Your sale is over? But that's not faaaaiir!

[karma_gypsy]

I'm sure everyone has gotten the "I'm in here all the time" customer and they have to plead the "I demand my discount/sale" ... when in essence, they haven't stepped foot in your store for, oh say, five years ...

I actually got the opposite today...



The Setup:

For about six-eight months, we have had a $1.99 DVD sale on Sundays only. At first, it was Sundays and Wednesdays, but Wednesdays were dropped a few weeks after the whole $1.99 thing started. Then about two months ago, we have had a large amount of DVDs come out to the floor and in order to relieve us of the vast amounts of the movies, we started having the sale daily (that's right, $1.99 DVDs everyday). Our regulars became aware of this and instead of converging upon the store on Sunday mornings, they were able to come in at all hours of the day, throughout the week (which is fine by me, it meant our Sundays weren't crazy busy anymore).

Just this last Sunday (that would be 1/25/09), the manager announced that the $1.99 sale would go back to being Sundays only. Meaning our stock of movies are at a more tolerable level.

I should also mention that this $1.99 sale is *by word of mouth* only, this sale is not advertised ANYWHERE.


The Characters (who will be somewhat identified by the smiley faces):

Bitchy Mom who wants the entire world to revolve around her
Quiet Daughter who probably died a little on the inside today
Completely Random Female Customer who has good timing
Me .... YaY me!


Onto the story:

My co-worker who is suppose to be watching the floor, is off doing other tasks. I noticed that Bitchy mom, , is at the DVD counter with a large stack of movies already in hand (DVDs are both inside a glass display case and stacked on top of the display case), while looking for more. The quiet daughter, , is by the jewelry just perusing.

I was already helping another customer who needed help in the tool section. While finishing up with him, Bitchy mom, , asks, no demands, for help. I tell her I'll be just one moment while I put a drill back in the tool case.

I walk over and she points out a movie she wants from inside the display, I get it out for her and gently tell her that we're no longer having the $1.99 sale and that it was Sundays only.



Cue the cat-butt face.



She thrusts her stack back towards me and spits, "never mind then, I guess I won't be buying today."

Completely random female customer, , catches my attention and asks if we have any childrens DVDs. I go and help her and walk away from bitchy mom, thinking we're done.



Count down to tantrum in 5 ..... 4 ..... 3 ..... 2 ..... 1




"But that's not FAAAAAAIRRRR! She" (indicating towards her daughter, ) "was just told on Thursday that you guys were having the $1.99 special everyday!"

"We did have the special everyday, but now it's just been dropped to Sundays. We had it for about two months now, simply because we had too many DVDs. They're five for $20.00 now."

"No you didn't."

*Confused look*

"I was here three weeks ago and you were having it just Wednesdays and Sundays."

*Double Confused look*

"We haven't had the Wednesday and Sunday special for quite some time now ... because we were having the game special at the same time."

I proceed to tell her the whole evolution about our $1.99 special ... and we can't forget about the whole "wash, rinse, repeat" process.


She comes back with, "well, that's not fair, you people are ... are" she couldn't come up with a word. *Gasp* she was going to insult me .... !


"Where's the manager? Is there someone you can ask? Who was the one in charge of this?" she demanded, she was probably one sentence short of beating her fists on her chest.


Before I could answer, she starts bargaining, "well, can I put these on layaway now and pick them up on Sunday?"


"Uhh, no ... you could put them on layaway on Sunday and get the $1.99 special then ..."

She continues on with some more it's not fair's and you people are ...are...

Then she goes back to the whole asking for a manager deal and telling me to ask a manager to see if she could get the deal.

I look over and there is my boss, I get his attention and before I can explain anything she starts going off about the whole 'I wanted the advertised $1.99' deal...

And then we can't forget the whole, "I wasted my gas and time just to come down here and get the special!"

He asks her, "what advertisement did you see it on?"

She didn't answer that ... why? Because it's not advertised!

Bossman asks how much the DVDs are normally, in which I tell him, "5 for $20.00."

He does some quick math in his head, "so that's $4.00 each" (yeah, he's quick, isn't he?) and then says, "I can meet you halfway and let you have the movies for $3.00 each."


At this point, I have to go and help completely random female customer, , because she picked out some childrens DVDs. Even she was mentioning that Bitch mom was being over the top. So, I miss out on the conversation between bossman and the Bitch mom.

Finally, bossman finishes with, "just give them to her for $1.99" and walks away, he was fed up with dealing with her. I was too and I finished up my transaction with completely random female customer. My co-worker came back from his task and helped Bitch mom get the rest of her movies and rang her up.


