Seven Fish In Seven Bags

It started out as a normal enough situation.

A woman walked into my work today.
And asked to get some fish.
Not a big deal.
But then came the kicker.
She said "I need seven goldfish in seven different bags."

Uhh O.o
Immediately that set alarm bells off in my head.
Because I know there's a policy that forbids us from doing that.
And such requests usually involve parties or something.

Soo I asked her "Oh, what are the fish for?"
Because it's store policy to not sell fish to carnivals/parties/weddings.
Especially if the customer wants us to be bagging fish individually.

She totally blew up at me.
"You don't need to know that. I'm the customer, you need to make me happy and do what I want."

Uhh, not if that means that the fish are going to be dead in two hours.
Even if these particular fish were feeder fish (meant to be fed to other animals as food), if they're not going to be fed to something, we want to make sure that they're going to have a good quality of life.

-and not be apart of something like an activity where people have to move fish from one pool to the next using only their hands.

"Alright, but I just want to know, are you going to feed the fish to something?"

"Ew! Why would you think I would do that? Feed fish to something?"

"So, why do you need the fish?"

"That's none of your business and now you're making me wait. I need those fish."

"I'm sorry, but I'm not sure I can sell you the fish."

"Why not?"

"Because it's too time consuming to have to bag seven fish in seven separate bags, and I'm not sure I can do that in any case, but I can double check with my manager real quick." (Checking in with a different manager when she came in after this whole situation was over, it turns out that I can refuse to sell fish if a customer won't tell me why they want them.)

"Oh yes, do that. I want to talk to your manager now." (This is all said in a very aggressive way.)

"Okay, let me call her." I pull out the phone. On second thought...maybe I could go get her in person and leave this crazy woman behind. "If you'd just stay here a moment, I'll be right back." I walked away. Only to have her follow me. (I'm so glad you can follow directions as well. >.>)
So I called the manager on the phone, stopping by our reptile display, where the woman stopped as well. "Hey, I have a woman here who wants to talk to talk to a manager, I'm over by the fish." 
"Okay, I'll be right there."

Soon enough she appeared. "Here she is." I said quickly, breaking away from her to meet the manager a short distance away where I explained the situation really quick in a low tone as we walked towards her. "this woman wants seven gold fish in seven different bags and I told her I wasn't sure I could sell them to her and now she wants to talk to you."

So, when the manager reached her, she asked how she could help.
And the woman basically explained the same situation. And kinda hinted at that I was a lazy worker in the process. Because I wasn't willing to bag seven fish in seven different bags.

*screech*
Hold up.
Wait, what did you just say?
ME. LAZY?
O.o Well, obviously you got the wrong impression. I wasn't being LAZY when I said that.
I was following policy.
And frankly, I'd love to see YOU try and catch seven fish. One at a time.
and bag them.
One at a time.
Seriously, if the fish are behaving it still takes like five minutes per bag it seems like.
And seriously, I don't have time to spend THIRTY FIVE minutes bagging seven bags when I could spend fiveish minutes bagging up ONE bag of Seven Fish.

Honestly, if she'd been nicer, and had been up front with me on WHY she wanted the fish bagged like so. I probably would have bagged the fish.
For one, I didn't want to continue scrubbing my fish tanks I'd been assigned today.
For two, there was nobody else in my department waiting to be helped, so I could have taken the time to bag the fish all separately. I've actually done it before to a woman who had kids who all wanted to hold their fish. I had the time, so I put in the effort.
But then again, The woman with the kids had been nice.
This woman, not so nice.

And with her sort of attitude, I have the type of personality where I wanted to help as little as possible. Frankly, I wouldn't have cared if she left the store and never came back.

What I do care about is the fact she thought I was lazy.
Because I'm not. And my coworkers know this. I'm always doing something. Always at some task. I hate just standing there doing nothing. (which is why register duty can be rather trialsome) Because time passes so slowly when you're not doing anything. And this past week I've been doing both morning and evening tasks which have left me rather exhausted. I mean, one day this week I had to do bedding changes in like half an hour, scrub tanks right afterwards, and then prepare bedding for animals that would be arriving the next day. It's tiring work! And with the waters at work still being clouded after some changes, I've been working hard to try and keep the department up and running, so to be accused that I was being lazy? Ooooo. It hurts. Deep. Because I'm not lazy. I'm tired. And I like to find quick solutions. Why bag seven fish separately when I put seven in one bag and then go back to scrubbing my tanks? That's quicker, more efficient, and less strain on my already strained overworked arms.

