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We lost power today for about 4-5 minutes. Everything. Completely black - no power at all.
Of course, everyone in the store immediately had to check out when we lost power. Everyone in the store immediately needed something only a computer could provide - even though before they had just been wandering and didn't need help. Most of them had every so politely just barked "JUST LOOKING!" when I asked them how they were doing only minutes before.
Of course, the power going out in the entire side of the mall was my fault. Since I didn't know when it would miraculously turn back on - this was also my fault. Once the power did come back on - since I had to hard reboot all computers, server, and managers computer - and this takes maybe 10 minutes to get up and running and the register software to work again - this is also my fault. Suddenly every customer in the store had somewhere to freaking be - right at that moment. They were all on line tapping their feet, glaring at me, and then at their watches and sighing dramatically. Yet before the power went out - no one was intending on buying anything except for the one woman I was in the process of ringing up.
Her card scanned through the device and the power went out mid-scan. Then she was pissed at me b/c no receipt printed. Well, no shit Sherlock. Receipts don't print without power. I know that's hard to imagine, but it's really true. I tried to tell her her purchase didn't go through, and I could look it up and show her (once power was on) but she insisted she had paid b/c she swiped it. I explained the power was out so it didn't work and she refused to pay. I just gave her the damn thing. I didn't even care. She started going on about how she's going to miss her daughters bus and she'll be stranded. If she needed to pick her daughter up in 10 minutes, what on earth was she doing shopping in the mall? Even if the power didn't go out - it would take her maybe 20 minutes to finish her purchase, collect her other kid who didn't want to leave and get to her car - let alone drive to wherever she's meeting the bus. How is her poor planning my fault?
Then, to make it even better - the power outage blew our brand spanking new modem. So we had no Internet connection. Which means all gift card redemptions, credit cards, customer reward coupons - all have to be called in. The fun part of that - is that we changed banking providers b/c now we have those debit pin pad machines so our # to call changed and our authorization #s changed. But corporate gave us the wrong numbers. So we called and called - but couldn't get anyone to authorize our customers purchases. We called corporate - but they gave us a different set of - yes, again - wrong numbers to call. Soon I began just typing in random authorization numbers to force it to go through so people would stop screaming at me.
No, I don't know when the computers will be back up. No, I can't sell gift cards - but I can sell paper gift certificates. Yes, it's the same thing. No they're not very pretty. Yes it's the same, it's just paper instead of plastic. No you can't just take the plastic and leave money for me to ring up later. No - I don't know when the computers will be back up. Yes, I know the computer is taking a long time - it's on dial up now barely. Yes, I still have to call in your gift card. No, I can't just take your word that there is $30 on it. Yes, we should have a better system. No I don't know when it'll be back up. Screaming at me about what rewards you should have earned on your card from last December til now is not going to do you any good after I say "I can't look anything up - I HAVE NO INTERNET CONNECTION!" Wash, rinse repeat many more times and still hollering at me is not going to get you anywhere. Here's customer service - have fun. Scream at them. Do you seriously think that if I designed software for a company like mine that I'd be behind this counter listening to your shit right now????
And please, after all of that - don't smile at me and say, "I guess it would've been easier if I paid cash?" and then laugh at me. This happened twice. I had to close my eyes and take deep breaths and the other assistant held my arm b/c she thought I was going to leap over the counter and hit the people the second time someone said that to me.
The modem was only 3 weeks old.
Then I get a phone call that my sisters brother in law is in a coma, and then I get to run a birthday party. Then I got to stay til 7pm, when I should have left at 5:30pm.
Today sucked ass.
Of course, everyone in the store immediately had to check out when we lost power. Everyone in the store immediately needed something only a computer could provide - even though before they had just been wandering and didn't need help. Most of them had every so politely just barked "JUST LOOKING!" when I asked them how they were doing only minutes before.
Of course, the power going out in the entire side of the mall was my fault. Since I didn't know when it would miraculously turn back on - this was also my fault. Once the power did come back on - since I had to hard reboot all computers, server, and managers computer - and this takes maybe 10 minutes to get up and running and the register software to work again - this is also my fault. Suddenly every customer in the store had somewhere to freaking be - right at that moment. They were all on line tapping their feet, glaring at me, and then at their watches and sighing dramatically. Yet before the power went out - no one was intending on buying anything except for the one woman I was in the process of ringing up.
Her card scanned through the device and the power went out mid-scan. Then she was pissed at me b/c no receipt printed. Well, no shit Sherlock. Receipts don't print without power. I know that's hard to imagine, but it's really true. I tried to tell her her purchase didn't go through, and I could look it up and show her (once power was on) but she insisted she had paid b/c she swiped it. I explained the power was out so it didn't work and she refused to pay. I just gave her the damn thing. I didn't even care. She started going on about how she's going to miss her daughters bus and she'll be stranded. If she needed to pick her daughter up in 10 minutes, what on earth was she doing shopping in the mall? Even if the power didn't go out - it would take her maybe 20 minutes to finish her purchase, collect her other kid who didn't want to leave and get to her car - let alone drive to wherever she's meeting the bus. How is her poor planning my fault?
Then, to make it even better - the power outage blew our brand spanking new modem. So we had no Internet connection. Which means all gift card redemptions, credit cards, customer reward coupons - all have to be called in. The fun part of that - is that we changed banking providers b/c now we have those debit pin pad machines so our # to call changed and our authorization #s changed. But corporate gave us the wrong numbers. So we called and called - but couldn't get anyone to authorize our customers purchases. We called corporate - but they gave us a different set of - yes, again - wrong numbers to call. Soon I began just typing in random authorization numbers to force it to go through so people would stop screaming at me.
No, I don't know when the computers will be back up. No, I can't sell gift cards - but I can sell paper gift certificates. Yes, it's the same thing. No they're not very pretty. Yes it's the same, it's just paper instead of plastic. No you can't just take the plastic and leave money for me to ring up later. No - I don't know when the computers will be back up. Yes, I know the computer is taking a long time - it's on dial up now barely. Yes, I still have to call in your gift card. No, I can't just take your word that there is $30 on it. Yes, we should have a better system. No I don't know when it'll be back up. Screaming at me about what rewards you should have earned on your card from last December til now is not going to do you any good after I say "I can't look anything up - I HAVE NO INTERNET CONNECTION!" Wash, rinse repeat many more times and still hollering at me is not going to get you anywhere. Here's customer service - have fun. Scream at them. Do you seriously think that if I designed software for a company like mine that I'd be behind this counter listening to your shit right now????
And please, after all of that - don't smile at me and say, "I guess it would've been easier if I paid cash?" and then laugh at me. This happened twice. I had to close my eyes and take deep breaths and the other assistant held my arm b/c she thought I was going to leap over the counter and hit the people the second time someone said that to me.
The modem was only 3 weeks old.
Then I get a phone call that my sisters brother in law is in a coma, and then I get to run a birthday party. Then I got to stay til 7pm, when I should have left at 5:30pm.
Today sucked ass.
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