News of the weird....

[Jester]

How about some of the weirder requests SC's have had? They don't have to be rude or mean people, and the ones I am about to tell you about weren't, but the requests were....strange.

--At a chain restaurant I worked at for years, we had a regular who would come into the bar and ask for our french onion soup...with no onions. I'll repeat that. He wanted french onion soup...with no onions. Basically, he wanted us to STRAIN the soup! Which management had the kitchen actually DO! I never dealt with this person directly, but he was definitely a known commodity at our place.

--At a brewpub I worked at in Arizona, I had a nice young lady in about her 20's order our half chicken dinner...but she wanted the chicken off the bone. She basically didn't want it to LOOK like a chicken, despite the fact that the meat still had come from a chicken. Okaayyy....so my sous chef, much to his credit, deboned an entire half chicken, and made a plate of piled chicken meat actually look rather appetizing. I might not have even rememebered this girl except for what she did next. She got her dinner, was happy with what he had done...and then doused her chicken in KETCHUP! Okay, I know I don't personally like ketchup, but even people who do like it have gone, wtf? Ketchup? On a roasted half chicken?

--This is either weird or gross, but definitely annoying. I had served these two women and two teenage girls, and about midway through the meal, one of the ladies called me over. Apparently her daughter had taken her retainer out and put it in a napkin. And apparently we had bussed that napkin off the table. Oh, no! Now, keep in mind, this was a slammin' busy night at the restaurant, but being the good customer service people we were, my MOD (manager on duty) and I donned latex gloves and started sifting through the trash cans in the back. And digging. And searching. After a while, we FINALLY FOUND IT! Woo hoo! We rinsed it off, put in a plastic container, and I proudly marched it out to the table. At which point, the mother said, "Where's the other half?"



"Um, what other half?" Silly me. Apparently this had been a two part retainer. Of course, they hadn't bothered to TELL US THAT when this whole thing started. So, now that the trash we had sorted had been dumped back in the trash cans, we had to go diving again....and we found the damn second piece, miraculously enough.

I did all this with a full station on a busy night. And they thanked me graciously, praising me up and down.

And tipped me 5%.

Thanks. Don't come back. Ever.


So, what are some of your weirder stories?


TWO DAYS TILL VACATION! (1 week without SC's!)

[Imogene]

Okay, I have two, one I post often enough, and the other, I refuse to tell usually unless I'm talking to you in person...
-I'm standing in the back of the store at Chesterfield, talking to the old SM. In walks Guy, right past Third Key, who was at the registers, as he'd just finished a transaction. Guy walks all the way through the store and right up to me to ask, "Do you guys sell furniture?"
M: "You just passed the entirety of the stock in our store, did you see any furniture?"

-This happened during my first Christmas at Chesterfield. I had been told by the old SM just an hour before this happened to 'not bother asking if people want the receipt in their hand or in the bag, just put it in the bag.'
So, that's what I was doing, until Guy #2 suddenly tells me, "I wanted the receipt in my hand!"
I pointed at the bag and said, "It's in the bag." (I swear, I did.)
G2: "You should ask people if they want their receipt, I wanted it in my hand!"
M: "I'm sorry, my manager just told me not to do that."
G2 stomps as far as the sensors, stops, turns around, stomps back to the counter, SLAMS his receipt down in front of me and growls, "I want your name and your manager's name."
M: *blink, blink* "Oh, kay..." *write down both for him*
Third Key wanders over about that point to ask what had just happened, so I tell him and ask what I did wrong. Nothing is his reply.

[Ringtail Z28]

Strain the soup? You just end up with broth at that point.

Weirdest request I've ever seen was a new TV that had already been paid for was left at guest service with a note saying that the customer was going on vacation for three weeks and wanted us to hold on to it for her. The next day we donated it.

[Jester]

Strain the soup? You just end up with broth at that point.

Right. The kitchen strained out the onion pieces, giving him french onion soup broth, which was then topped with the crouton and melted cheese. But no actual onion pieces, just....essense of onion.


TWO DAYS TILL VACATION! (1 week without SC's!)

[toolbert]

I posted this one on the other boards, before the hack, but I always find it funny.

So, our store shares a common trait with a resteraunt that's somewhere else in town. Since in the yellowpages have us listed as a Internet Cafe (we used to be called the Palm Cafe) we still get the weird calls for the Palm Tree Resteraunt. My favorite call for them happened on a weekend.

RD - Random Dude
Me - TB


Me: *picks up phone* Hello and thanks for calling the Palm Store my name is toolbert; how can I help you?
RD: Hi Frank (no one can ever get my name right) I need to make a reservation for 8 tonight.
Me: Um...this is the Palm retail store, we sell Palm branded products.
RD: What kind of pies do you have there?
Me: ??? We don't serve pies here, in fact we serve no food at all.
RD: Didn't you hear me? I said what pies do you have there?
Me: We're not a resteraunt sir.
RD: What do you mean?
Me: I don't serve food, I sell Palm Pilots.
RD: Stop lying to me, now I want to know what pies you have??

This goes on for about 5 more minutes when he finally tells me that he's coming for a reservation at 8 and I better have pies here

[Hotelboy]

DAW = Darwin Award Winner
ME = Oh so lovable
5-O = The Man AKA Police

DAW: "Can you call the police?"
ME: "OK, can I ask why?"
DAW: "My hooker just stole my cologne"
ME: *holding in my laughter* "You want me to call the police.... because your hooker stole your cologne?"
DAW: "Yes"

Outta the corner of my eye I see a "trashy" looking woman bolt out the door who used to be sitting on the couch. Ah well.

