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For about a year and a half I worked retail jewelry at a mall jewelry store. While there I had the pleasure of dealing with just about every SC there is. Here is the story of one of them.
During the holiday season, our company came up with a great idea of giving $100 certificates to any customer who spent over $300. The certificates were vaild from Jan 1-Jan 16. To be frank, we all hated them. Customers would bring them in and find a piece that was a tad above $100, and use their certificate and pay the difference....ruining our commission. While our commission wasn't great, the hourly wage wasn't either, so the commission really helped.
Anyway, its Jan 16, the last day of the promotion. I'm working with another girl, M. Phone rings and she answers it. The caller tells her that he had a certificate but had lost it, but could he still come in and get the discount? She tells him that he can't, as we need the certificate to be physically present to give the discount. He isn't happy about this, but seems to accept it and hangs up. She finishes her shift and leaves.
Well, apparently he wasn't as accepting as we thought. The guy, SC, comes into the store and tries to plead his case with another coworker. Let me take a moment to describe this guy. He had the frosted tips, spikey hair, and those clear/colored sunglasses (which he was wearing in the mall...guess its really bright in there) that have no metal frame around the lenses. I would call him a boy band wannabe reject. Anyway, he says that he had the certificate, but lost it. Would we be able to help him out, since he was such a good customer? Well, my coworker T tells him that without the certificate being present, we can't honor it. SC doesn't like this, and tries to argue his way around it...since he was such a good customer. T stands firm. T tries explaining, "well, if you ahve a 25% off coupon from Best Buy, you wouldn't expect them to honor it if you don't have it, right?" Too bad logic doesn't work with SC.
SC demands to speak to a manager, and T informs him that he is the acting manager, and that there is nothing that he can do. "Well, you just lost a customer!" exclaims SC, and he stomps out of the store.
Now, our mall is shaped like the Cingular symbol, and our store is in the middle. There are these round "holes" in the floor that allow people to lean on the railing and look down on the floor below them. We have one of these holes by our store. Across the way is another jewelry store, and to get there you need to either cross a bridge or walk around the hole...which takes you by every enterance into our store.
So SC stomps across the bridge and goes into the other store. Later he walks by our store, going around the hole and of course, walks past every entrance of our store. In his hand is a bag from the other store, which he proudly displays, just to drive home the point that we lost a great customer. [By the way, how much of an impulse purchase is that? Buying something from somewhere else because you are mad at another store?]
Anyway, a month passes and I am working again, but this time with two different girls, my manager (K) and our repair manager (D). SC walks by, clearly frustrated, and decides to come in. He tells K that the chain that he bought at the other jewelry store had broke, and that the other jewelry store was going to charge an arm and a leg to repair it. K and D look at it, and tell him that it would be just a simple solder job, and that our jeweler could do it for $14. He is really pleased by this and agrees to send it in. After he left I filled K and D in on his last visit, and K, who believes that she is great at customer service (which means that she is great with happy customers, but tends to vanish at the first sign of trouble) declares that we just won him back as a customer. Great.
Fast forward a few more months. I am once again working. Its the day of one of our "big" sales that we have every other week, and our DM is at our store. I'm standing by the enterance of the store, and who should walk up? You guessed right, Mr SC himself (sunglasses and all). He is all smiles, and proudly pulls out the certificate that he had lost months earlier. "I found it in a wallet that I hardly use," he proudly proclaims. "Can I use it?"
Ok, the promotion ended in Jan. Its April. Common sense would say that he is SOL, but as we all know, common sense is something SC never seem to have.
I tell him that since the promo has ended, he wouldn't be able to use it. He starts in with the usual, "I'm a good customer," "I spend a lot of money here(really? The only money I ever saw him spend was $14 for a solder)," blah blah blah. I go and grab our DM, and tell him the situation. He tells SC the exact thing, that since the promo has ended his certificate is invalid. SC fights for it some more, and our DM tells him that there is no way, since the code that we would need to enter in to redeem it in our system had already been removed. SC is still persistant, so my DM tells him that on Monday he will call the head office and see what he can do, and if there is some way around this that he will call him and let him know. SC likes this, and leaves his info with DM. When he tries to get DM phone, my DM explained that he is always traveling around the region, so he is hard to get a hold of (somehow SC actually accepted this...not too bright). SC leaves, happy and positive that he will be getting his $100 savings any day.
After he left, I asked the DM if he thought that there was any chance that the guy was going to get his way. "Naw, I'm not even planning on calling. I just wanted him out."
