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From: SummersEchos
Date: 04-19-2007, 11:54 PM (1 of 12)
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I work at a fabric store and today a whole big grid lost there phone lines. I started work at 2 pm and it went out a 2:15 pm. This meant that we couldn't use our phones and we could not use charge cards. I know how this can be an inconvience to many who soley use their charges/debit cards for purchases. For the customers who were really irrate we used our private cell phones to call in an approval. Mostly tho people said oh guess I will either have to .....go to a bank and get cash.....pay cash if I have it.....or write a check. With many of the customers we had a good chuckle about writing checks as these have become less and less used. Now for the dear customers who wanted to return things and had bought them on their charges, well we couldn't do that either. They I must say were very upset with the whole thing. We explained that we had no control over the phone company and could do nothing about it. I had one lady tell me I was an a## and she would call and report me to headquaters. I smiled and gave her my name and told her how sorry I was that she couldn't return her stuff and maybe tomorrow our phones lines would be up and running. The funny thing was the policy of the store is 90 days. I told her maybe she should go to the store she purchased it from and return it there since her time ran out this evening. She informed me that I was inconviencing her, she was here and thought we were the better of the two stores. So tomorrow I will get a email saying something about me and this customer. She will come back to our store and get her refund, and she will think she has pulled one over on me/us. Okay I just needed to vent it is late and I just got home from work to go back tomorrow at 6 am to start all over again. Thanks for listening 
Summer
FREE FALLIN |
User: SummersEchos
Member since: 09-29-2004 Total posts: 884 |
From: Judi
Date: 04-20-2007, 03:17 AM (2 of 12)
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Summer - I'm sorry you had such a tough day. It's not easy being a cashier when the essential tools you need to serve the customers is 'out of order. It's beyond your control.
Judi
Sewing is almost better than Chocolate. |
User: Judi
Member since: 06-22-2000 Total posts: 85 |
From: Sancin
Date: 04-20-2007, 05:14 AM (3 of 12)
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We live in such a technological age we expect instant everything. Years ago electricity went out for periods of time frequently. This past few months we had several power outages - storms and the equipment is apparently getting older. One would think the end of the world had occured from the news and letters to the editor. I got 3 emails today from a friend complaining about a store service when she ordered an item online. I know it to be a small staffed store and she only ordered it a 3 weeks ago. At the time I had told her I thought, due to the nature of the item, it would take about 2 weeks depending if the item she wanted was readily available and the store wasn't busy (I guess it was). Dealing with the public can be frustrating and exhausting. One thing that is particularly effective when some starts saying they are going to report me or anyone else to whoever about whatever is to acknowledge they are angry and write down how they can contact the person to complain to (even offering to tell them what to say if need be). They usually calm down and do nothing. Grit your teeth and hang in the Summer. Tomorrow is another day and has got to be better. 
*~*~*~* Nancy*~*~*~* " I try to take one day at a time - but sometimes several days attack me at once."
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User: Sancin
Member since: 02-13-2005 Total posts: 895 
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From: MaryW
Date: 04-20-2007, 10:19 AM (4 of 12)
Doncha just love working with the public. 
MaryW
owner/editor of Sew Whats New |
User: MaryW
Member since: 06-23-2005 Total posts: 2542 
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From: dmoses
Date: 04-20-2007, 11:03 AM (5 of 12)
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At what point were the customers made aware that debits/credits would not be possible? I would have been ticked off too if I spent an hour or more filling a cart only to find out when I got to the cashier that I wouldn't be able to complete my purchases.
Take care,
Donna |
User: dmoses
Member since: 02-22-2002 Total posts: 964 
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From: lendube
Date: 04-20-2007, 11:43 AM (6 of 12)
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Take heart, Summer. I always found that the vast majority of customers I dealt with were very kind and friendly no matter what business I was in. Most people are good. Lennie 
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User: lendube
Member since: 08-06-2006 Total posts: 1548 |
From: Sancin
Date: 04-20-2007, 08:11 PM (7 of 12)
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Good point, Donna. At the 'corner' store and a few other places I shop they post a sign usually at the front door or on the cash area that electronics are down. I think it would help to either send a clerk through the store to warn shoppers or if there is a loud speaker system, announce it. Personally, I have got to know what stores regularly have bank card reader break downs. Usually because they are dirty and old or it is a holiday weekend and telephone lines are tied up. If the machinery is dirty or old I always complain to the owner or manager. Proper equipment is the cost of doing business and those that are the busiest are making the most money. But poor equipment aren't shouldn't be problems for the cashiers like Summer or customers.