No, I wasn't purposely being unhelpful to her.
I was looking out for the fish.
And as the manager said "We want to make sure that the fish aren't being inhumanely used."

 Of course, the woman wasn't listening in a good way.
It's the way where whatever we would have said, she would have taken it wrongly.
And she did.
My manager asked "so what do you need the fish for?"
"you already asked me that! TEN TIMES! I don't need to answer you."
"We want to make sure the animals aren't being inhumanely used."
"I'm not going to feed them to anything! Geez! I'm using them in an infomercial! happy now?"
(Feeding the gold fish to something isn't inhuman btw. The feeder gold fish's first purpose is to feed animals. We were looking for more of the 'moving fish from one pool to the next with bare hands' sort of inhumane) ((also found out after the fact, Infomercials are in the same category as parties and carnivals, so I can't sell fish to people wanting them for that sort of occasion.))

O.o Next question. Why do you need gold fish in an infomercial?
Whatever it is, she apparently has seven different containers that need a fish in them. (so buy a net and fish them out yourself) and after she was done with them they were going to go in her fish tank.

-yah, I didn't even bother to ask her what size of tank it was. (I didn't want to open another can of worms.)
To those of you looking to get goldfish the rule is: One inch of gold fish = 2 gallons of water. The minimum size a goldfish will get is 8inches. The feeder fish will get 10 inches.
So for one feeder gold fish you need a 20 gallon tank.
And she wanted seven.
somehow, I doubt she has a 140 gallon tank....
(It's not true that goldfish grow to the size of the tank btw.)

In any case. With voices getting raised as we tried to figure out the solution, the woman pulled out another low card.
"I want to speak to the manager."
"I am the manager."
"No, you're not the manager, you don't own this store, I want to talk to the manager in charge here."
"I would be that manager, and I'm trying to help you."
"No, I want to talk to the manager in charge!"
"Do you want your fish ma'am?" My manager interjected cooly.
She had to repeat herself a couple of times before that sunk in.
"Let's go get you your fish then."

I didn't follow them. I had no desire whatsoever to go anywhere near this woman after the way she treated the both of us for simply asking questions.
I mean, didn't it occur to her that I have to ask those questions? I do so to anyone getting fish.
"Oh you need twenty goldfish? You feeding them to something? Ah. A turtle, that's cool. Did you want small or large?"
"Oh you want a goldfish for a fish bowl? I'm sorry, we've had a recent policy change, the bowls are actually too small for the goldfish, but the betas will do excellent in that sort of tank. Here let me show you. Yes. They're way easier to take care of, because Goldfish in a bowl, well you have to change the water nearly every day, but a beta it's once a week."

The conversation may go differently, but all I'm doing is making sure that the fish are getting the best chance possible to live (if they're not meant to be fed to something.)

But, I had to leave my manager to deal with the woman,
because she literally brought me to tears, and I had to go elsewhere to compose myself.

And I was right in it taking forever to bag seven fish. I had to avoid half of my department for nearly half an hour.
In retrospect I should have gone with my manager to help catch the fish...I probably would have if the woman hadn't acted the way she had. Like I said, everything she did made me not want to help her. So I was perfectly content to have her wait while my manager bagged the seven fish by herself. I hope she took her time to, while I helped customers elsewhere in my department and the rest of the store. That helped a lot. Helping other customers. They were all pleasant. Like 99% of our customers usually are.

Yah, it took me a bit to calm down.
And my poor manager. Apparently after they got to the fish, the woman laid into her again.
Asking what anyone would feed fish to.
My manager replied "Animals."
"I want specific examples."
Cooly the manager replied "Turtles, Snakes, other fish."
"I can't believe you let people do that!"

