"You're really going to lose my business over [reason]?"

[digilight]

Why should the delivery fee be included for everyone, when not everyone is going to have it delivered? .... but it is very likely that the 100+ miles round trip, + truck rental would be considerably more than the mere $120.00 the store was charging.

Another reason I could imagine (now correct me if i'm wrong which chances are I am). But do they "combine" delivery fee's, say if someone bought the special $300 set and then some other items that would each have a $120.00 delivery fee by themselves. Would the overall delivery fee be lower if all 4 items (4 X $120.00) were delivered to the same address?

[Dips]

We have a suprising number of people threaten to go elsewhere because we won't give them a free update.

As in, "If you don't charge me $0 for this update, I'm going to take my $0 elsewhere and you're going to lose a sale. Of $0."

[Banrion]

Another reason I could imagine (now correct me if i'm wrong which chances are I am). But do they "combine" delivery fee's, say if someone bought the special $300 set and then some other items that would each have a $120.00 delivery fee by themselves. Would the overall delivery fee be lower if all 4 items (4 X $120.00) were delivered to the same address?

Nobody around here offers free delivery anymore - there's always some sort of fee. Of all the stores we compete with, it ranges drastically depending on number of pieces, where it's going, etc. Some places have a flat charge - ours ranges, we have a big piece of paper with all the charges on it.

From what I can tell is the delivery charge is somewhat flexible in the sense that they probably start at a flat rate to make a delivery for example $75.00 and then depending on the weight and size of the piece there is an additional charge, ie tiny end table $10.00 for a total of $85.00. If you want a sofa & loveseat it would be $75.00 + $30.00 for the sofa + $20.00 for the loveseat = total of $125.00. If that is how Kusangi's store works then yes, buying more pieces will result in a lower delivery charge than buying them and having them delivered separately.

[Kusanagi]

Another reason I could imagine (now correct me if i'm wrong which chances are I am). But do they "combine" delivery fee's, say if someone bought the special $300 set and then some other items that would each have a $120.00 delivery fee by themselves. Would the overall delivery fee be lower if all 4 items (4 X $120.00) were delivered to the same address?

We do combine. Delivery ranges anywhere from 90-170. We only charge for the first three pieces so technically everything else after that third piece IS free delivery...

[AFpheonix]

Ah, the old "I'm going to take my business elsewhere" threat. I'm a pharmacist and what some people don't realize when buying medicine is that when you have rx insurance (which a vast majority of people have) you pay the same price at my pharmacy as you would if you trekked across the country to a pharmacy out in bum f**k Egypt. I have a simple saying for my customers who don't understand this and bitch about price. "If you want the medicine, buy it, if you don't want it, leave it here"

And even if it is cheaper somewhere else, perhaps if it's a percentage of the total cost-type copay, or another store is a preferred provider and we're not, do you honestly think we care? Hello, there's 5 more people in line behind you. We aren't missing your business. Oh look, that person that was in line behind you is transferring 6 or more monthly scripts in from Target. You go take your measly Xanax script elsewhere. Thankyewverymuch.

Bonus points if it's a Kaiser idjit who didn't realize that Kaiser is a closed system. No one takes your coverage. I get that so often, it's not even funny anymore.

[po'drph]

tell it drug goddess! I think pharmacy SC's can be the worst kind

[AFpheonix]

They can be awful. It's so cute when you get a dewy-fresh assistant manager back to train, and they leave all wide-eyed, because NOTHING they've encountered in the front end compares to the sheer nastiness that is a sick person, a person in pain, or a druggie. Bleah.

[Lurkergirl]

Slight hijack here. While I don't believe in the whole "entitlement" attitude of some customers I have to respectfully disagree with AFpheonix. I think there are customers that a pharmacy does not want to loose, and in some cases (at least in my experience) actively trys to attract and keep.