*~*~*~* Nancy*~*~*~* " I try to take one day at a time - but sometimes several days attack me at once."
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User: Sancin
Member since: 02-13-2005 Total posts: 895
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From: SummersEchos
Date: 04-20-2007, 08:51 PM (8 of 12)
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We did post signs at both front doors, made announcements over the PA, and pull a team member to stand by the door to tell people. So we thought we had covered our bases. It was the same today, no phone lines, no charge/debit cards. What makes this worse is this was the end of a one week sale, so lots of people wanted to come in to use their "coupon". I did receive an email from our copr. offcie with her complaint. I had to respond to it and I did telling my side of the story. And yes she came back today and was upset about the return. We still couldn't do it, so she I am sure will come back tomorrow. The phone company had told us that the phones would be out till the 22 of April. We are not the only store having problems, this loss of phone lines, the coverage is about 10 miles all away around us. And for the people who were in the store when we found out all of this had happened, and before we could get signs and such up, I did use my cell phone to get an okay on their charges.
Summer
FREE FALLIN |
User: SummersEchos
Member since: 09-29-2004 Total posts: 884 |
From: plrlegal
Date: 04-20-2007, 09:49 PM (9 of 12)
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Although I do work for the State of Oklahoma in a division where we don't actually work with the public direclty, I have had the opportunity to help on the front desk and the switch board where they handle all the calls coming into the Attorney General's office (Consumer Protection, Medicare Fraud, Public Utilities, etc., are the divisions that do deal directly with the "taxpaying public") and I know exactly what Summer is saying. One day on that switchboard and you feel like you never want to have to even talk to another human being for the rest of your life. I stand and watch and listen to how women behave and talk in fabric stores to people at the cutting counters and on the registers and I probably would get fired the first hour I was working in one of those stores. Some of those women are total "B's" and should be ashamed of themselves for talking to and treating anyone in that manner. Things may not always go my way but I try to remember that the reason that person is working in that fabric store is because they need the money. Although I do "understand" from the women in my office that most of them work because they "want to". Ha! Ha! Ha! Patsy Patsy
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User: plrlegal
Member since: 05-19-2001 Total posts: 318 |
From: bridesmom
Date: 04-21-2007, 01:10 AM (10 of 12)
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Summer, I'm sorry you are having such a time of it at work. Nothing is worse than having to deal with obnoxious people be they customers or co-workers. Bless you for just grinning and bearing it. I bet some of those people will realize that they were really being B*'s and feel very stupid, especially when you tried so hard to be nice to them.
Laura
Tickled pink with my Innovis 4000D |
User: bridesmom
Member since: 01-21-2004 Total posts: 2026 |
From: DorothyL
Date: 04-21-2007, 10:15 AM (11 of 12)
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I try to be nice to people working when I can. People can get kind of nasty with me when I work but that is the nature of my job. Everyone hates the press. But everyone takes out their frustrations on people working in shops and restaurants and I try to stay pretty mellow. It isn't the working person's fault (usually). All that said, if you work in a JoAnn Fabrics I can imagine why people get upset. Anywhere the card machine is down would tick me off -- I always use my debit card. I try to remember to have a check or two tucked away in my wallet but I don't always and if someone drove a way to hit a sale they are going to take it out on the sales person. That is especially true in JoAnn Fabrics because we have all run into really rude sales people there. That is not to say they are all nasty and it tends to vary by the store but it certainly isn't rare. You would think corporate would issue rain checks with an extra discount. But with Hancocks closing so many stores, why bother? Dorothy |
User: DorothyL
Member since: 12-09-2002 Total posts: 3883 |
From: BrittanyAnne
Date: 05-27-2007, 08:48 AM (12 of 12)
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I own a bridal salon and it is unbelievable how miserable people can be! These women are so stressed out at planning their weddings that they take all of it out on us!! We had a woman that yelled at me because she had become pregnant and now her bridesmaid gown would not fit her! Like I was supposed to know that when I measured her the first time that she would be pregnant in a month!! She cursed up a storm in the middle of the store as all of us tried to get her to calm down and then told me that if she lost the baby from stress it would be MY fault!!! So now it is my fault that she is pregnant and will be my fault if she looses the baby. Never did she think it could be her fault she is pregnant and her fault that she was so irrate!?!?! Some people are just crazy!!
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User: BrittanyAnne
Member since: 05-26-2007 Total posts: 5 |
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