The Current Rant of Exchange?
12/30/07 09:44 AM
| Toil ItFriday Night. Big Mama and Lil' Darlin' picked me up at the sidewalk in front of The Store. As we rode home Jenni regaled me with more tales of 'the miracle system' how it only has a limited number of grace logins and that nobody is sure how to get on after the grace period is naught but an exclamation point. That is another thing that was left out of the training. She had talks with IT when the system started locking up, the IT guy said it would be like a virus. That each user would have the same problems and issues, and that he and his fellow IT cronies did not like the WMDS at all. Jenni waited. With in a few hours the same bog down and failure had hit a couple of the work stations in the land of putty and cloth cubicles. Tell It to IT, so they can track the 'progress' of change for change sake was the only advice that Jenni could offer the frustrated few on point over the 'tween holiday work week.
My Friday? Like many other days was unexceptional. The job doesn't change much in retail, that's why there are so few shows on TV or movies made about the exciting world of retail sales. Customers are a cross-cut of society. There are good ones, bad ones sincere ones who want to help, smart, dumb, helpless helpful and hateful ones. The difference between customers and people that you might just encounter is you rarely get to just walk away from the bad seeds and ass-hats when you are in retail. You have to try to help them on their journey, and you are often the speed bump. Many mistake the clerk for the devil, assume that you are ripping them off, just trying to push the bad stuff on them and saving the good stuff for who? Many come in from the internet world thinking that those 650 dollar cameras can be had for 300 and that the 'honest' web-retailers are not ripping them off but the actual location been in business 50 years stores are. Those can actually be fun, so can the ones who come in ready for a fight about an exchange or refund when we go, "O.K." and fix their problem. Watching them process the information that it is not a big uncaring corporation across the counter from them it is Chuck or Matt, Phil or Mike, Ken or Scott and we aren't anybody's enemy. I've seen people turn their heads sideways like a dog hearing it's first opera over a speaker, confusion, then slow-witted acceptance.
We don't have tables or numbers to draw for returns. We don't have a 'fill this out and show ID and then go to that guy over there in a whole different zip-code and he'll get you your money back' system. The guy who sold you the stuff is the guy who you get your exchange or refund from in almost all cases, but that is even an almost moot point at Roberts because for the most part we listen to and help with the process of buying so the returns are a very small part of our post-holiday experience anyway.
Chuck Pace©2007 |