It's not that I Won't help you, I CAN'T !!

[Teefies2]

So over Labor Day weekend, I had a customer that just blew my mind.

<bg> We are a drugstore, but also sell other stuff. We have a main register, right by the front door. I was working the main register.<bg>

"Lady" calls and tells me that she was in there earlier and wanted to talk to the person who was on the main register. I said "that's me". She proceeds to tell me this LOOOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGG story. Basically, she had been in earlier, picked out some hearing aid batteries, laid them down on the counter, and went to get some more stuff. When she came back, she checked out, but forgot to put the batteries with her order. It took so long for her to tell me this, that I had 5 people in line before I could even get a word in edgewise.

So, she wants to know if we still have those batteries. 'Cause she doesn't want to come ALLLL the way back there to <my town> if we don't have them anymore. I said, "I'll check. Which batteries were they?"

She says ..... wait for it ..... "I don't know!"

Me: "ummmm"
Her: "The ones on sale!"
Me: "We have several kinds of batteries on sale right now."
Her: "The Buy One Get One Free ones!"
Me: "Okay that is our brand of batteries. Which ones specifically?"
Her: "I don't know!!!!!"
Me: ........................
Her: ......................
Me: ...............................
Her: "The 10s!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Me: "Okay, there are 5 types of number 10s on sale. Which ones specifically?
Her: "I don't know!!!! Never mind, I'll figure something out!" Slams the phone down.

Okay, so I wrote it off to older lady who can't hear well and maybe isn't as sharp as she used to be. I continue to check out customers. Not FIVE MINUTES LATER, the phone rings.

Me: "opening spiel"
Her: "Are you at the front?"
Me: "Yes"
Her: proceeds to tell me the ENTIRE story again, from the beginning, I interrupt
Me: "Ma'am, I'm the person you talked to when you called earlier. How can I help you?
Her: "You're the same person I talked to?"
Me: "Yes"
Her: "And you couldn't be BOTHERED to go look and see if the batteries are still THERE??????????????????"
Me: "Ma'am, as I told you, I need to know what specific type of batteries they were in order to tell you whether we still have them."
Her: "Well THANKS FOR NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!" Slams the phone down.

[sms001]

Her: "Well THANKS FOR NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!" Slams the phone down.

TF: "You're welcome! It's the easiest service to give."

But seriously, you gave a lot more than "nothing" - listened twice, tried to narrow down her broad request, were knowledgeable about your product... What she really wanted was for her left behind batteries to be the sole focus of your world, that you had them in sight in a special little shrine dedicated to reuniting them with their would be purchaser asap. cuz there are no other customers.

[Catwoman2965]

HA - that's like customers in my store who come in, and say “I’m looking for that shirt, you know, the one with buttons in the new catalog, its um, white, with colors” Oookay. ALL of our shirts have buttons, unless they’re a tee! so which specific one would you be referring to? Or, they’ll call, and ask if we have a certain item, give a vague description, which 9 times out of 10 is inaccurate, but no item number or SKU, and expect us to go and hunt it down for them. Um no, sorry. Call back with more specific info, and I’ll be happy to help you, but until then, you’re SOL. Or they remember something being one color, and insistent upon that, when its not.

I had an employee from another store in our mall call me a couple of weeks ago. She started in about something, and took forever to get to the point. Which was, she had seen a dress, but we didn’t have her size. So they did a search, and x store had it. and it was navy with baby blue on top. And now she wanted it. First of all, I asked how long ago did we do the search? Oh, a couple of weeks ago. So I’d have to do it again to make sure they still had it. Second, I knew which dress she was talking about, but it wasn’t baby blue on top, but pale, pale, aqua.

I told her that, and she swore up and down it was blue, not aqua, blah, blah, blah, and would be in. I told her no, if it’s the one I’m thinking of it is NOT blue, she then got snotty and said well, maybe you need to work on being more “up” on what you carry, etc. Beyotch. Fine. I KNEW I was right, but figured I’d let her see for herself. Sure enough, she comes in, and yes, the aqua/navy dress is the one she was talking about, and she was like, oh, I could have SWORN it was blue, and no apology. I know her; my store used to be owned by the same co. hers is, so we had reciprocal discounts. She is not nice. I felt vindicated though that I was right, and she was wrong.

(which makes me think of the Mr. Bumpy song of the same name)

[Caractacus_Potts]

What she really wanted was for her left behind batteries to be the sole focus of your world

For her the day she left behind those batteries was the most important day in the world. For you? It was Tuesday.

[Jetfire]

Hmm if it wasn't that busy, and I could see them from the register, I'd probably have started out.

"Let's see we have some Duracell AAA 2 packs, Energizer AAA 4 packs, Riteway Brand AA 8 packs.... " and take my time getting to ones that might actually be used in a hearing aid.

[skeptic53]

Quoting myself from previous responses to other posts:

patient: "Oh, you know Doc! It's a little white pill!"

[Ironclad Alibi]

Quoting myself from previous responses to other posts:

patient: "Oh, you know Doc! It's a little white pill!"

Or it's the book with a blue cover. You know, the one that was on Oprah last month.

[Monterey Jack]

"Do you have the one with that guy who was in that movie last year...?"

[MoonCat]

Would you believe I get these, too? In my case it goes kinda like this:

"There was an ad for a car a couple weeks ago, or maybe a month; it was on a Sunday, or it might have been a Wednesday. It was a 2010 Chrysler, or no, it was 2009, and maybe it was a Ford? Anyway, it was a 4 door, I think and it had...[blah blah blah]... Can you find the ad and tell me what the phone number was?"

[Teefies2]

TF: "You're welcome! It's the easiest service to give."

But seriously, you gave a lot more than "nothing" - listened twice, tried to narrow down her broad request, were knowledgeable about your product... What she really wanted was for her left behind batteries to be the sole focus of your world, that you had them in sight in a special little shrine dedicated to reuniting them with their would be purchaser asap. cuz there are no other customers.

ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for that

[bbbr]

The grocery store i used to work in was had the towns movie theater in the same plaza as the store. I was manning customer service one day and got a call from a lady asking if the store "was the one near the movie theater and did I know what was playing"... Caught a ration of crap from her when i said that "i had absolutely no idea, didn't know the theaters phone # and really didn't care since I never had any free time to go."

If you've managed to go online and find the stores phone # (we had moved a few months prior and the old number was no longer being forwarded to the new store) or figure out to call us otherwise, you can do the same thing for the theater. Quit wasting my time, that's the job of the lotto freaks.

[raudf]

I think the old bat was expecting that the batteries she left behind would still be there... on the counter. After all that time between her leaving and calling. I guess she never realized that some people are required to pick up after others and may have already tidied it away.

*scratches head* Although now I wonder how she found out what battery she needed in the first place, if she couldn't give you the info a bit later on. On second thought, no I don't. Black holes suck for a reason

[Jester]

I deal with this shit every single day.

SC: "What kind of rum do you have that's good?"
ME: "Well, we have about 200 different rums. Help me narrow it down a bit. What are you looking for in the rum."

Wait for it.......

SC: "Something good."



I shit you not. Every single shift behind the bar for the last 6 years.