"Home Depot has them all over the place!"

[Knightmare]

Opening shift, Sunday morning. I come in, the store is dead. Maybe I can get some work done. Nope. Silly me to hope for that.
I'm purging the paint machines when a woman approaches my desk. Very nice and polite at first, but I guess she didn't have enough coffee this morning.
SC: "Excuse me. I'm looking for wall switch plates. All I can find are these plastic ones. Do you know where I can find the good ones? I'm looking for the ceramic type."
Me: "Sure. If you back to that same aisle you found those and walk to the end, that's where they will be. We also have a few other ones in hardware, but they are brass and other metals."
SC: "Thank you." She walks back to electrical. 5 minutes later, she reappears at my desk.
SC: "There was nothing there I liked. Can you show me the ones in hardware?"
Me: "Yes, but it will be a few minutes. I have to mix up some paint for a customer."
SC: "I don't have time to wait. Where are they again?"
Me: "Aisle 3. They are hanging up at the front of the aisle."
And away she goes again.

I finish the paint a minute later and walk over to help her. It's not my department, but it's right next door and I know where most things are there. I find her and point out the wall switch plates.
SC: "NO! Those aren't it either! I want ceramic ones , but you don't carry the ones I want."
Me: "Well, I'm sorry, ma'am. Those would be the only places we would have those plates."
SC: "Home Depot has them all over the place!" She slams the 8 plates down on the counter and then says: "I guess I'll go to Home Depot. What do you think of that?"
Me: *shrugs* "Doesn't hurt my feelings any."
SC: "Well!" She storms off to the exit.
I return to my lovely shiny paint desk. I then look over my shoulder and there she is at customer service. I don't know what she's saying, but I have an idea. She's there for about 2 minutes, talking to the opening MOD (she has the hots for me and we flirt a lot. Too bad she's married). I shrug it off and continue working.

10 minutes later, MOD comes over to me, and asks "What the hell was that about? That customer said you were rude to her."
Me: "What did she say?"
MOD: "She said you were rude and unhelpful, and were very patronizing."
Me: "Hahaha! She did?"
MOD: "And she also said that you 'don't care if she goes to the Home Depot.''
Me: "I don't, really. But that's not what I said. She asked me what I thought about her shopping at Home Depot, and I said 'Doesn't murt my feelings any.'"
MOD gives me a look... you know the kind.
Me: "What? I wasn't going to beg her to stay. Besides, we don't have what she wanted. I can't pull something out of my.. out of thin air ya know."
Again, another look. "Knightmare... just don't say that kind of thing again. Okay?"
Me: "Anything for you, toots." (She is the only person I can talk like this with and get away with it).

"Please, ma'am! Please continue shopping with us! We may not have what you want, but we'll carry it in the future, just for you! PLEASE don't go to the competition, which is 20 miles away."
Wait.. yes, please go to the competition, so they can deal with your drama queen ass.

[BusyBee]

I've never understood wanting to keep customers like that. First of all ones who want to make stuff up about the employees to the manager, and secondly ones that you simply don't have what they want.... (Or what they think they want )
I've told customers at the dvd rental store plenty of times to feel free to go someplace else... In a nice way! hehe. Usually if we don't have it, very rarely if I think they shouldn't have to pay their late fees Pretty sure at least some of the times (when we don't have it) I have told them this within earshot of my manager, but he never seemed to care. I guess he understands things like common sense and how I can't pull movies out of... The calculater drawer

But really... If I went to buy/rent something, and they don't have what I want, I'd get really ticked off if they started trying to sell me something else so that I don't take my business elsewhere. I would imagine the SCs would get *ahem* loud about it too. What exactly does the management types expect the shop employees to do???

[katie kaboom]

What exactly does the management types expect the shop employees to do???

kiss the butt of every moron who walks through the door, that's what.

[i4wolves]

Don't you know you were supposed to be following the lady around saying, "Please or please stay" I do not know why customers think that threating to go somewhere else is going to hurt a very large business.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

""I guess I'll go to Home Depot. What do you think of that?"

Why do these people not realize that unless you are the owner or some high-ranking poobah that gets a portion of profit, you don't care if they shop there or not? Do they think it effects your paycheck? Do they think you care if some rich dude in an Armani suit makes their few pennies off of that one purchase?

Sheesh.

[Shironu-Akaineko]

"But they have it at IGA!"
"Go to IGA."

When we don't have something, I always suggest another store. Not my fault our suppliers don't have the bread you need.

The trick is that you're so helpful tho, they'll come back for another item because of the good service.

Only works on non-SCs, tho.

[Ree]

I've never understood wanting to keep customers like that.

Because the sad fact of life is that, sucky or not, they are still a customer, and even if they didn't spend money today, and all they did was whine that they're going somewhere else to shop, management knows they will be back, and a dollar is, after all, a dollar.

[evilhomer]

What a self important bitch. You want to keep every customer that you can, but when you don't have what they want, they have to go somewhere else. Does she also need the fulfillment of seeing you beg to get her grocery and clothing purchases?

[powerboy]

The great thing with our shop, is that Best Buy and B&N is higher then we are on the same products. So let the customers complain, and want to go somewhere else. 98% of the time, they come back

[BusyBee]

Because the sad fact of life is that, sucky or not, they are still a customer, and even if they didn't spend money today, and all they did was whine that they're going somewhere else to shop, management knows they will be back, and a dollar is, after all, a dollar.

Yeah... I totally understand they want the customer to want to return later. But wanting to keep the customer in the store, when the store simply does not have what it is the customer is looking for? Huh? I... I just don't see the point in that.
In fact the more I think about it the more I would want to come back to a place that simply says "Sorry, we don't have it... but those guys might, go try them. Buhbye now."

When I try to follow the train of thought that says 'Keep customers in the store, despite the fact that we don't have what they want', my brain just gets to a certain point and crashes, then I spend a while rebooting it
Just like logarithms! Foiled again!

[Broomjockey]

and a dollar is, after all, a dollar.

Unless you're Canadian, then it's 85 cents!

[Ree]

LOL, Broomjockey.

In fact the more I think about it the more I would want to come back to a place that simply says "Sorry, we don't have it... but those guys might, go try them. Buhbye now."

I totally agree.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

In fact the more I think about it the more I would want to come back to a place that simply says "Sorry, we don't have it... but those guys might, go try them. Buhbye now."

That is what we are supposed to do at my store. This happens most often with hardware items. Our hardware department is only 2 aisles, half of them taken up by automotive items, so we have only a limited selection of screws, nails, mounting kits, felt pads you put under furniture to keep it from marking up the floor, etc...

If we don't have it at my store, I send them over to Menards, Lowe's or any of the other hardware places in town.

But wanting to keep the customer in the store, when the store simply does not have what it is the customer is looking for? Huh? I... I just don't see the point in that.

I don't get it either. You could never build a store large enough to contain every product known to man. Most people come to a store knowing exactly what they are looking for, and it doesn't do much good to try and get them to impulse-buy something else.

[Imogene]

I don't get it either. You could never build a store large enough to contain every product known to man.

"Hmmm... left handed torque wrench? Got it at Sears... Lube... check... Oriental fabric? Where will I ever find Oriental fabric? Hey! Let's go to that Hardware store!"

[RichS]

As a store in a small town, one of our selling points was knowing where to find things we didn't carry. In turn, the other stores would do the same. It was great for all the local businesses.

Of course, it didn't stop the weird requests - such as the customer who asked if we, a computer and vacuum store, carried motor oil.