Who here has ruined Christmas?

[Eric the Grey]

While I can't remember ever ruining anyone's Christmas, I do recall ruining a couple of vacations because we didn't have the exact car they wanted/reserved/were promised we would have for them when they showed up for their reservation.

For the record folks, rental cars come in, get cleaned and are rented out, typically within an hour, if business is brisk. The chances of having the exact model of car are slim.

What someone needs to do is set up cafe press button ship for this. It would be cool to walk around with an "I Ruined Christmas" button on.

Eric the Grey

[Rivulatus]

I ruined Christmas once for a customer. They had a games console of some description on backorder, and so when it came in, I called to let them know it had arrived.
Next day the customer comes ranting and raving that I should have known better blah blah blah and that I have ruined Christmas because I told her children what she was getting them. She was absolutely going rank, yelling and screaming, telling other customers not to shop here, crying, the whole deal.

Now in my defence, here a few more facts about the order and phone call...
1) There were no notes with the order that it was a gift, so how was I to know that I'd be telling the kids what their gift was.
2) It was a mature sounding person on the phone (turned out it was the teenage daughter).
3) The teenage daugher responded affirmatively, when I asked "Is that Mrs Xxxxx"?
4) It was....
...
...
AUGUST!!!

[Dreamstalker]

consoling - to throw a console at someones head.

I once ruined someone's Christmas at the bookstore because I mentioned the title of a special order when calling. We would do this for people that had 4-5 open orders and only one or two had come in (otherwise they would storm in looking for X and couldn't understand why only Y or Z was in). We used to wait to call until the entire batch arrived, but got yelled at for that a couple times ("OMG my present will be late howcouldyou")

At the game store (numerous holidays, both winter and non-winter were "ruined" due to this) a release date for something or other had been pushed back until after $holiday. Sorry, we may have a license to carry Company X's products, that does not mean we can decide when we get them.

I also saved one--a customer wanted to buy D&D miniatures for a cousin of theirs who was interesting in starting the game, so during downtime one day I scurried about putting together a "gift pack" with a starter, small assortment of boosters, maps, dice and dice bag, good single minis, and a few promo goodies that we had from past events. I couldn't get authorization to give a discount, but the customer didn't mind and actually tipped me for my help.

[Drakstern]

I've done it at least twice that I know of, once at the Big Bird, and once at my current job.

The first time was because of my inability to create a turkey ex nihilo. The lamentations of 'But I need a turkeyyyyyyy' could be heard throughout the store as a well-dressed, mature looking man whined piteously about the fact that we were sold out of turkeys at 3:30 in the afternoon on CHRISTMAS EVE. He finished it off with 'NOW MY KIDS WILL HAVE TO EAT SOMETHING ELSE THEY WERE LOOKING FORWARD TO TURKEY! YOU RUINED THEIR CHRISTMAS.'

And after my saccharine sweet 'I'm sorry to hear that, was there anything else I could help you with?', the rage just got more incoherent... needless to say he stormed out.

The second time was because I wouldn't find someone a Jewish windshield repair shop to repair their chipped windshield for them on Christmas day. Still not quite sure how a dime sized windshield chip equates to 'YOU RUINED CHRISTMAS' but apparently it did. Maybe Santa doesn't visit little boys and girls with imperfect windshields. >.>

[PepperElf]

"well.. can you go in the back and make some?"

and so can the SC. All you need is milk, eggs, sugar, spices.
tho if you actually like the people who will be drinking the eggnog you should use those liquid eggs cos they're pasteurized (regular raw eggs have a greater chance of salmonella contamination).

just made myself a glass of it even... 1C milk, 1/4C egg beaters, some chocolate syrup, 2 bags splenda, cinnamon & nutmeg. (sometimes i also use all spice or even ginger).... and gee... no ruined christmas... go figure

[JoitheArtist]

Me and my dad make eggnog every year. Takes a good amount of time and effort to make it properly, but BOY is it worth it. I can't drink the store-bought stuff, just not the same...