Oh right ... and you know how I said at the beginning about customers who claim "I'm in here all the time"? I've seen this woman and her daughter ... SEVERAL times in fact during the entirety of the special. I'm sure they were well aware of the 'daily special' ...

[Thatgirl71]

Wow, what a bitch. Sucks though, that your boss caved, but I suppose it's better than dealing with a whiny assed entitlement whore.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Wow, what a bitch. Sucks though, that your boss caved, but I suppose it's better than dealing with a whiny assed entitlement whore.

Maybe he saw which DVDs she was buying and figured it was worth it to get rid of them.

[katie kaboom]

Maybe he saw which DVDs she was buying and figured it was worth it to get rid of them.

Could be, but it's still not right. Now this woman will know she can throw a hissy fit and get her way whenever she wants.

And people wonder why so many retail workers are so miserable.

[jedimaster91]

Maybe he saw which DVDs she was buying and figured it was worth it to get rid of them.

Off Topic: You aren't a Pretender fan by any chance, are you?

[Hobbs]

Wow, what a bitch. Sucks though, that your boss caved, but I suppose it's better than dealing with a whiny assed entitlement whore.

Exactly. I have less heart than my managers, so I can argue an SC into the ground before I'd cave...especially one acting so suckily.

[South Texan]

Finally, bossman finishes with, "just give them to her for $1.99" and walks away, he was fed up with dealing with her.

Now this woman will know she can throw a hissy fit and get her way whenever she wants.

So now she has been rewarded for acting that way. I am so tired of spineless managers who cave in just to get someone out of their store or to make the person be quiet. It is the nice, polite customer who is penalized, therefore, and has to pay the higher price.

From now on, you might want to consider immediately referring all such people and their demands to your boss since it is obvious he will give in and you are not authorized to do so. You can explain to him that you think this is giving good customer service since it prevents the customer from getting upset before getting whatever she wants - and you know your boss and corporate do not want customes getting angry.

Sure it is passive aggressive, but it saves your sanity and makes the boss see what his jellyfish nature really says to his staff and the customers.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Off Topic: You aren't a Pretender fan by any chance, are you?

I don't think so. Not if you mean the recent TV show or the song by the Foo Fighters or the song by Jackson Browne or the role playing game. I had to find all these on Google.

On the other hand, if you mean "The Great Pretender" by the Platters, yes, I'm a fan.

[ESM]

For about six-eight months, we have had a $1.99 DVD sale on Sundays only

Um......... What store is this, and are their any good (recent, semi-recent) movies???????? Sounds like a sweet deal!

[jedimaster91]

I don't think so. Not if you mean the recent TV show or the song by the Foo Fighters or the song by Jackson Browne or the role playing game. I had to find all these on Google.

On the other hand, if you mean "The Great Pretender" by the Platters, yes, I'm a fan.

I meant the TV show. Your username is the name of a boat in one of the episodes. Great show. Too bad they cancelled it.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I meant the TV show. Your username is the name of a boat in one of the episodes. Great show. Too bad they cancelled it.

Darn! Now I'm going to have to track it down and check it out.

[bankworking]

I hate that loud obnoxious customers get rewarded for their behavior.

I am very fortunate to have a manager who does not just cave in to customer complaints and noise. Every once in a while, something will come up where he does give the customer what they were demanding, but whenever this happens, he makes certain to pull us aside and let us know a usually logical reason why he decided to make the exception for that case. As I said, great manager.

Unfortunately, the occasional customer will press things above my managers' head to the district manager. She seems to be of the opinion that if the customer excalated it that far, then it costs too much to argue further, so just give in. *sigh*

[greensinestro]

Could be, but it's still not right. Now this woman will know she can throw a hissy fit and get her way whenever she wants.

And people wonder why so many retail workers are so miserable.

My thoughts exactly here. She probably also goes home and tells all of her friends and neighbors what she did, too. And this is why prices are going up the roof on merchandise, let alone it's a reason why the economy is in bad shape. People are stealing (yes, that's what this is, even if she's still paying for it).

[Nephy]

For me (as a lowly little assistant manager), I usually just make a judgement call on whether it's worth my time and energy to argue with the customer.

If they have a semi-legit point (and are not just infact dumb and can't read/comprehend), and I can tell that the customer isn't going to back down, I'll usually cave in and just give it to them. It's not worth the company paying me $4.25 to argue with a customer for 15 minutes, if giving them the $2 off is going to get them the hell out of the store happy, and let me get back to my work.
On the other hand, if they want a rediculous amount off, or have no reasonable reason for wanting the discount (like the a-hole who wanted a free disposable camera because he left his in his car for a year and the pictures didn't come out), then I'll argue for eternity and not cave in.

[Blade_Raver]

"Ma'am, you snooze you lose. Come back Sunday."