The fact you didn't answer the phone means your're open

[Zabaron]

This little incident happened this past Saturday. Our store was closed this past weekend so we could count inventory. Anyway, a few people didn't get the notice, and showed up at our door (the building we're in has offices on the floor above us, so the main doors were still open). Anyway, most of them figured out pretty quickly that the fact that our gate was down (and the fact that there's a sign on the main door to the building saying we were closed) meant that we were closed. All of them except one woman.

Anyway, she comes up to the window looking quite perplexed as to why our door is closed. I tell the woman through the window that we are indeed closed for inventory, and I get back to counting whatever it was I was counting at the time. A short time later I see a couple of my co-workers talking to someone through the window, and lo and behold its the same woman. She insists that we didn't answer the phone and that the auto-attendant said we were open today. We don't actually have an auto-attendant. Now, as far as I can tell, when people look us up in the phone book, they get the main number for the building, which does have an auto-attendant which rattles off our normal store hours and then says something like 'press one for [store] or enter the extension of the person you're looking for', But because we're not actually affiliated with the people who the building belongs to (we just rent the space) they sometimes don't update the message.

The woman was also ranting about how long it took her to get to us and how far away we are from where she lives. Turns out she lives ten minutes away (I drive three times as far every morning to get to work).

Eventually our store manager talked to the woman, and actually let her make a purchase (most likely messing up our inventory count) just to get her to go away, but this little incident was quite a pain.

-Zabaron

[powerboy]

Eventually our store manager talked to the woman, and actually let her make a purchase (most likely messing up our inventory count) just to get her to go away, but this little incident was quite a pain.

-Zabaron

I saw that one coming. I just refuse service, when I would do inventory.

[donruss]

What a weak-willed, spineless manager you have there.

[Racket_Man]

heck welcome to my world. the Hut I work at we are required to answer the phone even after close. you would not believe how many people can not understand the concept of REQUIRED PHONE ANSWERING even though we say "Thank you for calling blah blah Pizza Hut sorry we are closed for the night."


most go OK or Sorry and hang up but some want to sit there and aruge with you for 5 minutes on why you are answering the phone after close. hell some even try to bribe their way into a order (not going to happen clock says after midnight or 1am and WE ARE CLOSED our ovens are cooling off our friers are off our dishes are done and WE WANT TO GO HOME NOW)

[Becks]

Eventually our store manager talked to the woman, and actually let her make a purchase (most likely messing up our inventory count) just to get her to go away, but this little incident was quite a pain.

Your manager sucks for that.

Why the hell would he do that? He's now set a horrible precedent.

[rvdammit]

heck welcome to my world. the Hut I work at we are required to answer the phone even after close. you would not believe how many people can not understand the concept of REQUIRED PHONE ANSWERING even though we say "Thank you for calling blah blah Pizza Hut sorry we are closed for the night."

So why aren't you aloowed to hang up after the message? A recording would.

[Fungus]

the Hut I work at we are required to answer the phone even after close.

I used to work for the Hut too and our manager made us answer the phone after close, but we couldn't say that because she didn't like the sound of that so we had to say, "Thank you for calling the main street Hut may I help you?" Of course they'd try to order and then get pissed. One guy said "You're closed? Then why do you answer your phone?" It slipped out of my mouth and I said "Because it was ringing!" He was madder than hell....

[Sliceanddice]

i would understand you answering actually, so that you can take pre orders

[SquishyPimp]

Where I work, when the phone rings after closing only the MOD is allowed to answer. Very clearly saying, "Security", and no one ever gets the hint. I mean, how late do people want a craft store to stay open for them? During the holidays, when we closed at 11, I actually had a lady pull up to the doors in her car, around 11:45 and honk at me, and then pantomime asking me if we were open. I flat-out ignored her, and finished cleaning. She finally got the hint when she got out of the car, and the doors didn't open for her.

[STEELMAN]

I love it when people call after close because i get to hear the despair in their voice when they find out they don't get any pizza. When they ask why I answered the phone I just tell them that it could be for one of the employee's still there or an emergency.

[GolfCart34]

Where I work we don't answer the phone before we open nor do we answer it after we close. I believe there is a voicemail that comes on if the phone rings so many times listing the branch hours.

Last night somebody called about 5 times after we closed. The head teller finally had it, picked up the phone, did the standard greeting, then told the guy that we were closed.

Some people just don't take the hint.

[Chevy Nachos]

I used to work overnight stock crew at a supermarket. One year I had to work the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, going into T'giving morning. the phone rang about 3:00 and I answered. Of course, a guy asked if we were open. When I said "no", he asked "What are you doing there, then?"

I wanted to say "Robbing the place", but just hung up instead.

[PepperElf]

heck welcome to my world. the Hut I work at we are required to answer the phone even after close. you would not believe how many people can not understand the concept of REQUIRED PHONE ANSWERING even though we say "Thank you for calling blah blah Pizza Hut sorry we are closed for the night."


most go OK or Sorry and hang up but some want to sit there and aruge with you for 5 minutes on why you are answering the phone after close. hell some even try to bribe their way into a order (not going to happen clock says after midnight or 1am and WE ARE CLOSED our ovens are cooling off our friers are off our dishes are done and WE WANT TO GO HOME NOW)

all i can think of now is... "Waiting", where the guys were ready to go home but no...one last customer. ("Woops, I dropped the steak, how clumsy of me... woops I dropped it again."). Though I doubt the CS would be happy if you suggested it to them.

[BookstoreEscapee]

When I answered the phone after closing I would forgo the usual spiel (Thank you for calling B&N Mytown, this is Me, how can I help you?) and just said "B&N Mytown"...this is after they got the recording with the store hours. We always answered, though, because most of the time it was someone calling for an employee.

I don't understand why people think a business shouldn't answer the phone after hours. Do they think that there is nothing to do at the store when the store is closed...like, I dunno, cleaning and counting money and stuff? And the employees don't have family or friends who might want/need to speak to them while they are at work?

..... Sorry, went off into dreamland for a moment there...I'm back. Employees are people too, you say? Huh...

[wolfie]

What I don't understand is businesses that don't have answering machines. I recently (car breakdown) tried calling a few branches of a car repair chain (knew they were closed - before dawn on Sunday, but I wanted to know their hours of business), and there was no answer. You'd think it would be simple (and a one-time payment) to get an answering machine and record as the outgoing message "You have reached companyname at branchlocation. Our hours of business are dayandtime. If you are calling between during these hours, we are busy serving other customers and can't come to the phone right now. Please leave a message and we'll get back to you as soon as possible."

If someone (other than a SC) is calling outside business hours, chances are they want to know when the place will be open, so an answering machine can take care of their immediate problem.