May 4th, 2007 Rachel
Whilst enjoying my latte, I noticed something peculiar out the window. What looked like a rear ending, then a car jacking (”does that man standing next to the passenger window have a GUN!?”), turned out to be an arrest…ing.
Yummy. Never seen an arrest in Los Angeles, and here I am in lovely downtown Vancouver and it’s happening right beside my ridiculously comfy green chair (seriously, Jenn and I were practically hosting our own Masterpiece Theatre in those things…).
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May 4th, 2007 Rachel
It feels good to get a decent rant out when the person behind the counter or on the other end of the phone disappoints. But at the same time, as the customer, I firmly believe you’d better be 110% certain you’re in the right here before losing it on someone. Ideally, we wouldn’t. And usually…I don’t. Case in point: my new mattress last year. It took three weeks to get to my apartment for a variety of dumb reasons that weren’t my fault. Should have taken five days. But no matter how much I got jerked around, I couldn’t bring myself to say anything other than, “Okay…thanks.” While silently cursing like a sailor.
This probably is part of the reason why I blog…I vent here instead of on some unsuspecting customer service rep who doesn’t see it coming.
BUT…nothing…and I mean nothing irritates me more than stupid people who take out their aggressions on others. In public. When it’s not justified whatsoever.
While in a shoe store, which happens to be the ‘liquidation’ branch of a fairly prominent brand, I was at the front paying for my $30 watch (marked down to $5!!) while listening in on the stink being made next to me.
“But when I put them on at home…they were too big.”
“Yes, but as you can see the bottom of the shoes are clearly scuffed all over. Like they’ve been worn for an entire evening.”
“WELL…I’m not even FROM here. So when I put them ON, and went OUT, I wasn’t THINKING ‘hey these shoes don’t fit’.”
“I’m really sorry, but I can offer you insoles. I can’t, however, refund your money for these shoes.”
“How can you have a policy like that?!”
“Honestly, it’s not my policy. This isn’t my merchandise, this isn’t my store. If it were my store, I wouldn’t necessarily have the same rules.”
“You sold me shoes that didn’t fit though!!”
“No, ma’m. I didn’t fit these shoes for you, and you seemed to feel that they fit when you purchased them.”
“But you’re the MANAGER.”
“I’m sorry, but since they’re worn, I can’t take them back.”
I saw the shoes. The manager (who has obviously been here before, as she stayed amazingly calm through this) had every right to say ‘no’ - they had clearly been worn down the street, in the club, and back again. Not even taking into account that buying your shoes at the liquidation outlet should give you a clue that returns won’t be so easy…seriously, people. Seriously.
When I worked at Greenhawk, we’d get people bringing horse blankets back that smelt like a barn and had turned black on the inside from dirt and hair and insist that they’d only had the blanket on the horse for two seconds. At some point, you have to draw a line. And a minority (but a very volatile/loud/aggressive minority) will try to take advantage of this.
Girl with the boots, Mom with Susie’s pony’s blanket…stop being such a pain in the ass. If organizations and companies didn’t have to deal with your temper tantrums, they might actually be able to maintain a level of customer service that we can all benefit from.
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