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I worked at a Hardly Normal Computer store doing lots of different jobs. One of which was running the Fujifilm Photocenter.
This incident happened during the first weekend of a cheap photo promo that Hardly Normal regularly runs. The price for 6x4 prints dropped from 29 cents to 15 cents. It seemed that every cheap person in town turned up to print hundreds of photos. The Photocenter went from quiet to overloaded. There was a suppose to a limit of the number of cheap prints but that was ignored.
There were queues to use the Photocenter kiosks for the first time and the photo printer is running non-stop. I am bagging photos and handing them out as quickly as possible while my co-worker is pushing the jobs through. Jobs have to be activated by taking the docket to the cashier, pay for the order, and bring the receipt back so we could put the job in the queue.
Ms Sucky comes up to me and wants to know were her prints are. I look at her docket and realize that she has not paid and activated the order. I tell her that she has to pay her photos first and her response is "No one told me I had to do that!!! I have been waiting for half an hour and nobody told me". What she had missed was the large sign stating how to activate your job. There is also a message on the kiosk and the docket to go see the cashier. I point out the sign and the message on the document. Ms Sucky then stomps off to the cashier, brings the receipt and we put her job in the queue. Ms Sucky was the only person that day who didn't see the cashier first.
At this point there are so many jobs in the system that it is taking at least an hour for peoples photos to print. Of course Ms Sucky now begins to complain about the delay. I apologize and keep handing out photos out to people who have been waiting patiently. Finally, her photos print out and I think great now she can bugger off and annoy someone else. Wishful thinking as Ms Sucky is back five minutes later. Her complaint is that she paid for 144 photos and only got 137.
I count the photos, look around a bit, check the server and conclude that the Photo Printer has lost them somewhere (it was doing some strange things that day), so I offer a refund of the difference. Ms Sucky agrees to the refund and I join her in the queue to see the cashier to get it organized. Ms Sucky starts up with "This sucks, I have had to wait all day to get prints and now I have to wait to get a refund. This store sucks, it should be quicker etc". I apologize for the inconvenience but that is not good enough. The last straw for me is when she states "and you suck too. I want a full refund." I was not allowed to authorize a full refund, so I go get a manager to deal with her. The manager on duty was J who hated sucky customers demanding refunds for stupid reasons.
I return to the Photocenter while the discussion between J and Ms Sucky gets louder. Ms Sucky did get a full refund but what she didn't get was her photos. J gave her a choice of refund or photos. Ms Sucky wanted both as we were only going to throw the photos out. J didn't budge so Ms Sucky took the money and J took the photos and destroyed them.
After it was all over one the sales guys comes over and lets me know that Ms Sucky is a friend of his wife. Apparently what she did was a standard tactic for her to get free photos and it had worked at other places around town. He had been keeping out of site serving customers around the laptops to avoid being dragged into the discussion.
The marketing slogan for the Photocenter is "Get your photos in minutes" which is clever as it gives no promise of how many minutes but an expectation of only a few. Ms Sucky tried to use this slogan as a reason for a full refund as she didn't get her photos in minutes but it took over an hour. Pointing out that an hour is 60 minutes didn't help her mood.
Next Stories will be "I traveled all the way from" and "this green is not green enough". Again they are from the Photocenter.
This incident happened during the first weekend of a cheap photo promo that Hardly Normal regularly runs. The price for 6x4 prints dropped from 29 cents to 15 cents. It seemed that every cheap person in town turned up to print hundreds of photos. The Photocenter went from quiet to overloaded. There was a suppose to a limit of the number of cheap prints but that was ignored.
There were queues to use the Photocenter kiosks for the first time and the photo printer is running non-stop. I am bagging photos and handing them out as quickly as possible while my co-worker is pushing the jobs through. Jobs have to be activated by taking the docket to the cashier, pay for the order, and bring the receipt back so we could put the job in the queue.
Ms Sucky comes up to me and wants to know were her prints are. I look at her docket and realize that she has not paid and activated the order. I tell her that she has to pay her photos first and her response is "No one told me I had to do that!!! I have been waiting for half an hour and nobody told me". What she had missed was the large sign stating how to activate your job. There is also a message on the kiosk and the docket to go see the cashier. I point out the sign and the message on the document. Ms Sucky then stomps off to the cashier, brings the receipt and we put her job in the queue. Ms Sucky was the only person that day who didn't see the cashier first.
At this point there are so many jobs in the system that it is taking at least an hour for peoples photos to print. Of course Ms Sucky now begins to complain about the delay. I apologize and keep handing out photos out to people who have been waiting patiently. Finally, her photos print out and I think great now she can bugger off and annoy someone else. Wishful thinking as Ms Sucky is back five minutes later. Her complaint is that she paid for 144 photos and only got 137.
I count the photos, look around a bit, check the server and conclude that the Photo Printer has lost them somewhere (it was doing some strange things that day), so I offer a refund of the difference. Ms Sucky agrees to the refund and I join her in the queue to see the cashier to get it organized. Ms Sucky starts up with "This sucks, I have had to wait all day to get prints and now I have to wait to get a refund. This store sucks, it should be quicker etc". I apologize for the inconvenience but that is not good enough. The last straw for me is when she states "and you suck too. I want a full refund." I was not allowed to authorize a full refund, so I go get a manager to deal with her. The manager on duty was J who hated sucky customers demanding refunds for stupid reasons.
I return to the Photocenter while the discussion between J and Ms Sucky gets louder. Ms Sucky did get a full refund but what she didn't get was her photos. J gave her a choice of refund or photos. Ms Sucky wanted both as we were only going to throw the photos out. J didn't budge so Ms Sucky took the money and J took the photos and destroyed them.
After it was all over one the sales guys comes over and lets me know that Ms Sucky is a friend of his wife. Apparently what she did was a standard tactic for her to get free photos and it had worked at other places around town. He had been keeping out of site serving customers around the laptops to avoid being dragged into the discussion.
The marketing slogan for the Photocenter is "Get your photos in minutes" which is clever as it gives no promise of how many minutes but an expectation of only a few. Ms Sucky tried to use this slogan as a reason for a full refund as she didn't get her photos in minutes but it took over an hour. Pointing out that an hour is 60 minutes didn't help her mood.
Next Stories will be "I traveled all the way from" and "this green is not green enough". Again they are from the Photocenter.
to 
! We have Brain Bleach on tap, boozeahol if yer old enough, and someone should be along shortly with some cookies. 
*gives cookies*
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