How many times do I have to say, "We don't carry it"?

[DistantStar]

Got a call last night from a guy trying to find out if we carry a specific model of crib. After about three minutes of describing it he finally gives me the information I actually needed, the company name and model name.

I go off to look at the cribs. Well, no, we don't carry the one me mentioned. But we do have one that is very similar. At this point I'm thinking he probably meant the one we have, but said "3-in-1" instead of "4-in-1". These are really nifty cribs, they turn into a toddler bed and a daybed and a regular bed. If I ever need a crib, I'll look for something like that.

"Sir, we don't have a 3-in-1, but we do have a 4-in-1...is it possible that's the one you meant?" Mind you, I was trying to be polite without saying, "Are you a complete idiot or what?"

No, he insisted he was looking for the 3-in-1. He'd ordered it from online. "We don't carry it in the store, sir, it might be a web-only item." Blah blah blah...he keeps describing the silly thing, telling me he wants to exchange it, blah blah blah..."I understand, sir, but we don't have it." Blah blah blah...

After about five minutes and saying "We just don't have that model" and other things about every thirty seconds, he finally gives up on me and hangs up.

WE. DON'T. HAVE. IT. How hard is it to understand that?

[Tito]

Are you POSITIVE you don't have it? *ducks*

[Kyree]

You sure that you just didn't see it, and the 100th time he asks it'll magically appear? *Hides Behind Tito*

[karma_gypsy]

I had the same problem yesterday.

Gentlemen comes in (rather nice, but kind of dull, unfortunately) is looking for an Oscar Schmidt acoustic guitar. We'll, we had one, but not anymore. After doing a thorough search of the store (i.e., glance at the guitars on the wall and the ones in the stands), we did not have it. I even checked the computer, every Oscar Schmidt that we ever had come through the store has been sold.

For some odd reason, he couldn't grasp this notion. So I temporarily left to price a gig bag (price tag has fallen off) - which he was also interested in, but it was too 'thin'. He got a co-worker of mine to, again, look for the guitar in the computer. That's when I got kinda stern with him (not rude, just firm).

"We *don't* *have* the guitar. It was sold. We don't have any on the wall, we don't have any over there (motioning to the stands), we don't have any in the back and there aren't any in the computer."

That got through to him.

"There is a music store right next door though."

[I_Hate_SCs]

No, he insisted he was looking for the 3-in-1. He'd ordered it from online. "We don't carry it in the store, sir, it might be a web-only item."

:::gag::: Do you work for Target? Half of the infant furniture we have is web-only, and it seems that the furniture everybody has on their registries are web-only. The SCs ask why we would sell it if they can't buy it at the store, and I tell them that we simply don't have the floor space to put every single infant furniture item we sell, and if we did we'd have an infant dept the size of the whole store. Then, you always get the gems who suddenly smirk as if the 'idea lightbulb' went off over their head, and ask for us to ship it to the store so they can pick it up to avoid shipping charges. I gladly tell them that we don't do that, and that the only way to get it is online.

What I don't get is how the idiots who put the registries together online don't see the clear "WEB-ONLY ITEM" denotation right next to the product image, or the same text printed on the registry. If I was putting a registry together online, I'd make sure it only had stuff that people actually can buy at the store unless the people who have my registry plan on buying online.

[friendofjimmyk]

Are you really sure that you don't have it in the back somewhere!?

[KaeZoo]

Are you really sure that you don't have it in the back somewhere!?

"I want one of the ones that you have set aside for employees to buy." Got this once, back when new release Disney movies would sell out 500 copies before lunch.

[pbmods]

My First Time!

I finally got my first "Are you sure you don't have it?" the other day!

So this woman comes up to my counter with about (8) 2-packs of Energizer rechargeable batteries. She drops them all on my counter and says, "Hi. I'm looking for these batteries, but you only have 8 on the wall. Could you go to the back and check if you have more? I'll wait."

Now before we go any further, here's some quick background. I was recently transferred to this store, and one of the first things I did was go to the stockroom and organize ALL of my departments. I did a full count, I pulled EVERYTHING, and by that point, if it wasn't on the shelf, it wasn't in the store.

So I told her this, and she gives me "The Look™", the "Oh yes you do; you're just too lazy to go back there and get them for me; in fact, I'll bet you've got hundreds of them back there, and you're just being a little bitch" look.

I reminded her that I personally stocked that entire department just a couple of days ago, and if it ain't on the shelf, we don't have it. "I'd love to sell them to you, ma'am."

And she shoots back, "Well if I see them on the shelf tomorrow, I'm going to be mad."

Yuh-huh.

What's kind of funny about this, though, is that the next day, our district and regional managers were scheduled to come visit, so one of the assistant managers pulled all of our outs from other stores, and so as it turned out, there WERE more of that item on the shelf the next day

[DistantStar]

Nope, not Target. The Competition. Wally World. Though not for too much longer if I have anything to say about it!

And no, it's not in the back. If it's not out, it's not available. Sorry, but that's the way it is!

[I_Hate_SCs]

Nope, not Target. The Competition. Wally World. Though not for too much longer if I have anything to say about it!

And no, it's not in the back. If it's not out, it's not available. Sorry, but that's the way it is!

I heard Wal-Mart has no backroom,at least the local store ... a few of my co-workers used to work there. They said all that was back there were the store offices and the receiving area where some on-sale items were kept, etc. It must be nice not having to run back there every time somebody wants something not on the floor. At least at Target we have handheld computers that can check the back without having to go there, but it would be truly nice to simply say "If its not on the shelf, we don't have it" without fear of getting in trouble .

[garth1]

I heard Wal-Mart has no backroom,at least the local store ... a few of my co-workers used to work there. They said all that was back there were the store offices and the receiving area where some on-sale items were kept, etc. It must be nice not having to run back there every time somebody wants something not on the floor. At least at Target we have handheld computers that can check the back without having to go there, but it would be truly nice to simply say "If its not on the shelf, we don't have it" without fear of getting in trouble .

I don't know about the super centres, but at the Neighborhood Markets, you have very little backroom at all. And you're right, it's just sale items, and a few other things.
The premiss is, "you can't sell it from the back room".

[DistantStar]

If it's in the back room, that means it's going to be out on the floor soon. It's not just extra stuff kept back there.

So I can say, "What you see is what we have," without getting in trouble. Honestly, it's enough work trying to keep one WalMart going, a huge backroom would mean we'd pretty much have TWO OF THEM...AAAAAA!!!!!

[Zombi]

"Do you have any more out the back?"
"No, sorry, if we have it, it's out on the floor"
"Well, can you go and check?"

Cue deer-in-the-headlights look as I contemplate having to fight my way through the scrum to get to the back, only to be told "No, we don't have it, and we may never have it again". *whine*

Only two people have ever thanked me for checking for them. Ever.

[purplecat41877]

I've had customers ask me if I can look up their requested item in our computer system. I inform them that our system doesn't work like that (which is true).

[pbmods]

At least at Target we have handheld computers that can check the back without having to go there, but it would be truly nice to simply say "If its not on the shelf, we don't have it" without fear of getting in trouble .

How good are your guys' counts, though? At my store, our counts are frequently off by a LOT, so it does us no good to check our on-hand quantity. Interestingly enough, though, my counts have been a lot more accurate ever since I started security-tagging *EVERYTHING*....

Grr!