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Had a lady drop a skirt off in our dry cleaning section on Saturday. Because of the way our service works, she dropped off late on Saturday night, meaning the skirt will be ready Wednesday evening. She was served by my fab part time (FPT) staff member who is never rude but has a knack of saying exactly what she means and getting away with it. She also never rises to a SC's ranting.
Anyhow, we were both in the back of the shop area, me printing photos, and FPT preparing dry cleaning orders. It had been busy so we had quite a bit to do. Both of us able to see the whole of the front counter and both of us visible from the customers point of view.
FPT saw this lady approach the counter and went out to greet her. And was met with "I've been out here 20 minutes waiting for you!"
Erm, ok...sure you have. But FPT said "Really? Felt like 20 seconds to me but I'm sosorry to have kept you waiting. How can I help"
SC: "Skirt."
FPT: "So it is. For dry cleaning? Back on Wednesday evening for you, around 5pm."
SC: "Fine. Whatever."
The skirt in question was brown checked. Rather like a tweed. This is important...
FPT: "Can I take your surname please?"
SC: "What the HELL do you want that for? You'll use it to SEND me stuff I don't want. I just want this cleaned. Surely that's not too difficult for even you."
FPT: "Purely so we know which is your skirt. It's ok if I'm here, because I WILL remember you. But if I'm not here then no-one will know which skirt is yours.
SC: <heavy sigh, roll of the eyes> XXXXX. That's X. X. X. X. X.
<OK, we're in Wales. Her name is the most common Welsh surname you can think of. We have no hope of finding her to send her stuff >
FPT: "No problem. And is it ok to take a phone number for you? It's ok if you say no and..."
SC: "You've already got my name against my will! No phone number! No! You'll use it against me!"
FPT: "O...K... That's no problem. I'll just check this over and do your ticket."
So FPT does our usual checks in front of the customer. People like to try to get new clothes out of us by claiming things have gone wrong in cleaning, so we go through the garments with a fine tooth comb in front of them. So FPT checked the hems were in place, the zip worked, the button was there, and then came across a large white mark on the front of the skirt, about 4 inches long and an inch wide. It looked like bleach had been used or dropped down it.
FPT: "I've noticed a white stain just here. Do you know what it is?"
Uh-oh. Bad move.
SC: practically spitting and shaking with pure rage. "THAT. IS. NOT. A. STAIN. How DARE you say I have a stain on this skirt! How DARE you! Don't you know anything? That is not a stain.
THAT is where I have cleaned the skirt to show you what colour it should be. And the colour I expect it to be when it comes back"
That's right, the skirt should be WHITE with a light brown check pattern on it. And not a dark brown tweed.
At that point FPT decided to finish up as quickly as possible, just in case the skirt started to eat through the counter
She's due to come in to collect tonight....
Anyhow, we were both in the back of the shop area, me printing photos, and FPT preparing dry cleaning orders. It had been busy so we had quite a bit to do. Both of us able to see the whole of the front counter and both of us visible from the customers point of view.
FPT saw this lady approach the counter and went out to greet her. And was met with "I've been out here 20 minutes waiting for you!"
Erm, ok...sure you have. But FPT said "Really? Felt like 20 seconds to me but I'm sosorry to have kept you waiting. How can I help"
SC: "Skirt."
FPT: "So it is. For dry cleaning? Back on Wednesday evening for you, around 5pm."
SC: "Fine. Whatever."
The skirt in question was brown checked. Rather like a tweed. This is important...
FPT: "Can I take your surname please?"
SC: "What the HELL do you want that for? You'll use it to SEND me stuff I don't want. I just want this cleaned. Surely that's not too difficult for even you."
FPT: "Purely so we know which is your skirt. It's ok if I'm here, because I WILL remember you. But if I'm not here then no-one will know which skirt is yours.
SC: <heavy sigh, roll of the eyes> XXXXX. That's X. X. X. X. X.
<OK, we're in Wales. Her name is the most common Welsh surname you can think of. We have no hope of finding her to send her stuff >
FPT: "No problem. And is it ok to take a phone number for you? It's ok if you say no and..."
SC: "You've already got my name against my will! No phone number! No! You'll use it against me!"
FPT: "O...K... That's no problem. I'll just check this over and do your ticket."
So FPT does our usual checks in front of the customer. People like to try to get new clothes out of us by claiming things have gone wrong in cleaning, so we go through the garments with a fine tooth comb in front of them. So FPT checked the hems were in place, the zip worked, the button was there, and then came across a large white mark on the front of the skirt, about 4 inches long and an inch wide. It looked like bleach had been used or dropped down it.
FPT: "I've noticed a white stain just here. Do you know what it is?"
Uh-oh. Bad move.
SC: practically spitting and shaking with pure rage. "THAT. IS. NOT. A. STAIN. How DARE you say I have a stain on this skirt! How DARE you! Don't you know anything? That is not a stain.
THAT is where I have cleaned the skirt to show you what colour it should be. And the colour I expect it to be when it comes back"
That's right, the skirt should be WHITE with a light brown check pattern on it. And not a dark brown tweed.
At that point FPT decided to finish up as quickly as possible, just in case the skirt started to eat through the counter
She's due to come in to collect tonight....
I'm speechless....(for once)
"You'd feel a Hell of a lot better if you'd just rip into the occasional customer." 
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