I see quite a few pharmacies in Calgary that actively pursue diabetics as customers/patients. Why? If you are a diabetic and in need of meds to maintain control you are regularly spending hundreds of dollars a month at that pharmacy. Between test strips (which cost way too much), needles, insulin (usually 2 types), heart medications, cholesterol medications, any oral medications, maybe depression meds, etc., they provide a steady source of income for the pharmacy. So much so that we now have pharmasists that are also trained Diabetic Educators and Pump Trainers, and can help you manage your diabetes.

I actually hold a lot of respect for my pharmasist. A good pharmasist is as important (in my mind) as a good doctor. This doesn't mean that I am going to damage special service, or that my scripts be filled before anyone else's. But I also know that they value my business.

[BDbuddy23]

You cannot get a PIZZA delivered for free anymore, much less a big, honkin piece of furniture.

[Talon]

Kusanagi what is it with your cuss-tomers?? Do they not know what happened to the last guy who tried to demand a discount? I can just imagine...

SC "Waaaah! You will waive the fee or you will be sorry!"
Kus "The last guy who made me that offer is still doing fifteen years."

(disclaimer: not trying to trivialize what you went through, apologies in advance if I have)

I once had a customer who paid her bill late, then called to annoy me about late fees. I held my ground. She threatened to go to the competition. I said "Ma'am, be my guest." I kept my tone neutral, but she obviously wasn't pleased at my complete indifference to her threat. She got louder, threatened to tell all her friends about what a horrible company/person we/I are. My response was soft-spoken, neutral, and direct: "Ok."

[radiocerk]

Another pharmacy chime-in...

A good pharmacist can be MORE important than your doctor. The number of prescriptions I get on a daily basis that are either: a massive overdose for a small child, a drug the patient is allergic to, a drug that the patient's insurance does not cover, or just so completely ludicrous (prescibing Xanax for cough, not kidding) makes me think that while doctors are incredibly intelligent people, almost all of them are overworked and not too bright.
Never mind the work that can go into fixing insurance claims, getting refills for patients too dingy to remember that they don't have a lifelong prescription, or ordering drugs for that one loony who swears they need brand name Amoxicillin which has been out for much longer than I've been alive.
I, too, get those patients who swear they shall leave us for pharmacy X, Y, or Z. And then I have six or seven patients every day transferring in because the other pharmacy didn't have their meds, had longer wait times, or had just "horrible customer service." Most of the people who swear they are never coming back and actually transfer their meds to another pharmacy are back within a month anyway.

[Andara Bledin]

I work for a company that sells unused surplus electrical components like connectors, switches and such. At least half of the items we carry are either obsolete and nearly impossible to find, or they can only be gotten from us now or from the factory in large quantities with a 2-week+ lead time.

The woman that handles the secondary sales (switches, relays, filters, etc) is a no-nonsense woman who doesn't take guff from anybody because she knows that at least half of the people calling in for parts have no choice but to buy them from us.

She regularly gets conversations that go like this:

SC: Well, Other Company quoted me half of what you did for this part.
CoWorker: That's a great price, maybe I'll call them up myself.
SC: Aren't you going to offer me a better price?
CW: No, that's a great price. Why are wasting your time and calling me?
SC: Well, I really want to give you my business.
CW: Well, I can't match that price. If you want to buy from me, it's at the price I quoted.

One of my other favorites goes something like this:

SC: I want you to give me a better price on this part.
CW: Ok. *gives a new price at +10%* How's that?
SC: That's not better!
CW: It's better for me.

And, finally:

SC: This price is too high.
CW: That is the price I quote everybody for this part, and I sell it all the time at that price.
SC: Well, if you don't lower it I'll take my business to Other Company.
CW: You do that.

Back in the main side of the business, my manager (Mr) gets these fun exchanges:

SC: You're asking too much for this part. Other Company quoted me only this much.
Mr: Really? Then you should buy them from Other Company.
SC: But they don't have any stock.
Mr: If I didn't have any stock, I'd quote even less. But since I do have stock, you already have my quote.

