Says she needs it for her bathroom so she can sit on it as she styles her hair, such as it is.
I look up some further information on the barstool, and my scanner shows we have one on hand (the display)and none currently on order, but gives an ETA of July 17. A check of the planogram shows the barstool will be part of our assortment when the department is reset later this month. So I must assume more of this stool will eventually be coming, so I tell the old woman I can't sell her the display.
Shockingly, she is not okay with this. It is "ridiculous." I am "turning down a sale." She does not understand why I cannot sell her the display, even when I tell her it's because we need it for the new set. I call my manager and tell him the situation. Unsurprisingly, he tells me not to sell the display.
But rather than leave things drop there, I offer to check other stores and see if we can have the stool transferred in. As I'm doing this, one of the old woman's friends happens by and old lady gets her riled up and starting in on me. "I'm not having a good day shopping. I want to buy this stool here, but Irv won't sell it to me. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but don't stores sell stuff. Tell Irv to sell it to me!"
Meanwhile, my checking of other stores is showing that every store within 50 miles has a quantity of either zero or one on hand for this stool, and thus won't be able to transfer it in. So finally, I tell the woman to check with the service desk to see if they will issue her a raincheck. The sign for the stool specifically said no rainchecks, but as I was assuming the stool would be coming back in perhaps they would make an exception, but I couldn't promise anything. The woman finally seems satisfied and leaves. I go back to what I was doing.
Then the service desk pages me by name. "Hey Irv, did you tell a lady she could have a raincheck on a barstool?"
"No, I told her to check with you guys to see if you would."
"The sign she bought up here says no rainchecks. (old woman squawking can be heard in background)"
"Yes, but the scanner gave me an ETA of July 17 and it's going to be carried over into the new furniture reset, so I'm guessing it will eventually come back in. I'm just trying to get her off my back.
"Oh, okay (laugh). We'll see what we can do."
As I'm leaving for the day, the service desk lady grabs me and tells me the old lady with the barstool drove her nuts as well. She also tells me the woman originally tried to purchase the barstool by taking the sale sign off the shelf and taking it to the checkout. Fortunately, she had checked out by the service desk and was told she couldn't buy the barstool that way, which lead to the page that started this. Had she gone through the n00b's lane or the terminally aggressively dumb cashier's lane, they probably would've rung her out and called me to do the carryout.
Service desk lady tells me the woman promised to call or stop in every day until she got her barstool, and says "Looks like maybe you've got a little stalker now!" Yeah, great, nice to know there's so much to look forward to in life.
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