Now I'm stuck with it

[sexiphatchick]

I got called in on my day off to work at the paint desk. I wasn't there more than an hour when I had this guy. He wasn't rude, he didn't yell, but he sucked just the same.

5G - 5-gallon paint guy

5G came in with a quarter-sized sample of paint he wanted to match. The paint was on the back side of a piece of printed paper, and it was soggy because it was raining. Plus it was kinda dirty. I told 5G I wouldn't be able to get an accurate match because of the paper it was on, it would read the ink through the paper. But he wanted me to try it anyway. OK, fine. I already know what's going to happen. I'm going to mix it, it won't be the color he wants, and I'll be stuck with a $100 can of useless paint.

I color match it and (of course) he wants the base that we're out of on the floor. I check the system and it says we have 20 of them in stock. Where, I have no idea. So we check in receiving and after some searching, we find it buried waaaaaay in the back. It was special ordered for a customer and they never took it. But it's buried behind 3 full rolls of carpeting. So now we have to find the flooring guy to come move his carpets so we can get in there with the pallet jack. FINALLY, after about a half hour, we get the pallet out onto the floor and take one off to mix this guys paint that he won't end up buying anyway. All the time he's waiting patiently, not complaining in the least about the wait. I mix the paint and sure enough, it comes out light gray, instead of the color he wanted (a beige). SURPRISE! he doesn't want it. He says, "The <insert store name here> in next-town-over said they can do it, I'll just go there instead," and leaves.

Their machine is exactly the same as ours, why he thinks they'll be able to match it when we couldn't is beyond me.

A little while later my CW remembers that she's had this guy come in before and did the exact same thing to her. We start thinking that maybe in a day or two he's going to show up again and want the paint, and at that point it'll be on the markdown rack for $15 instead of $100. So we changed the color. It's now a very pretty teal green.


If he had just LISTENED when I told him we couldn't do it, none of that would ever have happened. But I couldn't refuse to do it because of the idiotic new rules we have in the company that we can't tell a customer no. They are even going to start issuing returns to customers for products not even bought from us. So if you've got some useless junk at home, bring it on in and tell us how much you want for it. I didn't realize I worked for a pawn shop.

And now, here I sit, on my day off (after being coerced into staying late to close in rentals), halfway through hour number 10 of 13. I work for idiots.

[LillFilly]

You're right; it's his own fault for not listening. But then, employees never know anything! Duh.

There was a similar story here waaaay back. The guy wanted a bucket of paint, it was mixed, matched the sample, but he said it wasn't right. So they mixed another bucket. Guy said it still wasn't right and left. They marked it down and put-it in the discount paint, and a few hours later the guy came back to buy the 10gallons of paint that had been 'completely the wrong color!'

They got him though; they hid the paint and told him someone had already bought it! Try THAT next time. Heeheehee.

[MadMike]

They are even going to start issuing returns to customers for products not even bought from us.

Hey, why not? It worked at my last job. It worked so well in fact, the whole chain went out of business.

And now, here I sit, on my day off (after being coerced into staying late to close in rentals), halfway through hour number 10 of 13.

And that's why a lot of us don't answer our phones on our day off. Or at least screen everything with an answering machine and/or Caller ID.

[prb]

Teal green? Is it legal to ship cans of paint internationally?

[sexiphatchick]

heh, this place probably would.

Another story from hell (a.k.a. my place of employment):
Customer purchased a chainsaw. Returned it the next day because it's seized. Full of gas.....straight gas. No gas/oil mix. Gee, no wonder it's seized. Even I, who knows next to nothing about tools, know enough to check what kind of gas to put in BEFORE I put it in. They exchange it for him. Next day, same guy comes in with the same exact issue on the new one. Used straight gas instead of a mix. They actually weren't going to exchange it again (which surprises me) but he was rather drunk and causing a scene, so they gave him the money back just to get him out of the store.

[roguesqd]

In the paint dept of the hardware store I work at they will always retint paint that is either returned as wrong color, or mis mixed exactly for that reason, cause sooo many ppl will try that stunt

[South Texan]

We start thinking that maybe in a day or two he's going to show up again and want the paint, and at that point it'll be on the markdown rack for $15 instead of $100. So we changed the color. It's now a very pretty teal green.

A good friend of mine used to work as Home Depot. He said this was the biggest scams he ever saw.

Once he caught on to what was happening, he would open the cans of paint someone returned for being the "wrong" color and would dump random amounts of color into them (right in front of the customer if possible). He said most customers who saw this got bug-eyed and some people almost screamed when they saw him do that. A few would become upset that he had "ruined" the paint. He always told them he did that with bad paint colors just to see what other colors he could make - although he usually could tell that the customer had figured out that he was on to them.

One woman actually got so upset that she blurted that he was doing it just to keep her from buying it at a discount and that it wasn't fair. He just smiled and asked her why she would be thinking of buying paint that she had just stated wasn't the right color? She left in a rage.

[sexiphatchick]

Yep, that's what we did at a previous store I worked at. I don't know why we don't do it at this store, though.

[PepperElf]

ooooo i like that idea
evil but so much fun

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

my local store has a cute trick. They paint match and do a test on one of the little quart cans first to see if it's the color you want. If it is, then they make it in the 5-gal and give you the quart (for touch-ups in the future).

If it's not right, they're only out a quart.

Make a suggestion to your boss and see what they think of that idea.

M

[sexiphatchick]

hey, that's not a bad idea. we actually have 8oz testers that we should do that in. they're only a couple bucks, instead of giving away a $10 quart. our management would never go for it though. anything that makes sense doesn't fly in that store. but it is a great idea.

[AriRashkae]

My husband and I need to repaint our tiny living room, so we figured we'd just get cans off the Wrong Color rack, since we're not that fussy. Where are these bad mixes usually kept? Do we have to ask, or are they usually just tucked in a corner somewhere?

[draftermatt]

My husband and I need to repaint our tiny living room, so we figured we'd just get cans off the Wrong Color rack, since we're not that fussy. Where are these bad mixes usually kept? Do we have to ask, or are they usually just tucked in a corner somewhere?

That's what we did with our powder room, and will do with our living room once I feel like painting again.

We looked through the "screw up rack" found some colors that seemed nice, and went to town.

[taxguykarl]

My husband and I need to repaint our tiny living room, so we figured we'd just get cans off the Wrong Color rack, since we're not that fussy. Where are these bad mixes usually kept? Do we have to ask, or are they usually just tucked in a corner somewhere?

I did that for primer when I painted my garage. It would ultimately be covered with a coat of battleship gray, so who cares about the undercoat color?

[sexiphatchick]

My husband and I need to repaint our tiny living room, so we figured we'd just get cans off the Wrong Color rack, since we're not that fussy. Where are these bad mixes usually kept? Do we have to ask, or are they usually just tucked in a corner somewhere?

It depends on the store. Just ask the person at the paint desk where the OOPS paint is, and they'll show you.