The other side of retail........

[Pablo]

I had a customer call yesterday. In fact he called 9 times in a 3 hour span. One of the calls was nearly an hour long walking through how to log him into his online account. The rest were questions and such and the last one was for his online order. He did place a $111 order. But he never paid. He just got up to the point of Paypal (that's when orders become visible to me in oscommerce), but never actually paid. He insisted he paid. I told him to check his Paypal account. I even sent him a Paypal invoice. Nothing.

 

[Turk]

Pfft.

Hope it works out for ya.

 

[Pablo]

Originally Posted By: tpitcher
Pfft.

Hope it works out for ya.



No big deal. Not so much a story about me, more of a counter-counter point to the retail clerk abuse threads. Not sure people will pick up on my points. No one seemed to comment on my post in the counterpoint thread.

 

[Unearthed]

I've worked in retail my whole life. It's actually gotten worse in the last few years. I've sort of adopted the principle that if you are nice to me then I will give you the world. I enjoy working with people and I am genuinely interested in their needs and making sure we meet them.

When people are nasty I hide behind the company policies.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Pablo
No big deal. Not so much a story about me, more of a counter-counter point to the retail clerk abuse threads.


Quite true. I have a buddy that, when he wants to buy something (and not even something very expensive), he calls a place, or usually several, peppering the poor sap on the phone with question after question. By the time he's done, he's wasted more of the person's time than what could be paid for by the profit margin on the item.

It bites him in the behind, though, too. For business purposes, he's had to consult a lawyer, and then sees on the bill he got nailed for a one hour phone call at $225 per hour.

 

[Pablo]

I did get a little frustrated when I had to tell him to hold the shift button to type the capital letters in his pAsSwORd.

 

[NHGUY]

Retail....its the forum for customers to get as much free advice and help as possible,with little to no commitment on their part.Been working retail since 1986,know it all too well.If a "customer" does not hear the answers they want at one place they go to another.Who needs professional (as in expensive) advice,when they can get it for free? Yes,we are largely a service society and not a manufacturing one.

 

[FowVay]

I personally love to deal with people. Some folks just like to argue and some are completely open to suggestion. I never EVER take a conversation personally. Knowledge among the masses is varied beyond belief. I often wonder how some folks have managed to bear offspring.

But, that's what selling is all about. You're not selling a product, you're selling yourself. Once you gain a person's confidence the conversation is all yours.

Paul, hopefully the gentleman will notice the err of his transaction and be back to make the $100 purchase.

 

[NMP]

Originally Posted By: Unearthed
I've sort of adopted the principle that if you are nice to me then I will give you the world. I enjoy working with people and I am genuinely interested in their needs and making sure we meet them.

When people are nasty I hide behind the company policies.

This is probably one of the great secrets of life. Treat people with some respect and you will be amazed at what you can accomplish. OTOH, if you're an [censored], you get nothing.

 

[JHZR2]

There are a TON of really dumb people out there. I didnt do any kind of selling too much, but my first real job working someplace was in a little store, and sometimes had to take calls and talk to folks calling in for "information". SO many couldnt even speak in proper English, and it isnt a bilingual thing - it is just an inability to communicate clearly and respectfully. And you do waste a LOT of time.

I gained a lot of insight into just how dumb some people are by working retail. Thing is, we are service and sales-oriented nation, so some of these same folks are trying to sell stuff or work service jobs, thus why the "counter jockeys" get their bad rep.

The same bad group that annoys someone someplace is employed or doing something else someplace else...

Ive been amazed by the lack of knowledge and capability that some salespeople have... If they dont know their product, you think they will know how to do much else?

 

[opus1]

Originally Posted By: AITG
Originally Posted By: Unearthed
I've sort of adopted the principle that if you are nice to me then I will give you the world. I enjoy working with people and I am genuinely interested in their needs and making sure we meet them.

When people are nasty I hide behind the company policies.

This is probably one of the great secrets of life. Treat people with some respect and you will be amazed at what you can accomplish. OTOH, if you're an [censored], you get nothing.
This. One time I had a checkout clerk who had his tuchus handed to him by a customer who basically had a huge stick up his backside and had no reason to be that way. I cound tell the clerk was flustered and as the idiot walked away I said "I know you can't say anything, but I'm a customer so I can -- what an [insert word that ends with 'hole']." If nothing else, I think I made the clerk's day.

 

[doitmyself]

Originally Posted By: AITG
This is probably one of the great secrets of life. Treat people with some respect and you will be amazed at what you can accomplish. OTOH, if you're an [censored], you get nothing.

This cannot be repeated enough. Such a simple concept that so many "managers" miss.

 

[buster]

Originally Posted By: doitmyself
Originally Posted By: AITG
This is probably one of the great secrets of life. Treat people with some respect and you will be amazed at what you can accomplish. OTOH, if you're an [censored], you get nothing.

This cannot be repeated enough. Such a simple concept that so many "managers" miss.


Yeah true. It's about developing more patience for myself.

 

[Loobed]

Originally Posted By: Pablo
I had a customer call yesterday. In fact he called 9 times in a 3 hour span. One of the calls was nearly an hour long walking through how to log him into his online account. The rest were questions and such and the last one was for his online order. He did place a $111 order. But he never paid. He just got up to the point of Paypal (that's when orders become visible to me in oscommerce), but never actually paid. He insisted he paid. I told him to check his Paypal account. I even sent him a Paypal invoice. Nothing.




Sometimes I will fill up my online basket with multiple $5 and $10 items (not Amsoil) really expecting to buy them. When I hit check-out, I realize I have $150 in my cart and CAN'T afford that much. I then cancel the order. But this guy seems to want your stuff because he claims he paid.

Some people also do it on purpose to waste other peoples time. They act feeble, rotating the same questions over and over again. They are called sociopaths and they are resource wasters. Whatever resource you have, time, money, youth, etc..., they will waste it. They think it is a game, and the more of your resources they waste the more they win.

 

[Pablo]

Originally Posted By: Loobed



Sometimes I will fill up my online basket with multiple $5 and $10 items (not Amsoil) really expecting to buy them. When I hit check-out, I realize I have $150 in my cart and CAN'T afford that much. I then cancel the order. But this guy seems to want your stuff because he claims he paid.

Some people also do it on purpose to waste other peoples time. They act feeble, rotating the same questions over and over again. They are called sociopaths and they are resource wasters. Whatever resource you have, time, money, youth, etc..., they will waste it. They think it is a game, and the more of your resources they waste the more they win.



This wasn't Amsoil, BTW.

This fellow wasn't faking it. He's nice enough. Just slow - I don't mind really. I just have a ton of stuff to work on - I just finished the taxes and yes my patience was thin, my time was short, I will freely admit that. I never let him know that, that's for sure.

I think actually I should call him back, he probably won't mind.

 

[daves87rs]

Working retail, I've seen nearly everything.

Though I met some pretty cool customers yesterday...

 

[Pablo]

He called. And just paid. Probably a BITOGer. Just kidding. He thought his Paypal payment was sent, but never was. All is well.

 

[ethangsmith]

We will occasionally have customers call in to our parts department and want to diagnose and repair the car over the phone for them. Recently we've had even a few repair shops calling us asking "How do I fix this?" For customers like this, we try to guess the best we can as to what's wrong and them make up a "worst case scenario" quote of parts for them- which usually totals in the hundreds of dollars. And since most lazy people are also cheap people, that's where the conversation ends, with them agreeing to take their vehicle to the shop or the shop telling us they will "look into it further..."