[Fungus]

I don't remember ever ruining Christmas, but I ruined Mother's day and I wasn't even working. It was a monday afternoon, and I had been off the day before and the phone rang and the lady asked to speak to the manager and I explained that he would be in at 3 and could I help her with anything?

Big mistake. She was old and nasty and just went off. Said that her daughter brought pizza from us and got it home and it was terrible. She kept saying it wasn't fit for dogs blah blah blah we ruined her Mother's day and she hoped I was happy and again said this pizza wasn't good enough for dogs. Then she hung up. To my knowledge that was it. Never called back. She could have gotten a free pizza or something from us, but she never gave her name. After she hung up, I just shrugged my shoulders and went back to whatever I was doing. Never thought about it again for the rest of the day. Totally forgot about it, didn't even tell the boss when he came in.

[edible_hat]

I ruined Easter once by running out of chocolate eggs... mind you this was on Easter Sunday afternoon...

I've ruined Christmas many times, mostly by not having a certain item... at a convenience store... when all the other stores are closed... late on Christmas Eve... Such as:
-fake Santa beards
-Christmas trees
-turkey
-Tickle Me Elmo
-bicycles

And I once saved Christmas by having a selection of crappy watches, sunglasses, hats, CDs and DVDs, so Captain Procrastination could spend over $500 on gifts and another $100 on gift wrap. It's still my biggest ever non-fuel sale.

[Record Store Tough Guy]

^^ I actually saw a story on Good Morning America or one of those shows on Christmas eve showing how one could assemble last minute gift packs at a gas station. Most, like the one that included beef snacks, motor oil, and a road map, were pretty lame. And no, it was not presented ironically.

[MadMike]

Wow someone else who use to work there. I worked at a location in NY in the Jewelry dept. Though... I never really had any SCs there - just someone who stole some earrings once.

If you were in PA, I'd wonder if it was my ex. She got caught shoplifting from one of those stores.

Ruinied Thanksgiving for not being able to pull a 27 lb. turkey out of my ass.

But if you could, would they really want to eat it?

Oh.. what else? Since I work in photo that apparently means I'm the manager of the cooler (where we keep frozen drinks and what not) as well, and SURPRISE!!! We run out of egg nog. Not only do we run out, but we run out on christmas day. And a customer had the gall to come up to me and ask "well.. can you go in the back and make some?"

and so can the SC. All you need is milk, eggs, sugar, spices.

I believe a similar exchange occurred in the movie "The Ref."


I never got a chance to ruin anyone's Christmas myself. I wasn't around for the first two Christmases, because I was going to college at the same time, and they sent us home on break then. By the time the next Christmas rolled around, I was out of retail completely.

[Hotfoot]

I am the grand ruiner of Holidays.

A sample exchange.

Student: Mr. Hotfoot, what's the big idea, giving me an F? Why can't you just give me a D?

Me: Because, dear child, then I would be lying, and Santa wouldn't bring me anything.

Oh, if only the conversations were that civil on their end. Oh wells, I've been a good boy.

[freaktard]

I once worked part-time at the office of a Symphony Orchestra (this was before I actually started playing in them.) Basically I just helped out where needed, and occaisionally answered phones and took ticket orders.

One day in early December I got a call from someone wanting to order a lot of tickets for the upcoming Christmas concert. I had to tell him that the concert had been sold out for at least two weeks (partly because of a local business buying a large block of seats as a Christmas gift for their employees and their families).

This was a long time ago and I don't remember the conversation, but I remember him progressing from stunned disbelief ("But...but...how can you be sold out???") to pitiful pleading, ("But...but...my whole family is coming from all over the country and I promised them we'd all go to the concert!") to righteous outrage ("But...but...this is unacceptable! How can you let this happen????") over the course of an excruciatingly long call.

I don't remember if the phrase "You ruined my family's Christmas!" was ever actually used, but I think that was the gist of it.

[Becks]

To the best of my knowledge, I have ruined NOTHING.

*pout*

[crazylegs]

To the best of my knowledge, I have ruined NOTHING.

*pout*

Other than several innocent minds!

[Becks]

Crazylegs, that goes without saying.