Better Wednesday

Well, today wasn't anywhere near as bad as yesterday. I started out at the service desk, and later got moved to a regular register to cashier. But fear not! Just because the day wasn't terrible, I still have stuff to gripe about.

~~~

~First of all, not even a half hour after I clocked in, guess who walked up to the service desk. If you guessed Mr. DVD from yesterday, you are correct! He approached, with that horrid piece of plastic in hand, and asked for a specific manager by name. How he got the name, I have no idea. It wasn't any of the ones that were contacted yesterday about the movie situation. Regardless of how he came by the information, I was obligated to contact that manager. When I didn't get a response, I waved down my main, front-end supervisor. She, also, was not working when the man had appeared yesterday. She spoke with Mr. DVD about the situation and I just about slammed my head on the counter when she told him to go get the new movie that he wanted.

While he walked away, I quickly scurried over and explained what had gone down last night. I'll let it be our little secret that I failed to mention the second-in-command giving the go-ahead for the movie swap. To my dismay, she contacted the manager who Mr. DVD had asked for by name, and he also approved the trade. I made sure my super was aware that I didn't feel right doing the exchange, so she was kind enough to take care of it for me. So, in the end, the persistent pain in the neck got what he wanted. Hurray for him. Whatever.

~Being back on a regular register today also reminded me of something very annoying that people do on a fairly regular basis. This action I'm referring to is the customer making a counterfeit money joke. I'm also going to be rather specific and state that I almost never have women make these remarks. It feels like about 30% of the time I take out my money marker to check the bills I'm handed, the gentleman I am helping makes one of these comments:

"Careful, the ink is still drying."
"Just made that [this morning/last night], it any good?"
"I figured out how to fool that marker pretty well, didn't I?"
"Don't mind it if the ink smudges." *wink*
"Looks pretty real, huh?"
"I see I did a good job on that batch."
"I bet you can't tell I made that, myself."

Oh man, I could go on. I'd rank these remarks just under someone saying an item is 'free' and right above when they ask me 'if I'm paying for their groceries' on my Annoy-o-Meter. That almost makes me want to make a chart for said meter...

A Break in the Flashbacks

I can't help but make today another double-post day. A noteworthy enough occurrence happened, but since it was after my lunch break, I didn't have the time to type it out and send it via text message. So before I have the chance to go to sleep tonight and forget any details, here be what happened:

~~~

~Two gentlemen approached my counter with five items to return and they had the receipt. They seemed slightly high, so I'll go ahead and refer to them as Dude1 and Dude2. This particular encounter was so special, I'm going to explain what happened with each piece of merchandise separately.

Item #1. A surge protector.
~This item had none of it's original packaging. In situations like these, we have no way of either party proving that the UPC code on the receipt is for that particular item unless the customer gets an identical, packaged one off the shelf and brings it too me. Since our hardware section is in the far back of the store, Dude1 wasn't interested enough in returning the device to run back and grab a duplicate of it for me. So we moved on to the next object...

Item #2. A four-pack of electrical outlets.
~To be frank, I really didn't care that the box had multiple, overlapping, horizontal layers of scotch tape over the closing flap. Customers use their own tape to re-package stuff all the time. When I did begin to care is after I lifted the box to scan it. The outlets inside rattled more than I expected and the box was lighter than I would have figured, too. So, I took the liberty of opening it up. I can't help but point out the fact that I must have pressed my thumbnail against the most ideal location in the tape. It split in a perfect line across the box's edge allowing me to pull open the flap in an easy, fluid motion which gave me a momentary flash of nerdy joy.*

Peering inside, I found that there were only two items in the container, not four. To add icing to this pitiful attempt at a return, both of the outlets were old and badly damaged. Each had been used well past their capacity and had melted marks around the socket holes. The worst of the two even bore small burns from the electrical heat it had been forced to endure. While I explained how the damage and missing parts prevented me from being able to approve the return, Dude1 simply followed along with an even-toned, calm compilation of, "Yeah," "Uh-huh," and "Ok," replies. This guy had to be 'feeling good'. So we moved on to the next objects...

Items #3 and 4. Two medium-sized, metal space heaters.
~With the surge protector and outlets both having fallen short of being in optimal return condition, I wet ahead and made sure to take an extra moment to inspect the heaters...
-Both were the same model and the boxes looked brand new. Check.
-Both were on the guys' receipt with matching UPC numbers. Check.
So far so good!
Neither were still taped shut, so I grabbed the one closest to me and pulled it out of it's box. Now, given what time of year it is, I've gotten very familiar with some of the heaters we carry. People have been returning and exchanging them constantly for weeks now. Due to that fact, I was already well aware that this particular model has a handle that does not come already attached to the unit. I slid the heater back in it's box and mentioned that there wasn't a handle anywhere in sight. Upon hearing this, Dude1 looked in the second box (which was closer to him,) pulled out its handle, and handed it to me... instead of just handing me the box while it had all of it's contents still packed neatly in it. This guy had to be stoned.

At least they had a 1/4 success rate at this point. I taped the accepted heater shut and scanned it into my computer. The other, he planned on taking home to find the missing handle. So we moved on to the last object...

4. An open DVD.
~When these guys first walked up, the DVD was the first item I noticed because the cellophane was no longer on it. Dude2 stated that it wouldn't play all the way through and wanted to just get the money back for it. Following store policy, I informed him that because the movie had already been opened, but found to be defective, I would be able to exchange it out for another exact copy. I also made sure to emphasize that when these particular exchanges are made, the new copy must be opened before it leaves the building since theirs was open when it entered the building. He seemed slightly displeased that this was the only option I was able to provide him, but made his way into the store to grab another, anyhow.

Dude2 had returned well before I had finished with the other four items, and now it was the movie's turn. Dude1 wasn't as accepting of the store policy and mentioned a couple more times that his companion just wanted his money back. It was as if he wasn't hearing me each time I repeated that all I was able to do was swap it out for another, same, exact copy. After I completed their transaction, put the new (opened) DVD in a bag, and handed Dude1 the money for the one heater that was returned he stated, yet again, that they still just wanted to return the DVD. I surprised myself at how slowly and calmly I was able to reiterate our policy on opened software for the fourth or fifth time. That guy had to be baked.



*Yes! Nerdy JOY!
With all the annoying situations and pissed-off people that I get to deal with on a daily basis, its nice when something actually goes well, no matter how large or infinity small it is. Shut up! Don't judge me!

12/21/2009

I'm going to be kinda sad when I run out of saved messages to write about. But until then, you can bet I'll be continuing to make regular blog updates. In fact, for the last few days, I've been taking the liberty of typing up my posts a day in advance (this one included.)

~~~

~On this fine day, a gentleman approached the counter with a DVD player and it's receipt. There was nothing wrong with the player, he had just decided he didn't want it anymore. Standard procedure for these types of returns requires me to compare the serial number on the box, the device, and the receipt to ensure that all three parts match.

>Both the serial numbers on the packaging and the DVD player did match.
>Both the UPC on the box and the one on the receipt matched.

Cool beans.

>The serial number on the package and DVD player, however, did not match the serial on the receipt.

That was a problem...
Joy for me.

If, for some strange reason, you are not fully aware of the purpose of a serial number, please click here.

Now, because the serial on his proof of purchase didn't match the item itself (in fact it wasn't even close,) I wasn't able to process the return. Our computers literally will not even allow the return without some type of override. Regrettably, the man insisted that the receipt he was showing me was, without a shadow of a doubt, the one he had been given when he purchased the DVD player. With nothing else I was capable of doing, I informed a supervisor of the situation.

At this point, I'm going to take the opportunity to describe the possibilities that one has to take into account when handling this man's case which include but are not limited to:

A. He is telling the truth (AH HA-HA HA! Fat chance.)
B. He found a receipt somewhere, or got one from a friend, that happened to be the same model player he already had in his possession, and now wanted to use it to get his money back.
C. He had the receipt from a legitimate purchase he had made and now wanted to use it to return a DVD player that was stolen or received as a gift.
D. When purchased, the scanner recorded the serial incorrectly.*
E. He simply had the wrong receipt and wasn't willing to admit it.

Being presented with the man's situation, taking into account any or more the aforementioned possibilities, and remembering store policy, she immediately refused the return, as well. Again, to my dismay, the customer was not willing to accept no for an answer. Now it was time to contact a member of management. It was also time for me to get really aggravated.

When the manager arrived at the counter, he took a grand total of about 5 seconds to review the dilemma, and overrode the incorrect serial so that I could give the man the money for it. When the manager did so, he said, and I quote, "I'm not in the mood to argue today." There are very few instances where I can say that I wanted to slap a co-worker more than a customer, but this was definitely one of them.


* I'll be the first to admit that it is definitely possible for a serial number to be recorded incorrectly. All it takes is a flaw in the bar code. In this man's case, not a single number and/or letter scanned from the pristine bar code on the box matched any of the corresponding numbers and/or letters on the receipt. The odds of it being scanned and recorded that incorrectly without giving an 'invalid scan' error are infinitesimal.