I’d be curious to know whether the other store had a display model. And if not, what kind of awesome salesguys they must have over there that they can persuade someone to put down fifteen hundred smackers on something they can’t even kick the tires on.
I am so using this title when I schedule a meeting on the corporate calendar from now on.
I am :o ing here because I could almost see myself as that customer. I would go along with what was told to me but I like to think for such a high-ticket item I would think twice. But I can’t be sure.
This is just one of the reasons I pray to never have to take a job in retail again, particularly where selling electronics is concerned. Selling display models was one of the things I hated doing the most. Every time we had to sell a display model it was a huge pain in the ass for us and for the customer. As we were often short-staffed, my time off the floor was undoubtedly costly to the store in terms of lost sales to unwaited-on customers, unanswered phone calls, and the high likelihood that each of these people told at least ten other people about the lack of service at our store. It would take me as much as ten-fifteen minutes just to find the damn box. The storage space for all the display boxes was always a complete mess and nobody ever had the time to organize it. It wasn’t even in a room like it was before the remodel, but in a cramped space up towards the rafters (a claustrophobe’s worst nightmare). The ceiling clearance was low, about six feet (good thing I’m only 5’4"). The lighting was dim up there, and I usually didn’t have time to find a flashlight and retrieve it before going up there (and leaving a flashlight up there for this purpose did no good as it would always go missing). The space was located directly above the store’s restrooms, where, while sifting through several dusty boxes in low-lighting conditions, I could enjoy the richly pleasing aroma of our customers’ urinary and fecal emissions. To top this all off, to get to this storage space I had to climb up a stepladder and then onto the vending machines in the break room. OSHA would have had a field day if they ever saw what I had to go through to get to the storage area.
15 minutes later I’d finally find the box and return to the sales floor covered with dust and perhaps a spider web or two. On my way back up to the front of the store I’d be stopped by at least one or two customers waiting to be helped on. Depending on how involved their request was I’d either help them or explain that I am with another customer and will send someone their way (provided they, too, aren’t already busy with other customers).
The next step would require hunting down a manager to disarm the merchandise anti-theft device since us lowly drones couldn’t be trusted to carry alarm keys ourselves, not even supervisors. On a good day this took about five minutes, ten on an average day. Once the item was liberated from its connection to the anti-theft device it could be boxed up. Chances were good that all of the pieces of styrofoam (or the more environmentally-friendly cardboard equivelants) would either be missing or broken/torn. Figuring out which pieces fit where and which way the unit was supposed to go back into the box was often a challenge. There was also a good chance that some of the manuals, discs, cables, etc. were also missing, but we had no way of knowing what was supposed to be in there.
To compensate the customer for the inconvenience and for buying what is really a used device, we would discount the price ten percent. If anything, the customer should have been surcharged ten percent to compensate us for the extra hassle we had to go through for them.
After having gone through all of this crap, chances were about 80% that the customer would end up bringing back the unit, either because discs, manuals, cables, etc. were missing or there would be something wrong with the unit. Like I said, it’s a huge hassle that often turns out to be for naught.
If I had it my way and was in charge I would have made it store policy NOT to sell display models, or if we did sell them, it would be on “as is, no refunds/exchanges” basis only and make sure the customer is clearly aware of this before committing to the purchase. There were just way too many problems with selling display units that in no way was of any benefit to us or to the customer.
If you’re really pissed at the other store, I think the ACCC may want to hear about their little breach of the Trade Practices Act there.
If they warned the customer before the transaction was completed that a) they didn’t have the laptop he wanted and b) that the model he could get was an ex-display model, and the customer still accepted it as-is, then that’s his own fault and he is a douche for complaining.
But if they took his money first, then told him “By the way, mate, you’ll have to drive to the other side of the city, and you’re only going to get a reformatted floor model, not a new from box model” then that’s a pretty serious breach of the TPA and could get that store (and the salesperson + their manager) into some nasty trouble.
