Coffee Catastrophe

Well, its been a while since I've been able to make a post, which I apologize for. There's just been lots of stuff going on, leaving little computer time. Customers haven't been too horrible, either, but I've definitely still got stories for you. Today's post is about an incident that happened yesterday.

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~ A couple approached the counter with a coffee maker that they were dissatisfied with. Apparently it took a ridiculously long time to brew and it also leaked in the back. Further inspection revealed that they had been filling it with too much water. They had already thrown the box away and also didn't have the receipt because it had been given to them as a gift. The maker still looked brand new, but because of the absent receipt and box, I informed them that all I would be able to do is exchange it for another of the exact-same model. The reason for this is in case there is something defective with their maker to cause it to take so long to brew. To my dismay, the couple was very disappointed with my response.

After hearing the only available option in my power, the woman immediately spoke up. She went on this rant about how dissatisfied they were with the coffee maker, that they were willing to pay extra for a more expensive one, how just exchanging for the same one was unacceptable, and so on. While she spoke, all I could do was repeat, "I understand," over and over until she finally gave me room to speak again. When she finally shut up, I repeated to her that all I can do is follow policy, which limits me to only exchanging out for the exact same model in this situation. Of course, that still was not good enough, so they wanted a supervisor. I found one nearby and soon had permission to exchange out the maker for a different model. Shortly after, the couple were on their way into the store to find a replacement.

I was on lunch when the couple returned to exchange the coffee maker, but to provide us with the UPC number needed to process the exchange, they brought back the display model for their original coffee pot. That, of course, needed to go back out on the floor since it was no longer needed at the service desk. When I went to move the display maker into a shopping basket, tragedy struck. I accidentally tilted the device a little too much causing the coffee pot slid off it's base and onto the floor. So not only did I get angrily ranted at, I also got to clean up a pile of busted glass, all because of one couple's troublesome coffee maker. I wasn't very happy, to say the least.

Four in One

Maybe I'm just lowering my standards, or possibly I was just really irritable yesterday, but I've got four, separate mini-occasions to share from yesterday. None of them are really long enough to blog about by themselves, but together, I find them worth mentioning.

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~ To start, I got to "play" with glass a lot. And by "play," I mean "clean up and prevent others from hurting themselves with it." One of the bulbs in a two-pack of long, florescent lights had busted and was pushed out of the way. Why no one else had the initiative to clean it up, I have no idea. After I'd done so and attacked the remaining pack (which still contained half the broken bulb and lots of glass) with lots and lots of tape, I placed the item in our designated basket of things that won't be put back on the shelves. When doing this, I moved a box of glass cups out of the way only to find that the box sounded as if someone had drop-kicked it across a football field. The folded cardboard had plenty of small exit points and nothing done to seal the container, either. It got attacked with tape, too. In the end, I succeed in avoiding any glass injuries on my part. Yay.

~ Next, I had another customer with a whole bunch of little things to return without the receipt. All of the items she had were things specifically known to get stolen... a lot. She must have lifted some of it from a different store, though, because half of the items wouldn't scan. Over-all, I declined the return with a big, fat "Nuh-Uh." We keep similar products of the ones that weren't in our computer, and I'd guesstimate them costing over $100 for the small handful. That's not even including the ones that I could check the price on. She had a total of around $160 in items we are just not allowed to take back without a receipt. The reason this attempted return is so mentionable is because she walked off without the bunch that wouldn't scan. Anyone who would have actually spent that much on those items wouldn't just leave them in the store. Ebay, friends, family, something would have been better than just leaving a legitimate purchase behind. She had to have stolen them and the fact that they weren't in our computer made them useless to her. Its as simple as that.

~ Also, in my list of Do's and Don'ts When Interacting With Cashiers and Customer Service, I specifically mention, in my list of Customer Service Don'ts, that it is disliked when customers, "Act as if [they've] been giving a blessing from God if there are no other customers in line when [they] arrive." Well, that's exactly what happened yesterday... multiple times. In fact, it bothered me enough that I started keeping count. Yes, I'm that awesome. The grand total is five. In one day, five separate people felt the need to mention that it was so great the service desk area was empty. It was raining ALL DAY!! It is a very consistent thing that much fewer people want to return something while its raining, or even shop for that matter. Think, people, think!

~ And, last but not least, I discovered a gentleman who could operate without his brain. I was walking back up to the front of the store when a pleasant sir approached me. He wanted to know where he could find plastic, outdoor, lawn tables. Assuming he's already checked, the only answer I felt I could give him was to, "look in the garden center area since that's where most of the outdoor stuff, short of sporting items, are kept. If they're not there, we probably hadn't gotten any in yet." When I mentioned this, his eyes lit up as if I'd just told him where to find the lost city of Atlantis. He had not, in fact, checked the garden center area. He didn't even know we had one. WHAT SUPERSTORE DOESN'T HAVE A GARDENING AREA!?!?