And apparently my unwillingness to bag seven fish separately came up as well. As the manager asked what I had said to her. Because apparently I'd come across as being lazy for refusing to do what the woman wanted me to do right away.
And I told my manager "I told her that it was a bit much to ask of me to bag them individually, and I wasn't sure I was even allowed to do that, but I would go check with a manager to be sure."
(Yes, I remained pleasant to the woman even in the face of her rudeness.)
I'm always willing to go ask a manager to double check anything the customer doesn't like. (like not being able to sell goldfish to people who want to put them in a tiny bowl.)

"Did you want large or small?" My manager asked.
"I don't know."
"Do you want large or small." She repeated pointing to the fish.
"I want them like this." And she, of all things, showed my manager a hand drawn picture of a goldfish. Like a kid's drawing.
"So Large?"
And the woman, while my manager was asking the question, got on the phone to someone and started complaining about the service of Starsmet right in front of my manager.
(About this point I would have loved to point her towards the door, fishless.)
"LARGE or SMALL?" I manager asked, being a little more tart with her.
"Oh, Large."
So, my manager bagged the fish,
and took them to the register.
Where the woman proceeded to say that she was going to go grocery shopping at Walmart afterwards.

WELL WHY DIDN'T YOU GET YOUR FISH WHILE YOU WERE THERE?!?! THEY SELL FISH!

My manager was like "These fish won't last that long in the bag."
(especially if she left them in the car. It's still pretty warm in cars at this point.)
"I'm going to Walmart anyway." Came the snippety reply back.

And finally. Finally, her dark angry shadow left our store. (I hope she doesn't return demanded a refund. We don't refund Feeder goldfish. And I don't think she'll take that well either.)

Yah...I have no idea why she chose to drink vinegar today and take it out at us in Starsmet.
(I won't be surprised if she calls the corporate office and complains about our service.)
But she's lucky I chose not to continue helping her.
Because the mood she left me in may have influenced me to chose the sickly looking fish to give to her instead of healthy looking fish my manager probably gave her. Frankly, I'll be surprise if the fish survive the journey if she did go do other shopping afterwards. She will be very lucky if they do.

Still I have to wonder.
What made her so...confrontational?
Was she having a bad day? A bad week? Had her kid just told her that they have this project due at the last moment? Did she turn all her laundry pink? Had she just gotten fired? Who knows.

Or, was she feeling guilty? Because she knew she wasn't going to treat the fish well? Because she knew somehow that what she may be doing could be wrong. That she knew she was lying to us about what was going to happen to the fish afterwards? And feeling guilty made her defensive and confrontational?
(this is all speculative.)

I will probably never know.
I hope that if she does return to the store in the future it's not while I'm working. I don't want to be brought to tears again.

But seriously, if the woman hadn't been so self centered, she probably would have realized that I have to ask the questions I do. That I wasn't purposely targeting her for 'in depth questions I didn't need to know." I do the same thing for any customer I talk to just to get a feel for what will be a good fit for them. I mean, I could have directed her to buy seven betas instead (they're already individually packaged. {{and cost more}}) if I knew what she was doing in this 'infomercial'
Of course they 'aren't my fish! I'm just getting them." I think was what she said at some point.
So who knows. But if I had known, I could have been more helpful in directing her to the right sort of thing.
But seriously, I wasn't trying to be unhelpful.
Just take a chill pill and relax, lady.
And know that I will feel bad if I can't make the customer happy. (with this lady, I really didn't care if she left unhappy, she made me unhappy, so fairs fair turn about.)  Even if I'm supposed to 'make the customer happy and give them what they want.' What I care about first and foremost is the animal's safety. I have the power to refuse a sell if I decide that the animal is in danger. Therefore, customer will not be happy. But animal will be safe. And I will feel bad I couldn't give you what you wanted, but I do try to offer other solutions.

*shakes head*

I'm just glad that right after that woman left the store,
I happened to help...well an angel of happiness.
Really, there was a woman waiting by crickets and when I apologized for not getting to her right away she just smiled and said it was alright. Which of course made me want to help her all the quicker.
She just had that sort of personality and smile that could immediately chase the dark clouds away and bring my cheerful mood back.
I could say she was my favorite person of the day, this woman coming to get crickets. Just because she was so understanding, and NICE. Yes, she helped me out immensely just by smiling. ^^

Yes. People respond better to smiles then to anger. I respond better to smiles. :)

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi