Depends on what sort of history I had with this business, and whether there was a decent alternative in the area. If no past history and other places around that could provide me with similar goods or services, I’m not likely to try them again. If I’ve been taking my business there for awhile and have been satisfied with them, I’ll shrug my shoulders and come back another time.
It has happened to me, I have been irritated to the point I have never gone back. Posted hours are posted hours
Another view from the other side of the counter, although it wasn’t a Mom and Pop, it could have been. And it was less than 10 minutes before closing.
Once upon a time when I was desperate for money I was the only clerk on the last shift of a 7-11 type store, that closed at 11 pm. I also had a day job, so I was always ready to leave at 11 (cashed out the till, swept the store, etc.). Many, many nights a woman would come in at precisely 10:57 and wander around the store for 20 minutes before she bought her one item (a different item every time). I would keep saying “Ma’am, we’re closing” and she would ignore me and keep walking around. Short of physically ejecting her there wasn’t much I could do. She was also the only one who ever came in after 10:45.
So I started closing the store at 10:55, and finished closing out the till etc. until I could leave at 11. The first time she came after I was closed she yelled and ranted in front of the door for 10 minutes (I had to wait her out before I could leave). But she never came in on my shift again.
OK, I probably lost them a customer. If it had been my store, I think I would have done the same. Some customers are more trouble than they are worth.
So I voted it would annoy me (but I would probably come back). It’s just that it would be very rare for me to try to enter a store so close to closing time.
Roddy
As I said upthread, some people think that as long as they get into the store, they are entitled to browse for as long as they like, even past closing hours. In their minds, clerks are not real people, and don’t have real lives that they’d like to live. These browsers are not really interested in shopping, they just want to kill some time, and who cares if some clerk is inconvenienced, or has to pay overtime charges at the day care center?
So that’s part of the reason why I don’t go into a store when it’s near closing, if I can help it. Sometimes, the customer has other calls on his/her time. Most of the time, though, the last minute customer is just browsing, and any sale that happens is small and not even worth staying open for.
i don’t know about where you take your car, but I always inquire as to when the customer wants to pick up. So do my people. Otherwise how would we know when we are done?
In the particular case I was thinking of we were posted open till 5:30 but often were around till 6ish if we were busy.
I called the customer they said they would be in the next AM.
We got done and were out the door at. 5:30.
The next AM customer comes in and rips me a new one for not being there at 5:45.
Had I known they wanted to pick up that evening I would have stayed.
Sorry but fuck you I left crystal ball at home.
Cool story, but what’s that got to do with closing before time?
The places I go to are done at closing time. If they call me at noon to tell me my car’s ready, they may say something like “We’re here until six today” either on their own or in response to my question. If I’m not there at six, they leave at six, although I suppose I could have arranged for them to stay a few extra minutes if I called and said I was on my way and stuck in traffic.They may stay later than six if they’re in the middle of something or if someone has made arrangements to drop off or pickup a little later, but if they say they close at six, I don’t expect them to be there at 6:15 just because I haven’t picked up my car yet.
That was his drams, but it’s also not what I’m talking about. You didn’t close before your posted closing time, you closed at your posted closing time. Completely different situation. I don’t expect the shop to stay open past the posted time any more than I expect them to close before the posted time.
Me neither. It makes me so twitchy.
As for the question in the OP, I would give them another shot. It’s close enough to closing that I can let it slide. I’d be grumpy, but I’d get over it. If it was an hour before closing, with no note, forget it.
I’ve been raised in the service industry, specifically Food and Beverage.
When working at places that do not serve alcohol I was always of the mind that opening 5 minutes early and closing 5 minutes late was a good practice for building trust with customers.
In bars there is now way in hell I am serving you after hours. Period.
Which country are you in?
I have had this happen twice, last year, with the same business. First time they were locked when i got there, 10 or 15 minutes before closing time. I tried again and the second time I, as I approached (having made sure not to cut things too fine with the posted closing time) I could see the woman locking up and leaving. My business went elsewhere.
Their argument (if it can be called that) was that the last time they picked up at 5:45 and we were there.
Customers like that I don’t need. If you need a late pickup say so I can and will accommodate you. Don’t tell me, I can’t. Give me shit cause I can’t read your mind and I will either fire you as a customer or raise the price to cover you assholeishness.
Don’t forget that auto repair is a bit different from a 7-11, a bookstore or a restaurant.
People don’t drop in at 5 minutes before closing time for an engine rebuild.
On very rare occasions we get a drop off ( which can be done after hours) or an emergency tow in.
99% of the time when we have delivered the last car for the day we are done.
If they made a regular habit of shutting down ten minutes before the announced closing time, I wouldn’t shop there. Once (especially if a note was posted explaining the problem), no big deal.
I’d just come back earlier next time.
If I’m picking up / dropping off my belongings and running that close to closing, you can bet I’ll be calling on the way to let the business know that I’m on the way. This is especially true if having to return would cause me to go more than five miles out of the way.
Retail and restaurants, on the other hand, I tend to get annoyed if the early closings are frequent and take my business elsewhere.
Usually, it’s not a big deal. When the dry cleaners do it the night before a big interview? Huge fucking deal.
Yeah, anyone who’s business involves holding your property really needs to be open at the posted times.
It would annoy me if I traveled far to get there. Otherwise if it’s somewhere close to home I’d just visit again.
I picked the annoy option in the poll, but would probably give them one more shot, maybe, depending on how much I wanted/needed their services. But two strikes would definitely be the end.
This happened to me just this weekend. There is a small toy/novelty store in our neighborhood, and I told me daughter we could stop there after our errands on Saturday and she could pick out a small toy. It’s the kind of place that has a rack out in front with items on it.
So we’re walking up to the entrance of the store at 3 PM, and the store closes at 5 PM – my daughter is two years old, by the way. The owner rushed out and started dragging the rack inside. I got the feeling she saw us coming, and then realized she had to go get the rack before we tried to buy something.
She explained, and apologized, that she was closing early because her son was ill, and she had his medication. Oh, wow, OF COURSE. No problem! I even thought it was understandable that she did that little hustle with the rack.
Then my daughter started asking about her toy, reasonably - she wasn’t pitching a fit or anything, and I was explaining that we’d come back another day because the store was closing. During the time, the woman, who did seem nice, kept chatting and it came out that it was her college-age son, and he wanted Dayquil but had forgotten to pick it up when he drove out to get pizza so he called her. I had to laugh because this was so different than the impression I had gotten from “my son is ill and I have his medication.”
I’m curious. For those of you who would have no problem given the store another chance, would it make a difference to you if the store did this solely business was slow?
In other words, say the business advertised it had hours until 6pm, but on your lucky day, they hadn’t had a customer since 4:30, so they locked up at 5:45, and you showed up at 5:50. Also, assume this business was a place where transactions were almost always very brief (such as a dry cleaners). How much difference would this make in your level of annoyance versus a business that closed up because of a special circumstance?