One thing I noticed about this company that they definitely have no problem pissing off customers. Of course it is usually because we are following the policies that they put in place and when the customer calls and complains they give in within three nanoseconds making the stores look like complete assholes. Anyway I digress. I'm going to tell you the story that happened the other day. A couple with two kids come into the store looking to buy a laptop. I get called over by my OM to help them. I get to the laptops and start talking to them about what they are using it for and the things they may need. They show me the laptop they were looking at that was on sale, it was a really good price. I tell them a little about it and proceed to check if we have it in stock. Of course we do not have it in stock so I check online to see if it can be ordered but alas it doesn't even exist on our website. I come back to tell them unforunately we are out and I can't order it online so I'm going to see if any stores in the area have it and they can go pick it up. So I check all the stores in the area and no one has it except one store that shows only a couple. I tell the customer I am going to call the other store and I will be right back. I call them up and talk to the manager before I even tell him what I am looking for he says the number and says they are definitely out. So I explain to the customer that no stores in our area has it, we don't have it, and we can't order it online. The guy starts getting angry, "Ok well can you order it?" I explained that I check on our website and the item didn't even exist even though it is an ACTIVE item. He starts getting more pissed, "HOW CAN YOU ADVERTISE SOMETHING AND IT CAN'T EVEN BE PURCHASED!!?!" I completely agree because this is completely retarded that I am trying to sell a product to a customer and it can't even be purchased.
At this point the only thing I can offer is the display even though it is ACTIVE but I just want to get these people out of the store, I don't care if I have to put up a display again when and if it ever comes back into the store. He gets mad and says we have to subsitute something similar for the same price. Unfortunately we aren't allowed to do that without an approved item from the corporate office. He gets even more frustrated and she explains that she wants one in a box. So I do more looking around to find another store that may have it. I make a couple more calls and do find a store that has it but it is almost an hour away from our location. I asked them if they can send it to us even though our region has said we are no longer allowed to do "save a sales" but this was an extreme circumstance since I can't get this item for the customer any other way.
In the end, we were able to get the laptop shipped to our store for the customer and even managed to get the plan. The reason I am mentioning the plan is because it means I don't have to hear my SM bitch and moan asking me, "Duuuuude, what happened?"
Unfortunately, this seems to be happening in alot of stores. We advertise something in the flier and when the customer comes to the store we no loonger have it in stock. The same situation has happened to me numerous times and the floor models are not allowed to be sold. Then the customer calls corporate in the store about their "false advertisements" and corporate tells the customer that our store and the other stores around us have 1 in stock. Since the customer takes that to mean we have 1 to sell then they get angry since it looks like we are lying. Then I say, I just told you that there was 0 in stock, the 1 that corporate speaks of is the display model which cannot be sold! The customer still walks away being pissed off.
ReplyDeleteIt also doesn't help that corporate are just a bunch of morons. They constantly do stupid stuff like this. Tell the customer to come to the store and we'll take care of it, but we can't because the system actually won't let us return big things after 30 days.
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