Needy Customers

It was one of those days at work where I felt like the only person in the store.
I mean, I wasn't.
I had three managers, a cashier, a stocker, a fellow coworker in my department and Me.
So there were people IN the store. 

But it sure didn't feel like it. 
*exhales*

Just one of those days where you feel like you're the only one available to help customers because the customers can't find anyone else but you. 

Which isn't a big deal....if it weren't for the fact that today's customers were.....very needy.

The sort of customers where instead of spending like 2-8 minutes helping them it ends up being like a 15-45 minute sort of ordeal where you feel like you're answering every single question under the sun about animal care.

*exhales*

So I had a customer come into the store, basically right at opening.
With multiple issues. 

...which I get that you have issues...but WHY must you do it first thing in the morning?

In any case.

Her first issue was that she'd bought one of our 60 gallon tanks....only one of the glass lids she was supposed to get (as there should be two) ...was missing. It wasn't in the box. 
Which...weird...pretty sure those come in together so how can there only be one??

But after talking to a manager it was a simple enough fix.
Take a glass lid from the shelf and write it off and give it to her. 

As that was a lot easier and saved us having to take a glass lid off of a different 60 gallon tank and discounting that tank because it would then be missing a glass lid. 

The second issue she had though?
Not as easy to solve.

Because she'd bought a decoration. 
Not from our store, but our sister store up the way because apparently another customer had bought the decoration we had in our store and she had to go drive up to the sister store in order to get the same decoration.

Said decoration being a $100 ship that comes in two pieces. 
One of those big sailing pirate ship sort of decorations.
And it's huge.

Only, when she went to pull it out of the box...
The decoration was broken.

In two places. Two of the three masts had large cracks in them.
And while overall it was still connected and such so it wasn't like the mast was falling down or something....

But understandably....you don't want to spend $100 on a decoration and discover that it's broken. 

The problem?
We didn't have another one in stock.
Neither us nor our sister store did.
No the next Starsmet that had that particular decoration in stock was up in the next valley, at least a 30 minute drive or so. 

And upon checking our inventory....it showed that our DC supplier....had none on hand.
So while the ship is a brand new decoration and such, and we're going to carry it for a while....there is no way of knowing exactly when we'd get another one into the store.
It could show up on tomorrows truck, it could be six months from now, it's hard to know.

Which the customer wasn't happy about that at all. 
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T HAVE IT?! CAN'T YOU ORDER IT?!

No....no we can't.
Our store functions on an automatic replenishment system.
So we only get in more items once we sell the items already in the store. 
Plus....our DC's inventory said they didn't have any either.
So like....even if we could have ordered it....there was no guarantee when it would show up. 

*exhales* 

The customer was then like "Can't you get it shipped from a different store then?!" 

....No.....
Not exactly.

It is possible for us to do a "store to store transfer" where we can move inventory between stores.
But the only way the inventory 'moves' is if we go out and grab it.
Meaning either someone from the sister store or my store would have to physically drive to get the item to our store. 

Which we do on occasion with our sister store in the valley.
Because we have workers who live all over the place. So it's easy enough for us to swing by as we're passing and pick it up and take it into work. 

The next valley over? Much harder.
There's not much reason for us to drive that direction because everyone basically lives here. 

Still....the manager promised that he'd look into it, took down her information and yah.....

We ended up refunding the customer and returned the product into our inventory.
Because even though she didn't want the ship because it was broken, someone else might. 
So we're discounting it, because overall it's still functional and in one piece....it's just cracked. 

And I figured the story would end there.
Customer got her refund, got her glass lid. Walla! She could leave the store!

Nope.

She had questions about air pumps and the hoses. She had questions about gravel and what color she should buy (she went with black), she had questions about the fish and what types could go in together. 

Which overall I don't mind answering. I like helping customers find solutions and such.

But she dragged out the entire process for FOREVER.
Like I literally spent 45 minutes or so helping her out because it wasn't a quick succession of questions. No. It was a lot of pauses. A lot of thinking. A lot of explaining on my end. A lot of urging the customer into making a particular choice because she was dithering.....
*exhales* 

I was really glad when she finally went up to the register to buy things. 

As that was an hour where I could have been working on the bedding change of the day...and now I'd just been delayed an entire hour in getting it done. 

.....as right after she left.
I encountered another customer who needed my help.

MY help.

Because my coworker had been roped into helping the managers out in another part of the store, and so I was the only one in my department who could problem solve and answer questions. 

This guy was slightly easier. 
In a way.

As he came in with an LED lightbulb for a fish tank.
Wanting to know if there was a way to test it to see if it was the bulb that was broken or if it was the ballast that held the light that had stopped working. 

Which...I had no idea how to help him.
Because like we don't carry 'tester' things that allow you to test the lightbulbs to see if they're 'live' or not. 

Occasionally we'll switch out bulbs in the display tanks, but his was the wrong dimensions and style to do so. 

So I was like "Uhh....best I can say is buy a lightbulb and take it home and see if it works. If it doesn't...then it's the ballast." 

He wasn't too keen on the idea. 

Makes sense. Too many steps and such. 

But something he said had finally got an idea to spark.
As he was like "It's just this bulb right here!" and pointed to the light setup -where it was the ballast and light together- 

So I was like....huh...well maybe I can see if I can take it apart and we can test the ballast here in the store -as I do have access to sockets to plug the thing into- and see if his bulb is working or not.

Thankfully, I was able to take the bulb out of the ballast without too much issue.

So we took it over to where I had the sockets --as our display tanks all have their lights turned on. So it was a matter of unplugging one of those lights and plugging in the one that had been in the box.

-Which I first tested to make sure the original bulb was working in the ballast to make sure that the product itself was working.
-It was.
Before I took out that bulb and put the bulb the man had brought in to see if it would work.

It did.

Which meant that the man's ballast had broken and not the bulb.
So he ended up getting the setup I had opened. 
And then spent time dithering over what fish to get for an algae problem he had. 

In any case.
He was really happy and grateful that I was able to figure out if his bulb worked at all. ^^;;
So yay.

Lol I like solving problems. It's fun when I can come to a solution and get the customer happy.

So yay for bright point.

And even though it took me til nearly the end of my shift to finish the bedding change---

I got it done and helped customers.
So yay. ^^;; 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi