WELL! my buddy gives me free stuff!"

[TonyDonuts]

From the battery store days.

Fella walks in looking for a battery for his cordless phone.

I steer him to the cordless phone battery section, he finds his battery. It's $10.99.

Fella freaks.

"That's just ridiculous! I'm not paying that much!"

I put the battery back on the peg. And tell him that's price.

He them asks me how much the individual cells are in the battery (we stocked them to build custom battery packs).

I looked them up, and the were about a buck apiece.

"WELL! That's more like it! I'll take those!"

"All right, then, will there be anything else?"

"WELL! Aren't you going to put them together for me?"

"We already have them pre-assembled, sir, remember?"

"WELL! Those are too expensive! My buddy, who owns an electronics store, always does that for FREE!" and then he looked at me with an expectant look, as though the crushing LOGIC of his position would overwhelm me.

"I'm not your buddy sir. I don't work for free.

"WELL! My BUDDY, who owns an electronics store, is always giving me free stuff! Why won't you cut ME the same deal?"

"Because my boss would be very unhappy with me. Look, you've got a guy that gives you free stuff, and that's great. It doesn't mean that every other retailer in the world is going to give you the same deal."

"But I don't want to drive to Rochester!"

"And I don't work for free. Was there anything else?"

"WELL! You don't treat customers well. I'll just see what my buddy, who owns an electronics store, has to say about that!" And again with the expectant look.

"Let me know what he has to say. You have yourself a great evening now."

And the friend of Buddy, who owns an electronics store, left, defeated.

[Cordiform]

"I'm not your buddy sir. I don't work for free.

ah ha GLORIOUS!!

[walking with scissors]

From the battery store days.
"WELL! My BUDDY, who owns an electronics store, is always giving me free stuff! Why won't you cut ME the same deal?"

"Because I'm not your buddy, Buddy. Mainly because you're being a huge asshole right now."

[PepperElf]

WELL! You don't treat customers well.

non-paying people are NOT customers!
*waps the ew on the head with a battery*

[HawaiianShirts]

"WELL! Those are too expensive! My buddy, who owns an electronics store, always does that for FREE!" and then he looked at me with an expectant look, as though the crushing LOGIC of his position would overwhelm me.

...

"WELL! You don't treat customers well. I'll just see what my buddy, who owns an electronics store, has to say about that!" And again with the expectant look.

It's like the moron's trying to intimidate you! Seems to me that somewhere in this guy's head he's gotten the idea that because his buddy gives away free stuff, his buddy also has the power to make other businesses give away free stuff. He thinks his buddy has authority over all other electronics stores.

Either that, or he's bluffing and trying to convince you that he deserves free stuff. Since he didn't leave right away, I think that's a pretty good possibility.

The one thing I don't think I'll ever understand about SCs is why they think that businesses get any benefit from giving out freebies (except for those attached to some marketing promo or to make up for a genuine mistake, of course).

And all this over a $10 battery. Just when I think the stupid desperation of the shopping... er, haggling... no, scamming public has reached rock bottom, someone like this comes along.

[smileyeagle1021]

Oh, I get that a lot too
..."well (insert hotel nowhere near us) will normally give me a free upgrade... I stay all the time"
yeah, well, you stay a lot at a hotel that isn't even in the same hotel group as us... and you think that entitles you to an upgrade here... uhuh.

Never cave to them (though some of my spinelss coworkers do).

[Argabarga]

The sad thing is, people wouldn't keep trying the "but the other places do it" approach if it didn't, at least once before, actualy work!

[taxguykarl]

It's like the moron's trying to intimidate you! Seems to me that somewhere in this guy's head he's gotten the idea that because his buddy gives away free stuff, his buddy also has the power to make other businesses give away free stuff. He thinks his buddy has authority over all other electronics stores.

Either that, or he's bluffing and trying to convince you that he deserves free stuff. Since he didn't leave right away, I think that's a pretty good possibility.

The one thing I don't think I'll ever understand about SCs is why they think that businesses get any benefit from giving out freebies (except for those attached to some marketing promo or to make up for a genuine mistake, of course).

And all this over a $10 battery. Just when I think the stupid desperation of the shopping... er, haggling... no, scamming public has reached rock bottom, someone like this comes along.

I got my share of that haggling nonsense. The best one:

SC: "My girlfriend does this for $10 (SC's return would print out to 20 pages of forms and schedules--roughly a $300 job)"
Me: "I'm not your girlfriend--I'm not even a girl. Moreover, what will she do if you get audited?"
SC: something under breath..."Whatever."

[Bradester]

I'm not your buddy, friend! He's not your friend, guy!

[PizzaDrone]

Ahh, Bradester beat me to it. That guy clearly just wanted....more moneh!

[karma_gypsy]

"WELL! My BUDDY, who owns an electronics store, is always giving me free stuff! Why won't you cut ME the same deal?"

"Oh, well, in that case ... here ya go! Here, in fact, take everything in the store ... Since you're buddy owns his own electronics store ... that must make YOU master of the universe and thus, getting everything that your buddy is capable of giving you, for free." I highly doubt that even if his buddy came into the store, he probably couldn't even get products for free ...

And..


I'm assuming he didn't even mention "his buddy's" name or even the store that this so called "buddy" owned?

[TonyDonuts]

I'm assuming he didn't even mention "his buddy's" name or even the store that this so called "buddy" owned?

Nope, just that he was his buddy, and he has an electronics store, and that he gives him free stuff all the time.

[Bliss]

Has that moron ever tried to SOLDER these things? battery metal is hell, totally hell to solder. if they don't come with leads machine welded to it, you can spend a lot of time, heat, flux and solder trying to get a decent soldering on one of those.

Heck if the job was well done I'd pay $10 for the workmanship of soldering these together myself, not counting the cost of the parts.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Your response rather reminds me of the story I posted from my time at the movie theater.

SC: "Come on, man, be a friend!"
J2K: "I'm not paid to be your friend."

[bigpedaler]

SC: "But <The Other Place> does this/has this/charges me this."
Me: "Well, I guess you need to go there, then. Here, it's this."

Lotta times, they'll just walk away frumping and grumping. Once in a while, they'll ask for a manager. I try to get the one I know will back me up. The others would hand over their own car keys to satisfy the SC.