Almost invariably, in every situation, we get the order. After all, we're usually the only people with the parts, and even when we're not, our prices are more than reasonable.

Plus, it's fun to talk to the people at the Other Companies that the SCs are always saying quoted them lower. It's a fairly spread out industry, but since it's surplus, nearly everybody knows everybody else. Heck, most of them have worked for each other over the years.

^-.-^

[protege]

Almost invariably, in every situation, we get the order. After all, we're usually the only people with the parts, and even when we're not, our prices are more than reasonable.

I still don't know why people bitch and moan when it comes to hard-to-find items. They should be happy they can still *get* some of those things.

As someone who has a somewhat obscure car (well, on this side of the pond, anyway) I know what it's like. Some things are simply *not* available anymore. For example, I needed a new chromed bezel for the MGB's dashboard. Mine was heavily corroded (Mazak casting suck!) The gauge itself worked fine, and is still available new from suppliers. However, the chromed bezel isn't. I have no idea why, but *nobody* sells them. After several months of looking, I found a complete used gauge on Ebay for a very reasonable $20. I didn't need the gauge itself, but since it was included, I now have a spare...and the cleaned bezel looks great in the dashboard

And yes, I'm happy when I can get "obsolete" items for very little. When I find obsolete or unwanted kits at the local hobby shop (usually old Nissan Skylines, or obscure 1980s Japanese cars--Toyota Carinas, Nissan Leopards, etc.) the owner usually lets me have them for next to nothing. His reasoning is that the kits have been there for years, nobody wants them, and he just wants to be rid of them.

[greensinestro]

Oh, yes, the stories I could tell about fees and what these morons will do to get rid of them. The latest one I had was a lady who was upset that our company charged her $40 to hook up her new phone service. Now, she was previously with Bellsouth, which I used to work for, and they always charged a fee like this due to time, materials and manpower were needed to hook up the phone. It is not a "flip of a switch" or "push of a button" like many customers think. This charge covers that it takes time and money for a technician to hook up a customer's phone. The same thing goes for cable TV or satelite.

This woman griped and complained, saying it was unfair being Bellsouth is their competitor and we should be grateful enough to have her to let her hook up the service for free. I fired back, politely with, "Maam, it would be unfair to charge other customers this fee, make them pay it, but let others not have to pay it. We can't do it both ways." She shut up, but was mad as hell over it. I checked her account a few weeks later......she's still with us, despite her threat to go back to Bellsouth. We're still waiting for her to take her business elsewhere.

[AFpheonix]

Slight hijack here. While I don't believe in the whole "entitlement" attitude of some customers I have to respectfully disagree with AFpheonix. I think there are customers that a pharmacy does not want to loose, and in some cases (at least in my experience) actively trys to attract and keep.

We have a massive customer base simply by being a 24 hour store in a good location. We do service a lot of people who take huge amounts of monthly maintenance scripts.

I don't want a customer's business, even if they spend a lot with us, if they're going to cost us money by:
1) being a pain in the ass and holding up the whole works
2) public aid patients who take total advantage of the system and are on like, 20 things that they don't need, especially if they've already engaged in bullet point #1 consistently.
3) Insist on only getting brand name on things, especially pain meds, because that cuts into our bottom line as well. I can understand the few people who are sensitive to it, but there's a lot of people out there who are just being idiotic. And in the case of some of the brand name pain meds, you can almost see the dollar signs on their eyeballs, because they're just gonna go sell it on the street. These people also engage in bullet point #1.

I would rather have 10 customers who are kind, polite, and reasonable about calling in their refills ahead of time than idiots who call in 10 to 20 or more and want it in 15 minutes, or don't understand the concept of refills, or formulary, or that public aid is as good as how much you paid for it.
My particular pharmacy is not hurting for customers, our script count has been going up by about 100/day each year. I wouldn't miss some of the assholes in the least.

Mr. T, that includes you. You don't deserve whatever organ you had transplanted into you, because you are a jerk.