ME: "Hi, this is hotelboy calling from hotel. One of my guests is asking that an officer be sent by because his hooker stole his cologne."
5-O:*snort* "Really? He wants to make a complaint against a prostitute? Can you put them on the line"

They make him say hooker on the phone about three times before they hang up.

Dumbass got picked up about 15 minutes later. I don't think he ever got his cologne back.

P.S. he came back a few weeks later, another hooker, girlfriend found out, ...funny story for another time.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I had a woman from Mankato, MN call my store in Wisconsin (on the opposite side of the state from Minnesota), asking us if we had any black Dots candy.

Supposedly, the manufacturer had stopped making this candy, and it was her favorite, so she called just about every one of our stores asking if we had that candy. I assume if a store did have it, she would ask to have it transferred to the store in Mankato so she could pick it up, but that's would've taken a while because it would've had to go through the DC on its way to Mankato.

[ChanceNCinny]

My Mom had to ask for strained soup for a while after jaw surgery. She looked fine but she couldn't chew. She did the same thing with onion soup and got the cruton on top because it would absorb the juices and "melt" enough into the soup that she could mix it in and eat it. She also would get tortilla soup strained then put tortilla chips on it for the same effect. While hers was only a month a cousin of mine had the same type of thing that lasted three months, once he could chew agian he decided he liked it strained better and kept eating it that way.

[Jester]

My Mom had to ask for strained soup for a while after jaw surgery. She looked fine but she couldn't chew. She did the same thing with onion soup and got the cruton on top because it would absorb the juices and "melt" enough into the soup that she could mix it in and eat it. She also would get tortilla soup strained then put tortilla chips on it for the same effect. While hers was only a month a cousin of mine had the same type of thing that lasted three months, once he could chew agian he decided he liked it strained better and kept eating it that way.

Okay, having broken my jaw when I was 16, I can relate...but the guy I was talking about did this every time he came in....over a period of a few YEARS. THAT is why it is strange. At least, to me and everyone that worked in that place! Heheheheh...

As for the Palm Pilot Store/Palm Tree Restaurant, in my old apartment, our land line # was only two digits off from a local well-known (and AWESOME) restaurant. So occasionally we would get calls from people trying to make reservations. I would inform them of their mistake, give them the correct # (it IS one of my favorite places!), and they would get a laugh out of it.

Of course, one time I wasn't home, and the voice mail picked up. I must stress that on our voice mail, it CLEARLY said, "Hi, Jester, Roommate 1, Roommate 2, and Roommate 3 are not in right now, but if you leave your name and number, they will get back to you as soon as they can." Blah blah blah. Typical residential outgoing message. It sounded NOTHING like "Thank you for calling Awesome Tourist Restaurant. We are closed right now, but if you leave a message..." blah blah blah. (As far as I know, that restaurant doesn't even HAVE voicemail when they are closed!) And yet, this time I came home to a voicemail of a gentleman leaving a message for reservations, with his name and time of reservation, but no phone number! So I couldn't even call the poor guy back. Man, he sure must have been confused when he got to the restaurant and they had no idea who he was!



TWO DAYS TILL VACATION! (And 1 week without SC's!)

[Canarr]

They make him say hooker on the phone about three times before they hang up.

Dumbass got picked up about 15 minutes later. I don't think he ever got his cologne back.

I'll assume prostitution is illegal where you live?

And why would a hooker steal cologne?

[Requilum]

Weirdest Product I've Been Asked If We Have In Stock:

Super Mario for the Playstation Portable for The Ipod.

It happened a few months ago. I even asked the lady if she was maybe looking for 3 different products, but nope, she wanted Super Mario for the PSP for the Ipod. So after spending quite a few minutes explaining to her how not only does that product not exist, but will you never find Nintendo characters on a Sony gaming console, put on an Apple mp3 player. Eventually She left, and to this day, i have yet to have a request for a more obscure product.

[Mixed Bag]

I'll assume prostitution is illegal where you live?

And why would a hooker steal cologne?

Maybe human cologning IS legal there :Raps, want my rimshot smiley?:

[Canarr]

Mixed Bag, that one hurt. Badly...

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

This goes on for about 5 more minutes when he finally tells me that he's coming for a reservation at 8 and I better have pies here

I'd have told him to hold on while I get a manager, changed my voice a little bit, apologized and promised to put him into the VIP section and bake a fresh pie of his choice, just for him.

Then chuckled the rest of the day wondering what happened to him when he got to the resturant.

But I'm evil like that

[SonOfSpam]

We sold alot of cheap 5X8 and 8X10 carpets designated the B110 group, stuff that had corny paisley designs and was poorly made overall. But people loved buying them because they were up to four times cheaper than our higher quality rugs. One day we had run out of them an wouldn't be getting a new shipment until a couple days later. I had one SC, a large guy with a walrus mustache, who came in and pointed at a B110 display carpet that was hanging from the rafters 40 feet above our heads and asked if we had any of them in stock. When I told him we didn't I might as well have told him I socked his mother in the gut.
"Well, why not?" He asked snottily
"They're a popular item, we're getting more in stock this week." I told him
"What kind of store is this? I want a rug like that!"
"We don't have any in stock until later this week."
"Well, can I see that one?" He said, pointing at the display. "Can you take that one down?"
"No, we can't take that one down."
"Why not?"
"Because it's the display model, it's not for sale."
"But I need a rug!"
"We have plenty of other rugs sir, we have alot nicer rugs than that."
At this point he sighs and crosses his arms, making his best grumpy face, and he stayed that way in silence for about a half minute.
"Is there anything I can do for you?" I asked half-heartedly
"No, I'm going to talk to your manager and get that damn rug."
"She'll just tell you the same thing, sir." But he wasn't listening and just walked off. And that's the last I saw of him. I don't really know how that stacked up against other weird requests I just thought it odd