I guess thats why he is the DM.
During the holiday season, our company came up with a great idea of giving $100 certificates to any customer who spent over $300. The certificates were vaild from Jan 1-Jan 16. To be frank, we all hated them. Customers would bring them in and find a piece that was a tad above $100, and use their certificate and pay the difference....ruining our commission. While our commission wasn't great, the hourly wage wasn't either, so the commission really helped.
Anyway, its Jan 16, the last day of the promotion. I'm working with another girl, M. Phone rings and she answers it. The caller tells her that he had a certificate but had lost it, but could he still come in and get the discount? She tells him that he can't, as we need the certificate to be physically present to give the discount. He isn't happy about this, but seems to accept it and hangs up. She finishes her shift and leaves.
Well, apparently he wasn't as accepting as we thought. The guy, SC, comes into the store and tries to plead his case with another coworker. Let me take a moment to describe this guy. He had the frosted tips, spikey hair, and those clear/colored sunglasses (which he was wearing in the mall...guess its really bright in there) that have no metal frame around the lenses. I would call him a boy band wannabe reject. Anyway, he says that he had the certificate, but lost it. Would we be able to help him out, since he was such a good customer? Well, my coworker T tells him that without the certificate being present, we can't honor it. SC doesn't like this, and tries to argue his way around it...since he was such a good customer. T stands firm. T tries explaining, "well, if you ahve a 25% off coupon from Best Buy, you wouldn't expect them to honor it if you don't have it, right?" Too bad logic doesn't work with SC.
SC demands to speak to a manager, and T informs him that he is the acting manager, and that there is nothing that he can do. "Well, you just lost a customer!" exclaims SC, and he stomps out of the store.
Now, our mall is shaped like the Cingular symbol, and our store is in the middle. There are these round "holes" in the floor that allow people to lean on the railing and look down on the floor below them. We have one of these holes by our store. Across the way is another jewelry store, and to get there you need to either cross a bridge or walk around the hole...which takes you by every enterance into our store.
So SC stomps across the bridge and goes into the other store. Later he walks by our store, going around the hole and of course, walks past every entrance of our store. In his hand is a bag from the other store, which he proudly displays, just to drive home the point that we lost a great customer. [By the way, how much of an impulse purchase is that? Buying something from somewhere else because you are mad at another store?]
Anyway, a month passes and I am working again, but this time with two different girls, my manager (K) and our repair manager (D). SC walks by, clearly frustrated, and decides to come in. He tells K that the chain that he bought at the other jewelry store had broke, and that the other jewelry store was going to charge an arm and a leg to repair it. K and D look at it, and tell him that it would be just a simple solder job, and that our jeweler could do it for $14. He is really pleased by this and agrees to send it in. After he left I filled K and D in on his last visit, and K, who believes that she is great at customer service (which means that she is great with happy customers, but tends to vanish at the first sign of trouble) declares that we just won him back as a customer. Great.
Fast forward a few more months. I am once again working. Its the day of one of our "big" sales that we have every other week, and our DM is at our store. I'm standing by the enterance of the store, and who should walk up? You guessed right, Mr SC himself (sunglasses and all). He is all smiles, and proudly pulls out the certificate that he had lost months earlier. "I found it in a wallet that I hardly use," he proudly proclaims. "Can I use it?"
Ok, the promotion ended in Jan. Its April. Common sense would say that he is SOL, but as we all know, common sense is something SC never seem to have.
I tell him that since the promo has ended, he wouldn't be able to use it. He starts in with the usual, "I'm a good customer," "I spend a lot of money here(really? The only money I ever saw him spend was $14 for a solder)," blah blah blah. I go and grab our DM, and tell him the situation. He tells SC the exact thing, that since the promo has ended his certificate is invalid. SC fights for it some more, and our DM tells him that there is no way, since the code that we would need to enter in to redeem it in our system had already been removed. SC is still persistant, so my DM tells him that on Monday he will call the head office and see what he can do, and if there is some way around this that he will call him and let him know. SC likes this, and leaves his info with DM. When he tries to get DM phone, my DM explained that he is always traveling around the region, so he is hard to get a hold of (somehow SC actually accepted this...not too bright). SC leaves, happy and positive that he will be getting his $100 savings any day.
After he left, I asked the DM if he thought that there was any chance that the guy was going to get his way. "Naw, I'm not even planning on calling. I just wanted him out."
I guess thats why he is the DM.
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