I had a sad experience yesterday regarding a customer.
About a month ago, I had an elderly man in the store looking for an under the counter coffeemaker. He needed it in white. Black and Decker made these, but my store only carried the black models--both in the store and on-line. I told him to let me research it and I would call him. So, he was super, super nice and thanked me so many times. I took his phone number and he left.
I kept researching where to get this white under the counter coffeemaker. Our "sister" company carried the white one on their website. I didn't know if I could order it from them from the store. Turns out, I could. So, I called the customer back and we did the order on the internet. I had to do a few extra steps since he didn't have an e-mail and didn't really understand computers. I gave him phone numbers for that company's order service in case the coffeemaker didn't come and so forth.
You wouldn't believe how thankful he was and he was so sweet, though he went a little overboard talking about his grandkids and his health problems. I didn't mind, though it took me nearly fifteen minutes to get him off the phone.
He sent the manager a letter about me telling me how nice I was and how helpful I was. A handwritten letter!
Yesterday, I was going through my old orders and found his. So, I decided to call him to see if the maker came and how he liked it.
His daughter answered the phone and told me he passed away two weeks ago. He never got to install the coffeemaker and she actually wanted to know how I could get it returned for her. I was like....
I told her just to bring it and the paperwork back to me in the store and I would process the return with dot com and get the refund onto his store card so they could close out the card. Usually, we don't take other company's returns, but I was so distraught over it that I told her to bring it to me.
So...now, I'm kinda sad. I mean, I didn't know the guy at all...
He never even got to use his coffeemaker.
About a month ago, I had an elderly man in the store looking for an under the counter coffeemaker. He needed it in white. Black and Decker made these, but my store only carried the black models--both in the store and on-line. I told him to let me research it and I would call him. So, he was super, super nice and thanked me so many times. I took his phone number and he left.
I kept researching where to get this white under the counter coffeemaker. Our "sister" company carried the white one on their website. I didn't know if I could order it from them from the store. Turns out, I could. So, I called the customer back and we did the order on the internet. I had to do a few extra steps since he didn't have an e-mail and didn't really understand computers. I gave him phone numbers for that company's order service in case the coffeemaker didn't come and so forth.
You wouldn't believe how thankful he was and he was so sweet, though he went a little overboard talking about his grandkids and his health problems. I didn't mind, though it took me nearly fifteen minutes to get him off the phone.
He sent the manager a letter about me telling me how nice I was and how helpful I was. A handwritten letter!
Yesterday, I was going through my old orders and found his. So, I decided to call him to see if the maker came and how he liked it.
His daughter answered the phone and told me he passed away two weeks ago. He never got to install the coffeemaker and she actually wanted to know how I could get it returned for her. I was like....
I told her just to bring it and the paperwork back to me in the store and I would process the return with dot com and get the refund onto his store card so they could close out the card. Usually, we don't take other company's returns, but I was so distraught over it that I told her to bring it to me.
So...now, I'm kinda sad. I mean, I didn't know the guy at all...
He never even got to use his coffeemaker.
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