Wednesday, February 10, 2010

The customer is not always right because often times the customer is an idiot



Ok, so while I work at a gift shop as the manager/buyer and sometimes cashier; said gift shop is attached/part of a hand car wash.

On the bottom of all of our receipts is the following:

*Return this vehicle & receipt & save*
$2.00 off the Executive regular price
$2.00 off the Works regular price
Offer expires after 10 days of receipts date


One day an older gentleman comes in and states he's here for his $2. Um. What?! We don't pay people to simply show up; even employee's have to actually work in order to get paid. This guy wasn't getting a car wash and he hadn't had his car washed with us for about two months.

First, the cashier got to explain to him that the receipt is simply a coupon for $2 off his next car wash if he comes back within 10 days with the same vehicle. He tells her that's crazy as no one would get their car washed every 10 days. She calmly told him that we do actually have many customers who come in once a week and many of them do take advantage of the discount coupon which is on each receipt. He wasn't buying it and refused to listen to her.

As the gift shop manager I was the closest manager to the situation so I went over to relieve the cashier and I attempted to explain it to him. He argues with me that his receipt says we'll give him $2 for showing up. (Okaaayyyyyyyy)

I then call the manager of the car wash to come in and talk to him. While the manager is talking to him, he's getting more irritated and angry that we won't give him the $2. Then in walks my Grandfather (the owner of the whole mess) and HE tried to calm this guy down and talk some sense into him... while that's going on my Grandmother (the other owner of the whole shebang) happens to come in and she gets involved, too.

Keep in mind it was a very busy day. Each one us had things we should have been doing not to mention the scene this was causing in front of all of our paying customers who were very much within hearing range of this raving lunatic.

Not one of us ever got through to the guy that no where on the receipt does it say "show up and we'll fork over $2 just because you're awesome". Not to mention, if it did, he wouldn't qualify, being that he was not awesome.

Eventually, after arguing for more than an hour with this guy, he finally left. He was royally pissed off and still believed we owed him two bucks for stopping by with his two month old receipt in hand. Thankfully, on his way out he was yelling how he would never return. Music to our ears.

Therefore the customer is not always right because the customer is often a freaking idiot.

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