Tweet
The Boomerang Customer
I was shopping today at a used book store (they're having a clearance sale to make moving inventory to a new location easier--hooray for used books at 50% off). As I was coming downstairs (it's a two-level shop) to make my purchases, I overheard a conversation among two of the employees and a regular customer. I didn't catch all of it, but this is approximately what I got...
- Male Employee (ME): When I told her I couldn't do that, she got really mad. Like, REALLY mad. And she started telling me that I should make a special allowance for her because she's such a special customer or something.
- Regular Customer (RC): What makes her so special?
- Giggly Female Employee (GFE): Wait, is that the woman who always tries to preach to us about Jesus and George Washington or whatever it was?
- RC: Jesus and who? What?
- ME: I think she's just plain crazy. Anyway, she got mad at me. I tried to explain that what she wanted was not physically possible, let alone not something we'd do for any customer anyway.
- GFE: Right. She didn't like that either, did she?
- ME: Of course not. She got even more mad, yelled some more, then said, "Well, maybe if you're going to refuse to treat me right, I'll take my business elsewhere."
- RC: Like that's a bad thing?
- ME: So I said, "Go right ahead. And good riddance."
- GFE: You really said that?
- RC: Nice! She deserved it!
- ME: That's what I thought. Well, she got all puffed up about that one, told me more about how rude I was being, then asked where we're planning to reopen the store!
- RC: So much for her threats, huh?
- ME: Yeah, I expected as much. She claims she'll never come back but then ask where we'll be in a couple of months so she can come back. But I was serious about her leaving, even if she wasn't, so I told her that I wasn't going to give her the new address, and she could just wait until the new phone book gets published and look it up for herself.
- GFE: No way! Seriously?
And this is about where the conversation ended. I had moved almost out of earshot, distracted by some cheap Mystery Science Theater 3000 VHS tapes, and some other customers came and interrupted the conversation by wanting to make their purchases. I was amused, though. Thought I'd share.
- Male Employee (ME): When I told her I couldn't do that, she got really mad. Like, REALLY mad. And she started telling me that I should make a special allowance for her because she's such a special customer or something.
- Regular Customer (RC): What makes her so special?
- Giggly Female Employee (GFE): Wait, is that the woman who always tries to preach to us about Jesus and George Washington or whatever it was?
- RC: Jesus and who? What?
- ME: I think she's just plain crazy. Anyway, she got mad at me. I tried to explain that what she wanted was not physically possible, let alone not something we'd do for any customer anyway.
- GFE: Right. She didn't like that either, did she?
- ME: Of course not. She got even more mad, yelled some more, then said, "Well, maybe if you're going to refuse to treat me right, I'll take my business elsewhere."
- RC: Like that's a bad thing?
- ME: So I said, "Go right ahead. And good riddance."
- GFE: You really said that?
- RC: Nice! She deserved it!
- ME: That's what I thought. Well, she got all puffed up about that one, told me more about how rude I was being, then asked where we're planning to reopen the store!
- RC: So much for her threats, huh?
- ME: Yeah, I expected as much. She claims she'll never come back but then ask where we'll be in a couple of months so she can come back. But I was serious about her leaving, even if she wasn't, so I told her that I wasn't going to give her the new address, and she could just wait until the new phone book gets published and look it up for herself.
- GFE: No way! Seriously?
And this is about where the conversation ended. I had moved almost out of earshot, distracted by some cheap Mystery Science Theater 3000 VHS tapes, and some other customers came and interrupted the conversation by wanting to make their purchases. I was amused, though. Thought I'd share.