…I’m just sayin’.
To their credit, the other store had made it abundantly clear to the customer that they were getting a Display Model, not a New In Box laptop. He knew he was getting a display model laptop, and that it had to be reformatted, and that he had to drive across town to get it, as the store did not have it in stock.
Certainly, when he arrived in the store he knew he was getting the display model, so there’s no issue with misrepresentation there, at least as far as I’m aware.
The other store had called us (at 4:30) to check whether or not we had the laptop, and once they’d ascertained that we had, that sparked the whole “Well, now you’ve got to pack it up 'cos we’re selling it at our end” thing.
And no, the other store didn’t have a display model of this laptop. They called up the stock on the computer, showed the customer a picture, and gave them the techie specs and a price.
I agree wholeheartedly!
Your experiences mirror my own almost to the letter (except our stockroom is well-lit, not adjacent to the toilets, and I don’t have to crawl through Air Conditioning ducts Die Hard-style to get to it, though). Even when you’re the one with the security device keys, they will invariably be needed elsewhere just before you can get the laptop disarmed, and there have been times where I know we’ve lost $500 GPS sales because someone is trying to find the box, remote, and manual for a $99 DVD player. :smack:
The 3IC and I have seriously proposed we introduce a “No Display Model Sales” policy on items of which we can get more stock- ie, if we’ve got a special on DVD players and sell our entire stock in one day, but know more are coming tomorrow, we shouldn’t be selling the display model because A) What dwc1970 so excellently outlined and B) Then we have to use one of the new ones from the next shipment as the new display model, creating twice as much Display Model Hassle.
When the item is no longer available from the warehouse, then we’d sell the last one on an “as-is, no refunds” policy and make that crystal clear to the customers.
I know some of our competitors have this policy and it’s working out alright for them.
We put the suggestion to our Area Manager, and he said “absolutely not”, as it would cost us sales. We tried pointing out that we eventually end up losing the sale anyway for reasons that have already been covered, so display models actually cost us money to sell in many cases when you factor all the time and hassle involved, but he simply said that we should never turn down a sale and that was all there was to it. :rolleyes:
Incidentally, we do generally discount for display models/floor stock, but it depends on the item, how long it’s been on the floor, if it’s been turned on or not, and how popular it is. There’s no fixed percentage involved, though, and we usually prefer to give bonus stuff (Blank CDs, batteries, etc) in lieu of a cash discount where possible, though.
The first thing I thought when I read the OP was “Somebody’s running a scam here.” I’d make sure the area mgr REALLY knew what was going on.
I understand that the other store shit on Martini Enfield’s head and said it was sunshine, but the customer had every right to be pissed. He paid full price for a computer that was not new and he had to wait 20 minutes and I bet a very sarcastic and patently obvious “I am going to pretend to be very patient with the moron customer” attitude. There is just no fucking way that ME’s anger at having this foisted off on him did not show through. Mother Teresa couldn’t have done it.
And, I see a lot of threads here by you, Martini Enfield, bitching about customers. Maybe, just maybe if you don’t like working with customers, maybe *retail *is not the job for you?
Got any other ideas? Full-time work is hard to come by, and I don’t have a degree. I’m trying to work my way into Admin, but I have to look at moving to Sydney for that and my Fiancee isn’t too keen on it at the moment.
Sorry for the minor hijack here but, I bought a display model desktop with Vista and I have the exact situation. Is there really no way to rename that file? Or does the solution require so many hoops to be jumped through that it isn’t worth the time and trouble? My folder is named “office depot” by the way.
That was my first thought, too. Is there actual proof that the $1500 was actually paid to the first store? I would be wondering about the employee at the other store, if he was running some sort of scam in cahoots with the “customer.”
It’s a little from Column A and a little from Column B, from what I can tell.
Each username is allocated a specific, unique identifying code within Vista, and changing the user folder would apparently bugger up the way some of the programmes talk to each other.
It is- I’m told- technically possible to change the name, but it involves fiddling around with the registry and invoking various other Microsoft Dark Arts that are best left uninvoked, as far as I can tell.
The easy option is to do a “restore to factory settings” and start again, but if you’ve had your computer a while that’s probably a less than desireable option.
I was very concerned about this as well; but the customer did have a valid receipt (Don’t worry, I checked). Even so, it’s still a loss prevention nightmare.
This makes the 35 – 40 bucks an hour folks in retail make all worth it, right…
I’m always polite when I’m in those long lines, seeing the lone clerk balancing 3 of 4 customers needs and trying his/her best. I’m just glad I’m not in retail.
$35-$40 an hour in retail? Really?
Does anyone have a job where they don’t have something to bitch and whine about, particularly any job where you have to deal with the general public? And this thread wasn’t even bitching about the customer, but about the area manager and other store, in other words bitching about the administrative fuck-ups you get in any job.
Some of us tend to post threads complaining about these things, some of us don’t (and if I didn’t have client confidentiality issues, you might see me bitching about some of the wacky situations my clients want me to dig them out of). Martini’s posts are well-written and interesting, and he doesn’t flood the pit with them. I’m happy to read them when they pop up.
On the other hand, someone saying “you’re bitching about your job, why don’t you quit” doesn’t usually add much to the conversation, particularly when someone is just letting off steam on a screwed-up situation.
Look, in the sky! It’s a woosh!
I can’t speak for his attitude, except for:
"I gave the customer the jargon-free version of the preceding two paragraphs, explained the system would be ready shortly, and that he should feel free to browse the store in the meantime. Customer said that was fine, and I politely excused myself and went back to serving the Golden Horde of customers which had descended upon our store in an effort to purchase batteries, cheap DVD players, and transistor radios for the weekend.
Soon after, the system was restored, I packed it all into the box, thanked the customer for their patience, and gave them the laptop. They seemed happy when they left, and we (the remaining staff and I) could get on with closing the store and going home for the evening."
but the customer did know what he was getting into:
“To their credit, the other store had made it abundantly clear to the customer that they were getting a Display Model, not a New In Box laptop. He knew he was getting a display model laptop, and that it had to be reformatted, and that he had to drive across town to get it, as the store did not have it in stock.”
"Given that the average computer purchaser has about as much computer literacy as packet of Tic-Tacs, " "Everything seemed well and good until the store manager and I had a discussion yesterday and he told me that the customer had refunded the laptop at the outlying store on Monday because he wasn’t satisfied with our customer service.
“What the fuck did he expect???” I asked. “The London Symphony Orchestra playing Eine Kleine Nachtmusik as he walked through the door? Perhaps he would have liked a smoking jacket and a fez to wear while he was in the store? Or maybe he wanted turban-clad punkawallahs to fan him with over-size palm fronds whilst relaxing in a conveniently placed Easy Chair with Ottoman whilst sipping a complimentary Glenlivet?”
“Well, that’s not really the point of this discussion…” the store manager explained, and then proceeded to launch into a kind of Self-Reflection And Discussion Learnings For Make Benefit Of Future Happenings, also known as a “Debriefing”. Edited highlights: We were supposed to discuss what we did wrong, and what could have been done better, and how we were supposed to look at the positive aspects of the situation.
“Did it occur to you- or our Area Manager-” I asked him “-that the customer probably got a better deal on a laptop somewhere else and was just making something up to avoid having to say that one of our competitors offered him a far better deal? Or maybe he was trying some sort of tax dodge thing? Get a product, copy the receipt, return it, and use the copy of the receipt to claim $1,500 worth of laptop on his taxes?”
“I’m only going on what our area manager has told me” he said.
“Heaven forbid he should actually tell one of our customers to get stuffed” I said. “You know I was nice to the guy- the two staff who were working with me that day will happily back me up there- so essentially this boils down to one of the managers at an outlying store doing the wrong thing- an unethical thing, I might add, since I was the one who had to do all the work and reformat the laptop, yet they got the store figures for the sale- and it’s our fault that the guy decided to return the laptop because he got a better deal somewhere else, or his missus threw a wobbly for spending that much, or because he only needed a laptop for a couple of days and thought he’d try his luck.”
“Er…”
“People do not refund $1,500 worth of laptop three days after the fact because they weren’t happy with the service.”
“Anyway, the important thing is to identify where we could improve if this sort of thing happens again… So, now we have to do what we have to do to make the sale…” says the manager
“Which we did…” I said
“… and we have to think of what’s best for the customer” he continued.
“Which I did. I gave him a system at factory settings. If I’d just deleted the screensaver and given him the PC, he would have been back in a few days complaining about how he couldn’t rename the user folder or how the desktop icons had been renamed or something. You know what our customers are like.”
“OK, it’s quite probable that there’s nothing we could have done to achieve a satisfactory outcome for the customer in this case” he says.
“So why are we having this conversation???” I asked.
Well, basically, because he’s got a “Process” to follow, and apparently that “Process” doesn’t have a “Fuckwit Customer” checkbox or “Other store selling products they don’t have in stock and expecting us to sort it out” option. As it turns out, the store manager did admit a large amount of shortcoming in the situation, but that’s beside the point- we shouldn’t be letting customers refund $1,500 worth of laptop for any reason besides manufacturer’s fault within the DOA period, but that’s a topic for another thread entirely.
Anyway, the point of this rant: FUCK YOU! to the asshole who wasted my time and my staff’s time and then complained after I did them a favour by making sure they got an as close to factory new laptop as I possibly could. It’s fuckheads like you that make me wonder why I bother getting up in the morning and make retail the depressingly miserable place it is."
Almost twice as much time bitching about customer as about administrative fuck-ups.
And yes, some of my customers aren’t ideal, but I like my job and you don;t see me here complaining about them every couple of months.
The boards are acting very, very badly for me today, so forgive me if this has already been asked and answered.
Are we sure that the customer meant your store when he complained about bad customer service? It’d seem more likely/reasonable that he’d be pissed at the store that lied to him about the state of the machine he was buying and then made him traipse across town for it without checking in with your store as to the state of the machine.
If you/your store have not been specifically singled out in his complaint, I’d be complaining to the Area Manager and disputing that your store has anything to apologise for. In writing. Listing the ways the other store screwed up and how you performed to the best of your ability given that you were presented with the job as a 'done deal ’ without any opportunity to speak to the customer prior to them arriving in your store.
And look, it had! By my fellow Adelaidean, no less. Sorry for the pointless interjection; I’ll slink away now. :smack:
The most depressing part of this story is your manager’s behavior.
Unhappy customers are going to happen – some people are permanently unhappy, some people fake it for personal gain. I’ve seen a gaming message board where young people generally agreed that lying outrageously and complaining as loudly and viciously as possible was the best way to make sure your question gets attention. Even in easily-verifiable factual issues, such as “this item costs more than that item,” they advised lying in the hopes of driving people to support their issue.
The other store was just making a commission or a sale at your expense. You guys should counterbill them your 45 minutes.
But bad managers are really sad, and sadly common. I’ve known far too many who are undeterred even by physical facts; they just want to spout their buzzwords and go back to whatever it is they do when no one is looking. It’s plainly obvious that you did the best thing for the customer and your store, once the other store set up the problem; if the other store complains to the area manager, it’s your manager’s job to explain what actually happened…or at the very least, to roll his eyes and give you a pat on the back after he hangs up from the inane call from the area manager or other store.
I have never understood why some managers won’t trust their employees or even their own eyes, but instead assume people they’ve never met are telling them the truth over the phone. He has to work with you every day, and get the best out of you; he’ll probably rarely if ever interact with the obviously-at-fault other store, and never again see the unhappy customer. Why poison the well by acting like a complete idiot when talking to you?
Sailboat