You ever got morons like this Irv?

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

situation:

Customer badly wants a new game or product that I don't have, but there's a good chance it's coming in with today's shipment.

Usual sequence of events:

1) Customer calls just after we open to find out if it's in, I advise them no, but we should have our deliveries by 1 PM and if he calls back AFTER then, he can find out if it's here.

2) 45 minutes later customer calls again to find out if it's in.

3) Repeat 2) until just before 1 PM. No matter how many times I tell him to call back after 1 PM, he just doesn't get it.

4) Our deliveries arrive, no sooner has our delivery driver left the store than SC comes tearing in, demanding his new game NOW.

5) I then have to figure out what box the game is in, then go in the back room, identify said box (which is usually always at the very bottom of very back of my pile ) , I then have to open and root through said box to find SCs precious game.

6) Several minutes later I emerge with the game and SC buys it, bitching all the while about how long I took to dig it out of the back and how we should really get our deliveries earlier in the day so it would be more "convenient" for folks like him.

I have mental images of myself slamming the SCs head against the dumpster out back as hard as I possibly can.

[seigus]

I have mental images of eating popcorn while watching.

[KiaKat]

Oo! OOOO!

We get those!

Now, for those who don't know, I manage a wine store. A small wine store. A wine store that, although it is part of a small network, does NOT have a regular delivery day or time. For various reasons, including that we have multiple distributors, and they all schedule us randomly. Because our store is in the boonies - there's only one other place locally that orders wine, and they do so only from two places, and on top of that, only twice a month. Plus, our delivery guys are LAZY as #&%$, so sometimes our deliveries go to the other store, so we have to wait for the transfer.

Most of our customers know this, and plan accordingly, if they don't see "their" wine in the store on Monday or Tuesday. However...

However. Ugh.

One of our new regulars (just started showing up a couple weeks ago) has decided that he will *only* drink organic wine. Which doesn't make him sucky in the least, except that our "organic section" is only, at the most, ten labels large. And only maybe 4 or 5 of those are red. And, at any given time, 3 of those are over $15 each.

This gentleman has decided that he really really really wants this one South African organic. Which I don't blame him for. It's $13, fairly tasty, and has a neat label, so it's eye-catching.

It's also our most popular wine in the $12-$15 price range.

And we rarely get a full case (12 bottles) of it. Usually we get a half case (6 bottles). And that, oh, every two or three weeks or so. Not our fault, it's the way the distributor works, and they don't have much in stock.

This person will buy three bottles, then come back the next day and wonder why we don't have it. Then come back the day after and ask if we got any in. Then come back two days later and ask us for some. Repeat, until we get another shipment. Start the whole thing over again.

Though he's not as bad as the people who try to open up the boxes themselves. Though my assertion that they are not covered under the store's insurance, so if they could please stop trying to lift the 40lb cases of wine, because I don't really want them to get injured, or drop one on their foot. It has happened, it is NOT fun, and I know I don't look like I can lift that much, but I'm a professional, and I do this every day.

That usually works.

/threadjack

[lordlundar]

Ohhhh, WAY to frequently when I was in retail. Made even worse when a manager who had NO involvement in the chain telling them that we were going to get it in, only to have the estimate wrong and the finger gets pointed at me.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

And the answer is: No. Not yet. As far as I know. The perniciously persistent SCs seem to go more for electronics items and I am seldom in that department.

But you probably jinxed me now. Thanks a lot.

[Mr Hero]

I used to be guilty of this. I wouldn't do step 6, but 1-5 sounds like how I was. I grew out of this phase a few years ago after I realized how annoying I might be to the workers. Now I just call around different stores at noon, when most shipments would have arrived. If they're not there, I call the next store. If no one has it I hang up, vent, then try again the next day.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

And the answer is: No. Not yet. As far as I know. The perniciously persistent SCs seem to go more for electronics items and I am seldom in that department.

But you probably jinxed me now. Thanks a lot.

