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Fun one today. Guy had come in on Dec. 20 (one of the busiest days for a shipping store) and shipped a watch back to a vendor. Today he returns.
Important background note: This guy is not in the wrong for being torqued off. I would be too in his situation, but there's a difference between being angry and completely losing your shit. He was working up to the latter.
He hands me one of our receipt forms and asked to track the package. I do, and comparing the address on his receipt (in KY) to where it was delivered (in NC), it's immediately plain that someone was going a little too fast when processing the shipment (as there are 3 of us, it's impossible to know which of us messed up). The address bore a generic "Returns Dept", but there are about 9 different "Returns Dept" addresses in the computer. Ugh. Okay, this is a fixable thing. It sucks; it really sucks that his package went to the wrong place, but again, this is something that we can deal with. However, I can't get a word in edgewise to tell this guy what I'm going to do to fix the problem. I can't even get a word in to apologize for the error. He has gone off on the cosmic wondertrain of "THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!!" at an ever-increasing volume. I agree, but human error is going to happen eventually, even to the best team. This is only the third package in 2008 that we've had a problem with (the others were a lost package and a damaged shipment, this is the first error for us). He's still going...our service sucks, he's never using our service again, our store is a joke, *I* am a joke...
The other important things to note...this is not a little guy. I run about 5'10" or so, and he was a good head taller so 6'5" or so. Maybe late 40s. Standing to one side of me is the lady I was waiting on, and sitting at the desk nearby was my girlfriend who often stops in midday. Ordinarily I would wait for someone in a shouting mood to run out of steam and explain what I'm going to do to fix the error. With other people in the store as a captive audience and this guy becoming increasingly loud and insulting, this is not happening.
I finally cut off his ranting and tell him to leave and that we'll call him when there's something to report. He refuses. I advise him at that point that I will call the police if necessary. This BLOWS his mind. As I pick up the phone and start pushing numbers, he sputters then leaves. The lady at the counter was very kind after he left. Less than ten minutes later, he returns.
He demands corporate's number and address. He demands a copy of the tracking page. And he insists that he is going to call corporate RIGHT HERE so he can make me talk to whoever answers. Yeah, no thanks. I tell him he'll need to take the call off-premises. My phone rings and I take it. Hah, my supervisor. Perfect. I step in the back and brief him on the situation. Fun. I move back to the front to find the guy still at the counter. He ensures that I have his correct phone number (surprise surprise, it's a blank on the form he didn't fill out when he was first in) and snidely comments "You could've asked for that before threatening to call the police." To which I responded "I would have been able to, if you weren't being quite so belligerent."
My girlfriend was so wound up by it she cried after he left.
Important background note: This guy is not in the wrong for being torqued off. I would be too in his situation, but there's a difference between being angry and completely losing your shit. He was working up to the latter.
He hands me one of our receipt forms and asked to track the package. I do, and comparing the address on his receipt (in KY) to where it was delivered (in NC), it's immediately plain that someone was going a little too fast when processing the shipment (as there are 3 of us, it's impossible to know which of us messed up). The address bore a generic "Returns Dept", but there are about 9 different "Returns Dept" addresses in the computer. Ugh. Okay, this is a fixable thing. It sucks; it really sucks that his package went to the wrong place, but again, this is something that we can deal with. However, I can't get a word in edgewise to tell this guy what I'm going to do to fix the problem. I can't even get a word in to apologize for the error. He has gone off on the cosmic wondertrain of "THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!!" at an ever-increasing volume. I agree, but human error is going to happen eventually, even to the best team. This is only the third package in 2008 that we've had a problem with (the others were a lost package and a damaged shipment, this is the first error for us). He's still going...our service sucks, he's never using our service again, our store is a joke, *I* am a joke...
The other important things to note...this is not a little guy. I run about 5'10" or so, and he was a good head taller so 6'5" or so. Maybe late 40s. Standing to one side of me is the lady I was waiting on, and sitting at the desk nearby was my girlfriend who often stops in midday. Ordinarily I would wait for someone in a shouting mood to run out of steam and explain what I'm going to do to fix the error. With other people in the store as a captive audience and this guy becoming increasingly loud and insulting, this is not happening.
I finally cut off his ranting and tell him to leave and that we'll call him when there's something to report. He refuses. I advise him at that point that I will call the police if necessary. This BLOWS his mind. As I pick up the phone and start pushing numbers, he sputters then leaves. The lady at the counter was very kind after he left. Less than ten minutes later, he returns.
He demands corporate's number and address. He demands a copy of the tracking page. And he insists that he is going to call corporate RIGHT HERE so he can make me talk to whoever answers. Yeah, no thanks. I tell him he'll need to take the call off-premises. My phone rings and I take it. Hah, my supervisor. Perfect. I step in the back and brief him on the situation. Fun. I move back to the front to find the guy still at the counter. He ensures that I have his correct phone number (surprise surprise, it's a blank on the form he didn't fill out when he was first in) and snidely comments "You could've asked for that before threatening to call the police." To which I responded "I would have been able to, if you weren't being quite so belligerent."
My girlfriend was so wound up by it she cried after he left.
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