Oh man, these sudden storms are reeking havoc on my head. Pressure in my head and my jaw is really bothering me (it’s a little smaller than it is suppose to be, and thus pops whenever the pressure fluctuates).
This morning a customer came in who I worked with last week and sold some computer speakers to. He brought with him said speakers. Very upset, he told me he wanted to return them. Why so? Bad service. Huh, that’s really weird. From whom? From you.
That one really floored me. Especially since I did remember this guy. He came in and talked with me for a long while before going to a soccer game. Later he came back and I was busy, so John R. talked with him. Then I talked with him some more, he bought the speakers, and then I did the show for him. I must have spent over an hour with him, showing him around the store. The whole interaction was rather pleasant and cordial. He seemed very happy the whole time he was in the store.
So what the hell did I do? I asked him this, and at first he refused to say because he was in a hurry. Uh, OK. (It should be noted that as soon as he said it was me I was steaming, and only got hotter as he kept talking, just barely keeping my head.) As I started to process the return I asked again, since it was going to be a minute. He said he thought it was very rude that I looked at my watch when talking to him and then (allegedly) kicked him out because it was past closing. Also, he said John C. said something sarcastic as he left the store. (This is the only part I don’t recall happening. It’s possible he did say something, but I don’t know what, nor would the customer tell me what was said so I have no way of remembering it if it did happen.) Finally he stated that I didn’t shake his hand when he left.
Wow. OK. Where to start? First, I did look at my watch. This was not because I found the customer annoying or because I was looking to kick him out. It was instead because I was the manager on duty and we had been talking in the back room for a long time, and I wanted to be aware of what was going on, since I did have to close the store. I probably shouldn’t have checked my watch in front of the customer but I didn’t kick him out. Here is how the situation went down. I looked at my watch:
“Are you guy’s closing now?”
“Yeah, we do close at six, but you don’t have to leave until you’re ready to go. We just have to lock the doors.”
“No, I’ll let you guys home.”
“Alright. Did you have any more questions on anything at all?”
“No, thank you.”
If this was the face of a guy upset I checked my watch rudely, I didn’t see it. He was still the overly cheerful guy he was the whole time, maybe a little embarrassed he was still in the store past close. Let me just say though that the only reason I invited him to the show was because he had already bought what he had come in for and we still had time to do a show, granted he left with his purchase after I finished my schpeel. He instead talked on FOREVER. I remember telling the guys after he left that I thought he was a little lonely. He had that weird lonely guy vibe from the moment I started talking to him. Guys don’t talk to me like that. Women, sometimes, but guys never. Unless they are really lonely and don’t have anyone else to talk to. You can just see the type. He was nice enough though. I really didn’t mind talking to him.
About the whole shaking the hand thing. That REALLY bothered me. It wasn’t like he offered me his hand and I just looked at it. He never did that. I shake hands, but I’m not an everybody needs to get a handshake kind of guy. I would have shook his hand if he held it out. He didn’t. I didn’t. Big deal.
He then told me that he wasn’t even down the sidewalk before he decided to return the speakers. That didn’t actually stop him from taking them home and using them for a week. I just came out and asked him, “Why didn’t you just return them then, then?” Because it was after six, he told me. Well, jeez, isn’t that polite of you. Me personally, if I was as pissed off as he seemed when he actually did return them, I wouldn’t have left the store without yelling at someone and asking for my money back. I wouldn’t wait eight days, enjoy the speakers (which he told me he did) and then decide that it was finally time to take them back.
I think John R. really figured it out best when he said that this guy probably didn’t have anyone to talk to, and thus no one to vent his frustrations to, so that a small incident just grew and grew in his mind until it became a huge fiasco where everyone who works at the Bose store in Manchester is a dick. Did he just forget the fact that he had spent over an hour in the store talking with several happy and helpful Demonstration Specialists before talking about nothing and wasting their time? People really honestly don’t think about the fact that we are actually working when they talk to us at the store, not just doing this for fun, and thus at closing time would like to go home to relax. And we bend over BACKWARDS for people at Bose. I’ve heard much nastier stories of other stores kicking people out for no reason, before they were even closed.
Oh my God I was pissed. I really had to get a hold of myself, because I was actually already working with some other people I had to put a straight face on for. I don’t need that crap. If he ever does decide to come back I’m going to tell him to get the fuck back out. Jebus.
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