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The "Don't Play that Game with Me" thread reminded me of this crazy customer from my days as a store manager at the video store.
Quick background...all movies were due in by close. For those who were "chronologically challenged" we charged late fees. Our late fees equalled the cost to rent the movie for an additional term. So if the movie was $3.00 for one night, then the late fee was $3.00 every day it was late. If a movie was $3.00 for five nights then the customer would be charged a $3.00 late fee on the first day it was late and wouldn't be charged again until the sixth day it was late.
On with the show My thoughts in itallics:
It was about a half hour until the store closed. The phone rang and on the other end was a teenaged boy asking me what time movies were due back. I told him 11 PM. He asked what would happen if the movie wasn't back in time as they were in the middle of watching the movie and had more than a half hour left. This movie was a five day rental. Why would you start watching it at 10 PM on the night it's due? You've had it for almost a week by now! I explained that they would get a late fee. He then asked if there was anything that they could do to avoid the fee. I advised that we did allow renewals over the phone, but it as they didn't have our half price rental card, renewing the movie would cost the same as a late fee. At this point he said he was going to go get his mom so I could explain it all to her. Why did you not just have her call in the first place?
His mom gets on the phone and I explain all of the above to her, minus my thoughts of course.
She took it all really well, admitted her error in waiting too long to start the movie, and pre-paid her late fee.
Just kidding...she flipped out! She began telling me that "I didn't understand" and she didn't want to pay one more dollar for the movie. I sympathized with her but explained that the only option to avoid having to pay any more was to get the movie back in by 11 PM. Well that just wasn't going to happen, they weren't done with the movie!
She asked me to wait for her as she was sure they'd be done with the movie in time for her to get it back in by 11:30. Umm...no. I've been here since 3 PM and I want to go home as does the rest of my staff.
Wait, she's had a flash of brilliance...why don't I check in the movie manually so that it is in before 11 and she'll drop it off as soon as they're done with it.
I expained that I absolutely could not do that as that would throw off our inventory and would be a great way for someone to steal. Of course assuring her that I wasn't accusing her of stealing. She insisted that I could do it, I just didn't want to. You're right, I don't She insisted that other stores did it all the time, including the mom and pop video store down the street Right, they're even more strict about their movies as they don't have bulk buying power we have She then began demanding my DM's name to file a complaint.
Our upper management was huge on thinking outside the box to make a customer happy. If she had made it as far as my DM, I would have gotten a talking to about not going far enough for the customer, so as much as it pained me to have to help her, I had no choice
At that point I said, "Here's what I can do" to which she sarcastically responded "What can you do?". It took everything I had to not to say "Hang up on you B!@#$". But like the good little Doo Bee that I was, I offered to re-rent the movie over the phone and for free basically giving them five more days to get the movie in. She was happy with that Of course why wouldn't she be? and did return the movie the next day.
I did call my DM right away in case she still called to complain and my DM said I did the right thing. She couldn't believe that anyone would fall for returning the movie without having it physically in the store without immediately re-renting it to the same customer.
Quick background...all movies were due in by close. For those who were "chronologically challenged" we charged late fees. Our late fees equalled the cost to rent the movie for an additional term. So if the movie was $3.00 for one night, then the late fee was $3.00 every day it was late. If a movie was $3.00 for five nights then the customer would be charged a $3.00 late fee on the first day it was late and wouldn't be charged again until the sixth day it was late.
On with the show My thoughts in itallics:
It was about a half hour until the store closed. The phone rang and on the other end was a teenaged boy asking me what time movies were due back. I told him 11 PM. He asked what would happen if the movie wasn't back in time as they were in the middle of watching the movie and had more than a half hour left. This movie was a five day rental. Why would you start watching it at 10 PM on the night it's due? You've had it for almost a week by now! I explained that they would get a late fee. He then asked if there was anything that they could do to avoid the fee. I advised that we did allow renewals over the phone, but it as they didn't have our half price rental card, renewing the movie would cost the same as a late fee. At this point he said he was going to go get his mom so I could explain it all to her. Why did you not just have her call in the first place?
His mom gets on the phone and I explain all of the above to her, minus my thoughts of course.
She took it all really well, admitted her error in waiting too long to start the movie, and pre-paid her late fee. Just kidding...she flipped out! She began telling me that "I didn't understand" and she didn't want to pay one more dollar for the movie. I sympathized with her but explained that the only option to avoid having to pay any more was to get the movie back in by 11 PM. Well that just wasn't going to happen, they weren't done with the movie!
She asked me to wait for her as she was sure they'd be done with the movie in time for her to get it back in by 11:30. Umm...no. I've been here since 3 PM and I want to go home as does the rest of my staff.
Wait, she's had a flash of brilliance...why don't I check in the movie manually so that it is in before 11 and she'll drop it off as soon as they're done with it.
I expained that I absolutely could not do that as that would throw off our inventory and would be a great way for someone to steal. Of course assuring her that I wasn't accusing her of stealing. She insisted that I could do it, I just didn't want to. You're right, I don't She insisted that other stores did it all the time, including the mom and pop video store down the street Right, they're even more strict about their movies as they don't have bulk buying power we have She then began demanding my DM's name to file a complaint.Our upper management was huge on thinking outside the box to make a customer happy. If she had made it as far as my DM, I would have gotten a talking to about not going far enough for the customer, so as much as it pained me to have to help her, I had no choice
At that point I said, "Here's what I can do" to which she sarcastically responded "What can you do?". It took everything I had to not to say "Hang up on you B!@#$". But like the good little Doo Bee that I was, I offered to re-rent the movie over the phone and for free basically giving them five more days to get the movie in. She was happy with that Of course why wouldn't she be? and did return the movie the next day.
I did call my DM right away in case she still called to complain and my DM said I did the right thing. She couldn't believe that anyone would fall for returning the movie without having it physically in the store without immediately re-renting it to the same customer.
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