photodesk worker, uh hello??

[quinoa]

so i call a nearby pharmacy/drugstore's photocounter to ask them if they do passport photos, and if so, do they use a digital camera or the old fashioned polaroid kind. the guy on the phone says, "ya, we have a digital machine for passport photos."

ok cool, so i drive over there and go to the photocounter and tell the guy i wanted to take passport photos.

"uh, sorry the machine's down today"
"what? did it just go down?"
"i don't know.. it's been down since i got here around 3 o'clock"
"what? i just called here and the guy didn't tell me it was down"
"sorry about that"

"well ok, do you know where the nearest [same store] is that has a working digital photo machine?"
"uh sorry, i'm not really familiar with the area" shrug shrug
"well don't you have a list of your stores here or something?" (hello?)

"oh ok let me check"

so he names a bunch of stores and i don't know where they are. he doesn't know where they are either and shrugs. so i ask him if there's someone in the store that does know where things are. he calls his coworker over to help me.

"well the nearest two are this and this"
"ok, could you call that one and see if they have a working digital machine?"
"um, well we don't have the phone number here" shrug
uh, what? i just look at him.

"oh hold on let me see if the pharmacy has it"
which, surprisingly, it DOES. WOW imagine that

well so anyways, i'm just really really annoyed that while i was on the phone in the first place, the guy couldn't have told me "oh, but by the way, the machine's down today so maybe you can check another location." see? so easy!

and then to find such brain-sluggish workers who didn't really want to do anything at all except say sorry, not really their problem. HMPH stupid store.

but to the snooty-ass worker at another store i went to check. fuck you and your "what you don't like traditional? there's nothing wrong with it" look of disdain with your treatment of me like i'm another moron coming specifically just to bug you because that's so fun for me - and- your stupid store's overcharging rippoff of $8 for 2 freaking photos. uh, no thanks.

[NoClueBoy]

What does HMPH stand for?


And yeah, I hate it when someone hired to assist customers acts like it's a problem to actually do their job.

I feel like cutting off their genitalia and stuffing it down their throat thus asphyxiating their sorry ass brain leading to death. Usually, though, I just act like a real slow dunce to them, forcing them to do their job for a longer than normal time.

Don't like retail? Get another job.

[Jaade]

~L~


Just hmph, I'd imagine...the sound.

Well hmph!


~storms off in a huff~

~J

[quinoa]

ya, it was just "hmph"

HMPH!

[Lute Skywatcher]

Somebody lose a camel?

[tdn]

We reach.

I had a similar experience a few years ago. I was desperately trying to locate a JAZ drive. Here was the normal phone conversation:

"Do you carry JAZ drives?"

"Yes sir, we do."

"Great. What time do you close?"

"Five PM."

"Oh, I'd better hurry over there. Where are you located?"

"123 Fake St."

"OK, I'm on my way. Right now. To buy one of your JAZ drives. Today."

"OK, sir, we'll see you in a bit."

In retrospect, I should have added in one more question: "Do you have a JAZ drive, like, in the store? Like, right now? Maybe one that I don't have to wait for for three weeks? Or special order? Let me simplify my question -- if I asked you to go get one, right now, and hold it in your hands, would you be holding anything other than, say, air?"

Woulda save me a lot of travel time.

[Dogzilla]

My father taught me to always make a zillion phone calls before I run out of the house on a wild goose chase for some uncommon purchase. Now, he taught me this in order to show me how you can call around to find the best price. Maybe that works for him in Ohio, but my experience has been very similar to the OP.

Example: the battery in my cordless phone started not holding a charge anymore. Since the phone was several years old, I figured it was time to replace it. I called "The Super Battery Store -- WE HAVE EVERY BATTERY YOU COULD EVERY POSSIBLY NEED"

Me: Hi, do you have X model battery for Y brand/model phones?
Ignorant Battery Store Guy: Let me check. :uts me on hold::
IBSG: We have it! C'mon in!
Me: Well, you're on the opposite end of town for me; I'll just make a special trip and be there in about 45 minutes.

When I got there, no battery. I could see the spot for it -- there was a little label on the shelf, telling the manager to order more. So I confronted this Bubba and asked him why he'd told me they stocked the battery when clearly there were none on the shelves.

I learned several things that day: 1) Ignorant Battery Store Guys would rather you void your warranty and make you a Bubba-rigged, homemade battery to make the $ale, rather than sell you the proper battery in the first place.
2) IBSGs are lazy: They will look up the model number in their computer but cannot be bothered to walk ten feet to see if that particular item is on the shelf.
3) I learned that there is no point calling around different stores to find whatever you're looking for. The clerks will lie just to get you into the store anyway... Now I just block out an entire day to drive all over town looking for these things.

The punchline: I went home, got on the internet and ordered a replacement battery directly from the manufacturer... which was delivered in a couple days. Turns out I never should have left my house in the first place.

[yosemite]

Mail order. That's the way to go. I try to do as much mail order as possible, unless I think there is a good reason why I'd like to have the vendor in the same town as me (like warranty, customer support, etc.).