I just figured with all the time you spend in a stockroom, you'd get these crazies now and then.

Also, GOD forbid the shipment be delayed. I might as well have points sticking out of my head and a pitchfork in my hand if I have to tell the customer they won't get their precious item until tomorrow.

[Dave1982]

I've gotten to the point that I'll either lie outright to a customer who asks if/when something will come in, or give an ambiguous answer like "it could be in Thursday, but it might not. It all depends on what the warehouse decides to send."

If they press the issue, I'll just say I have no way to know for certain, but that if they are desperate, we can place a Special Order or find one at another store for them.

[I don't work here]

I HATE that!! around the 1st week of August We had a shortage of some stupid as seen on TV product. I knew we were getting more in, so i checked the system and told customers that i was "EXPECTED" to be shipped Aug 17th... So this one old hag came in EVERY FRIKKIN DAY and harassed me about it. You told me they would be here (did not!) I have been here every day for the past month looking for this (sorry that your life hinges on a 50 cent piece of useless plastic that we sell for $15)
I hate customers.

[An Haddock]

Easiest way around this sort of headache is tell the customer that the delivery date is no longer Tuesday (as an example), it is now Wednesday. That way you don't have them badgering you all day Tuesday.

And if the SC happens by the store on a Tuesday and sees the delivery truck - guess what, SC! They just HAPPENED to finish their route early so they came by the store today ahead of schedule!


Unfortunately, this probably wouldn't work as well with video game stores/music stores/etc. as they pretty much always have their new product out on Tuesdays, but with a place like a wine store there wouldn't be that expectation.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I just figured with all the time you spend in a stockroom, you'd get these crazies now and then.

Also, GOD forbid the shipment be delayed. I might as well have points sticking out of my head and a pitchfork in my hand if I have to tell the customer they won't get their precious item until tomorrow.

Well, I've told the story before, but there was the one lady who wanted a liquor bottle carousel we didn't have in stock, but had on the truck parked on our dock. She called up somebody at corporate or the DC and they told her it was on the truck.

So some suit called the store and told the store manager to get those carousels off the truck so the lady could get hers. This was on Christmas Eve and we didn't have the staff to just unload the truck, so it was just store manager moving stuff around in the truck until he stumbled across the liquor bottle carousels.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

Well, I've told the story before, but there was the one lady who wanted a liquor bottle carousel we didn't have in stock, but had on the truck parked on our dock. She called up somebody at corporate or the DC and they told her it was on the truck.

So some suit called the store and told the store manager to get those carousels off the truck so the lady could get hers. This was on Christmas Eve and we didn't have the staff to just unload the truck, so it was just store manager moving stuff around in the truck until he stumbled across the liquor bottle carousels.

And no doubt wished they contained full liquor bottles I bet.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

1) Customer calls just after we open to find out if it's in, I advise them no, but we should have our deliveries by 1 PM and if he calls back AFTER then, he can find out if it's here.

2) 45 minutes later customer calls again to find out if it's in.

45 minutes? At the video store we would have called that "restraint". 10 minutes seemed to be the usual time frame...

Movies were worse than games. People would be in the weekend before the release date (which was usually on a Tuesday) BEGGING to rent them. Then they would swear up and down that they could rent them from the 'other' place.

Which, actually, was true... the 'other' store was renting the movies 'under the table' and just not putting them on the shelf until the release date. We know because one of our more loyal customers rented a slew of new movies before the release and brought them to us, so we could report the store to the suppliers. They got a big fine and a limit on the number of movies they could buy for a few months after that.

[Mike Taylor]

I've been on both sides of this. Back when I was more of a hardcore gamer, I was this sort of SC on the launch date for Metal Gear Solid (you can tell it was a while ago), back in the days when Babbage's, Funcoland and Electronics Boutique had not yet been devoured by GameStop.

Right about the same time, I was working for FAO Schwarz and had action figure collectors hassling me like that for every figure under the sun.