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Argh. Today the weather was bad, so we were extra busy. Yesterday's manager didn't put together the day's schedule so the morning manager had to and was behind. No one ordered change yesterday so we were pretty much out of rolled coins. Corporate decided to be awesome and switch the day an important weekly display changes out (been the same day the whole 4 years I've worked there), but not tell us ahead of time, so instead of changing yesterday when we had an extra person specifically to make sure that went up before we opened, it changed today when there was pretty much just me. (With how busy it was it took me 2 hours to put up the new titles, and it wasn't until right before I left that I got all the old titles put away. 
) The espresso grinder in the cafe broke so the manager spend over an hour over there trying to fix it, plus it was busy and she's the only "back-up" for the cafe since they don't train us book people over there. The guy who is supposed to be in at 10 but never really makes it till 11 called at 9 to say he had a dentist appointment at 10 and didn't know how long it would be. The phone rang, I swear, once every 3 minutes. All the Store Managers in the District had a meeting with the District Manager (her office is in our store) so our Store Manager wasn't available PLUS the DM always has to set her eagle eye over our store and complain about this or that, and I had to make sure she didn't notice we didn't have the formerly mentioned display changed yet. I had to come off my lunch break early because there were 8 people in line and the only other cashier was helping 2 people at Customer Service. I spent 40 minutes actively trying to get away from customers long enough to make a quick run to the restroom. Corporate sent an e-mail that they were extending our clearance, but NOT telling me many other essential details, leaving more questions than answers and screwing over my holiday set-up, which I'm already behind on and had no time to work on today. Plus, I also enjoyed this little gem:
I was trying for my fourth time to escape and go to lunch, when a co-worker (who will very likely get his very own rant in the Coworkers folder before the night is out because he drives me MAD) calls me back with a question. He's pulled up a book this lady is interested in, and it shows it is unavailable to order. But it also shows we just got the book into our store (and sold it) about a month ago, and she (the customer) wants to know what's up with that. (Why he told her this, I don't know. She doesn't need to know when we had it last, just that we can no longer get it!) I look at the computer, look at all the detail screens, and I'm sorry, but when a book isn't available in our warehouses anymore, it doesn't tell us WHY it just says we can't order it anymore. It also doesn't tell me why we were able to last month. So I just explain that it must have been the last copy in the warehouse. He goes on to point out the publisher date on the book is only June 2006, why would it be unavailable already? And I tell him again, I'm sorry, there's no way for us to know that. It didn't even have the publisher's address and phone number listed (sometimes it does, and we can call or let the customer know to call and see if they can still get the book), so there was really nothing I could do. And then, the following:
SC: Sucky Customer
A: Annoying Coworker
SC: Where can I get it then? Where's another bookstore that would have it?
A: Well, as I mentioned, none of our locations have it in. I don't know if another bookstore would have it, you'd have to check with them. You'll most likely have to go online and see if anyone has a used copy available.
SC: Well! A GREAT bookstore would help a customer get a hold of the book they want, no matter how they have to get it! I can't believe this. I came in today planning on buying this book and spending money with you guys, but now I won't! ::huffs off::
) The espresso grinder in the cafe broke so the manager spend over an hour over there trying to fix it, plus it was busy and she's the only "back-up" for the cafe since they don't train us book people over there. The guy who is supposed to be in at 10 but never really makes it till 11 called at 9 to say he had a dentist appointment at 10 and didn't know how long it would be. The phone rang, I swear, once every 3 minutes. All the Store Managers in the District had a meeting with the District Manager (her office is in our store) so our Store Manager wasn't available PLUS the DM always has to set her eagle eye over our store and complain about this or that, and I had to make sure she didn't notice we didn't have the formerly mentioned display changed yet. I had to come off my lunch break early because there were 8 people in line and the only other cashier was helping 2 people at Customer Service. I spent 40 minutes actively trying to get away from customers long enough to make a quick run to the restroom. Corporate sent an e-mail that they were extending our clearance, but NOT telling me many other essential details, leaving more questions than answers and screwing over my holiday set-up, which I'm already behind on and had no time to work on today. Plus, I also enjoyed this little gem:I was trying for my fourth time to escape and go to lunch, when a co-worker (who will very likely get his very own rant in the Coworkers folder before the night is out because he drives me MAD) calls me back with a question. He's pulled up a book this lady is interested in, and it shows it is unavailable to order. But it also shows we just got the book into our store (and sold it) about a month ago, and she (the customer) wants to know what's up with that. (Why he told her this, I don't know. She doesn't need to know when we had it last, just that we can no longer get it!) I look at the computer, look at all the detail screens, and I'm sorry, but when a book isn't available in our warehouses anymore, it doesn't tell us WHY it just says we can't order it anymore. It also doesn't tell me why we were able to last month. So I just explain that it must have been the last copy in the warehouse. He goes on to point out the publisher date on the book is only June 2006, why would it be unavailable already? And I tell him again, I'm sorry, there's no way for us to know that. It didn't even have the publisher's address and phone number listed (sometimes it does, and we can call or let the customer know to call and see if they can still get the book), so there was really nothing I could do. And then, the following:
SC: Sucky Customer
A: Annoying Coworker
SC: Where can I get it then? Where's another bookstore that would have it?
A: Well, as I mentioned, none of our locations have it in. I don't know if another bookstore would have it, you'd have to check with them. You'll most likely have to go online and see if anyone has a used copy available.
SC: Well! A GREAT bookstore would help a customer get a hold of the book they want, no matter how they have to get it! I can't believe this. I came in today planning on buying this book and spending money with you guys, but now I won't! ::huffs off::
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